Anita Loos Anita Loos Anita Loos (April 26, 1889 – August 18, 1981) was an American screenwriter, playwright and author, best known for her blockbuster comic novel, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". She wrote film scripts from 1912, and became arguably the first-ever staff scriptwriter, when D.W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation. She went on to write many of the Douglas Fairbanks films, as well as the stage adaptation of Colette’s "Gigi". Anita Loos was born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California (today Mount Shasta), to Richard Beers Loos and Minnie Ellen Smith. Loos had two siblings: Gladys and
Anita Loos her work; he was, in the words of his wife, "a man who enjoyed ill health." It was the opinion of New York's leading psychiatrist, Smith Ely Jelliffe, that she was to blame and that in order for Emerson to "get better" she would have to give up her career. She resolved to retire after her next book, "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes", a sequel to "Blondes" she had promised "Harper's Bazaar". On the further advice of the psychiatrist, the couple had planned another European vacation. At the last minute, Emerson feigned being unwell and insisted Loos continue alone. Arriving in