Anita Loos
First female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, author of *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*.
Corinne Anita Loos was born on April 26, 1888, in Sisson, California (now Mount Shasta), and died on August 18, 1981. She worked as an American actress, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. In 1912, D. W. Griffith hired her as Hollywood’s first female staff screenwriter at Biograph. She is most famous for her 1925 comic novel *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*, the 1939 screenplay for *The Women*, and her 1951 Broadway adaptation of Colette’s *Gigi*.
Loos’s father, Richard Beers Loos, was a newspaper publisher; her mother was Minerva Ellen “Minnie” Loos (née Smith). She had a sister, Gladys, and a brother, Harry Clifford Loos, who became a physician and co-founded the Ross-Loos Medical Group. On her name’s pronunciation, Loos noted that her family used the French “lohse,” but she let people say “luce” because correcting them was too much trouble.
Her father purchased the tabloid *Sisson Mascot*, though her mother did most of the publishing work. In 1892, when Anita was three, the family moved to San Francisco. There, her father bought *Music and Drama* with money her mother coaxed from her grandfather. He dropped the music angle, renamed the weekly *The Dramatic Review*, filled it with photos of pretty girls (copying the British *Police Gazette*), and began a romance with opera singer Alice Nielsen. By age six, Loos wanted to be a writer. She accompanied her alcoholic father on fishing trips to San Francisco’s piers, exploring rough areas like the Tenderloin and Barbary Coast, which sparked her lasting interest in lowlifes and loose women.
In 1897, at their father’s urging, Loos and her sister performed in a San Francisco stock company production of *Quo Vadis?* Gladys died at age eight from appendicitis while their father was away. Anita kept acting, becoming the family breadwinner. Her father’s spending habits caught up with them, and in 1903 he took a job managing a theater company in San Diego. Anita performed in his company and, under another name, with a more legitimate stock company.
After graduating from San Diego High School, Loos pieced together published reports of Manhattan social life and mailed them to a New York friend, who submitted them under that friend’s name for San Diego publication.
- Born
- April 26, 1888
- Died
- August 18, 1981
- Field
- Actress, novelist, playwright, screenwriter
- Nationality
- American
- Known for
- 1925 novel *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*, screenplay for *The Women* (1939), Broadway adaptation of *Gigi* (1951)
Lore & Background
Anita Loos was born in Sisson (now Mount Shasta), California, to newspaper publisher Richard Beers Loos and Minerva Ellen 'Minnie' Loos. She had one sister, Gladys Loos, and one brother, Harry Clifford Loos. Her father purchased the tabloid *Sisson Mascot*, and in 1892 the family moved to San Francisco, where he bought *Music and Drama* and retitled it *The Dramatic Review*. By age six, Loos wanted to be a writer, and she accompanied her father on fishing trips that exposed her to the city's underbelly, feeding her lifelong fascination with lowlifes and loose women.
In 1897, at her father's urging, Loos and her sister performed in a San Francisco stock company production of *Quo Vadis?* Gladys died at age eight of appendicitis. Anita continued acting, becoming the family breadwinner.
Reader's Guide
Anita Loos holds a significant place in film and literary history as the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, a role she assumed in 1912 under D. W. Griffith. Her prolific early career—writing over 100 scripts in three years—helped shape the silent film era, particularly through her witty subtitles and collaborations with Douglas Fairbanks. Her 1925 novel *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes* became a cultural touchstone, later adapted into a film and musical. Loos also contributed to the 1939 film *The Women* and the 1951 Broadway adaptation of *Gigi*. Her work often drew from real life, including her own experiences and observations of society's margins. Despite personal challenges, including a difficult marriage to John Emerson, Loos maintained a decades-long career that bridged silent cinema, Broadway, and literary fiction. Her legacy endures as a pioneering woman in a male-dominated industry and as a sharp observer of human foibles.
Did You Know?
- Loos became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood in 1912 when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation.
- She wrote 105 scripts between 1912 and 1915, all but four of which were produced.
- Her first screen credit was for an adaptation of *Macbeth*, with her billing coming right after Shakespeare's.
- Loos pronounced her name 'luce' because most people said it that way and it was too much trouble to correct them.
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