The novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was written by a brunette named Anita Loos. She wrote the first bit of it on a train, traveling from New York to California where she worked as a screenwriter. It was 1924. Loos was in her mid 30s, with dozens of movies to her credit, including a string of comedies for Douglas Fairbanks, then one of cinema’s biggest stars. (This work, she said, consisted mostly of “finding new things for Doug to jump off.”) The story—more of a sketch really—that Loos jotted on her pad started as a joke, an affectionate jab at her friend H.L. Mencken and his taste in women. (The “affectionate jab” was a Loos specialty. So, it has to be said, was the “unaffectionate jab.”)
— I wrote about the marvelous Anita Loos for Scratch Magazine’s Hollywood issue. Read it here. (Lots of other great stuff in the issue — subscribe, subscribe!)