Marilyn Monroe dress, which prompted veteran star Joan Crawford to describe her behavior as "unbecoming an actress and a lady" to the press. While "Niagara" made Monroe a sex symbol and established her "look", her second film of the year, the satirical musical comedy "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", established her screen persona as a "dumb blonde". Based on Anita Loos' bestselling novel and its Broadway version, the film focuses on two "gold-digging" showgirls, Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw, played by Monroe and Jane Russell. The role of Lorelei was originally intended for Betty Grable, who had been 20th Century-Fox's most popular "blonde bombshell"
Cari Beauchamp In 2003 came "Anita Loos Rediscovered", which was edited and annotated by Beauchamp and Mary Anita Loos (Anita Loos' niece). Published by University of California Press, the book compiles samples of Loos's previously unpublished work as well as the personal life and work of novelist, screenwriter, and playwright [ author of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" as well as several other books and dozens of plays and screenplays. In 2006, "University of California Press" released "Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary: Her Private Letters from Inside the Studios of the 1920s" by Valeria Belletti, edited and annotated by Beauchamp, with a foreword by