R. Beers Loos R. Beers Loos Richard Beers Loos (October 4, 1860 – March 6, 1944), was an American journalist and newspaper publisher. Loos was the father of Anita Loos, a famous American playwright and author who wrote, among other titles, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Loos most often used the shortened form of his name for official work: R. Beers Loos. Anita Loos was born to Richard Beers Loos and Minnie Ellen Smith while the family lived near Sisson, California (today Mount Shasta). At that time, Loos owned a local newspaper called the "Sisson Mascot". Most accounts indicate that Loos moved from Sisson to
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel) as a book by Boni & Liveright in 1925 and became a runaway best seller, becoming the second best selling title of 1926 and earning the praise of no less than Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The Great American Novel." A sequel, "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes", was published two years later. Responding to a male friend’s suggestion that she should write down her thoughts because it would make an interesting book, the blonde Lorelei Lee narrates the novel in the form of a diary complete with spelling and grammatical errors. Lorelei Lee had been working in movies in Hollywood when