Lillian Lorraine reportedly was a large influence on Anita Loos in the creation of the character of Lorelei for the novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Although her affair with Ziegfeld was over by the end of the 1910s, her box office drawing power kept her in a number of his productions of the period. Lorraine's fame waned in the 1920s, and she worked for a period in vaudeville. Lorraine's first marriage was to Frederick M. Gresheimer. They married on March 27, 1912 after meeting on a beach. Ten days later, Lorraine announced that the marriage had been a mistake and that the couple
Anita Loos always looking for new places to display the diamonds bestowed by her suitors. Emerson, perhaps foreseeing the success of "Blondes" as a threat to his control over Loos, first attempted to suppress its publication, and then merely settled on a personal dedication. Loos continued to be overworked throughout 1926, sometimes working many projects at once. In the spring of 1926 she completed the stage adaptation, which opened a few weeks later in Chicago, and ran for 201 performances on Broadway. Emerson by this time had developed a serious case of hypochondria, using imaginary laryngitis attacks to garner attention away from