Welcome to Popped, a newsletter that delves into the history and culture of cinema. This is the first in a series on the work of women in early cinema and how these people have shaped our movie landscape today.
The early life and legacy of Anita Loos is an unfortunate example of the struggles of women in Hollywood and how we still fall short of allowing women’s stories to rise to the top. She was a tireless writer whose circumstances meant that her scripts were often paraded as a man’s work. Loos wouldn’t stand for pity though, some of her greatest writing gave women a voice, and men a reality check.
“I was a stage child and I played parts when I was 7 years old. My father had a theatre. It struck me one day that movies must need a plot before they start filming.” - Anita Loos
It was 1912 when Loos’s first film was released. She had already sent two other scenarios to D.W.Griffiths but this, The New York Hat, was the first one to be produced. It made a star of Mary Pickford and allowed Loos to move to Hollywood and away from her parents.
Before talkies, silent scripts were mostly written as detailed scenarios and plots for the filmmakers to work to. Loos wrote hundreds of them and spent her time between honing her craft and living the wild life that early Hollywood afforded. Her second marriage was to the filmmaker, John Emerson, and they both worked together on making films with the silent film icon, Douglas Fairbanks. Loos helped to create what we know to be The Action Hero, with films that are still appreciated today.
John Emerson
Loos’s marriage to Emerson is an interesting part of her story because she was widely known to be more talented, more successful, and earned far more than Emerson, who hated her superiority. Loos offered Emerson co-authership rights over her written work and he demanded top billing, riding Loos’s coat tails for years.1 T his came in handy sometimes though, when Loos would send Emerson in to directors “who wouldn’t take script advice from a woman”.2
From what I have read, Emerson was a womaniser as well as a disruptive hypochondriac. At one stage he lost his voice, so Loos went to see a doctor to see what could be done:
Dr. Jelliffe proceeded to quote from H.L. Mencken that a husband may survive the fact that of a wife having more money than he, but if she earns more, it can destroy his very essence. Overcome with guilt that I myself was the cause of Mr. E. 's [loss of voice], I asked how I could undo the harm I'd done. "The only possible cure for your husband," answered Dr. Jelliffee, "is to give up your career." - Loos, Good-By , 63
Amazingly, Loos paid a doctor to perform a fake operation on Emerson, later presenting him with what had been “removed” from his vocal cords. It worked. Emerson was miraculously “cured”, while Loos still gave up her work to live the life!
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Anita Loos had other experiences with men throughout Hollywood that lead to her writing the book that became the 1950’s classic starring Marilyn Monroe.
She had strong feelings and had become close with the critic H.L Mencken in the 1920s. During a train ride to Hollywood, she caught him soliciting with, what he distastefully later described as a “witless blonde”, which gave Loos the inspiration to write the diaries of Lorelei Lee.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was first released in 1925 and was an instant hit. Loos wrote a successful stage version of Blondes and by 1928 she wrote the film which has subsequently been lost. It was remade without Loos in the famous 1953 version.
When watching Blondes recently, I found it interesting to see the female character, who so often were domestic, only interested in love and their service to men, are here self-assured and acting on their own instincts, despite the men around them. I couldn’t tell whether Monroe’s character, Lorelei, is clueless or a genius, while Dorothy (played by Jane Russell) had confidence in her desires, her needs never placed below anyone else’s. It is in fact the men that are shown to be a clueless and desperate group who would do anything for the attention of the blonde. (There’s a great piece of research here if you want to read more into Loos’s feminist style!)
I love the following quote by Loos. At first it seems she is anti-movement, but in reality it is a wry comment on the approach to characters she has written for men and women over the years,
“I'm furious about the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soap-boxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.”- Anita Loos
Later Life & Legacy
She didn’t have much to do with the Monroe remake but continued to write amazing parts for women and men in film, as well as creating a star of Audrey Hepburn in the stage version of Gigi. She went on to write several outrageous memoirs, with increasingly elaborate stories, as well as novels right until her death in 1981.
Loos never won an Oscar, despite her long and illustrious career. She was a disruptor before we knew what one was. She made stars when stars were a new way to market film and played around with genre while genres were still being formed.
If you want to see some of her films, here is a list of the ones Anita Loos penned. You can rent or buy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or read the book, for free, here.
Gareth
Anita Loos...what a star, and a great idea for a series. We have a film by Ida Lupino coming up soon, (late) early cinema.
Thanks for sending this. You've got to love that doctor's advice - the only possible cure is to give up your career... I'm so pleased she resisted all of the resistance!