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Anita Loos Has Family Roots in
Newcomerstown
Born:
April 26, 1888 - Died: August 18, 1981
Burial:
Etna Cemetery,
Etna, Siskiyou County, California, USA
The Flapper
Literary critics credit
F. Scott Fitzgerald, as did
Dorothy Parker, for popularizing the
flapper. He had, however, lots of help, most notably
from
Anita Loos who not only wrote about flappers but also
looked the part herself. Her famous line, "I really think
that American gentlemen are the best after all, because
kissing your hand may make you feel very good but a diamond
and a sapphire bracelet lasts forever," inspired the song "Diamonds
Are A Girl's Best Friend." The lyrics, by
Leo Robin (music by
Jule Styne) run:
A
kiss on the hand may be quite continental,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.
The kiss may be grand,
But it won't pay the rental
On your tiny flat
Or help you at the Automat.
Men grow cold
When girls grow old,
And we all lose our charms in the end.
But round cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don't lose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Here is part of the entry on
Loos from the Encyclopedia Brittanica's Women
in American History site:
Anita Loos was born on April
26, probably in 1893 (some sources say 1888), in Sissons
(now Mount Shasta), California. She was a child actress,
playing on the stage in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and
San Diego, California, as well as in early films. At an
early age she also began contributing sketches and
articles to various periodicals. The film of her first
scenario, "The
New York Hat," was produced in 1912 by
D.W. Griffith and starred
Mary Pickford and
Lionel Barrymore. By the age of 20 Loos was a
professional screenwriter, and she eventually worked on
more than 60 silent films. "His Picture in the Paper"
(1916), a
Douglas Fairbanks film, signaled a new departure in
its use of discursive and witty titles, and its success
convinced Griffith to let Loos write titles for his epic
"Intolerance" (1916), and many others. In 1919 Loos
married writer-director
John Emerson, a frequent collaborator, and in New
York City they began writing and producing their own
films, notably" A Virtuous Vamp" (1919), "The
Perfect Woman" (1920), "Dangerous Business" (1920),
"Polly of the Follies" (1922), and "Learning to Love"
(1925). They also wrote two books, Breaking Into the
Movies (1919) and How to Write Photoplays (1921), and on
her own Loos wrote two plays for Broadway, "The Whole
Town's Talking" (filmed 1926), and "The Fall of Eve"
(filmed 1929). In 1926, a year after its serialization
in Harper's Bazaar, Loos's first novel, Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes, was published. Its success was
immediate and astonishing. The tale of Lorelei Lee, the
archetypal "dumb blonde" gold digger from Arkansas, made
Loos an international celebrity. Her stage version of
the story opened in New York in September 1926 and later
toured successfully. More than two decades later she
wrote with Joseph Fields the book for a successful
musical version, and in 1953 Marilyn Monroe starred in a
movie version. Her next book, But
Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1928), was also
successful.
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