Soubrette of Satire: Anita Loos

In 1917, Photoplay reported that “The most important service that Anita Loos has so far rendered the screen is the elevation of the subcaption, first to sanity then to dignity and brilliance combined.” This trick has been subsequently used by Woody Allen and Nancy Meyes, among others. Anita Loos (1888-1981) had so convinced D. W. Griffith of the value of the intertitle, that he called her “The most brilliant young woman in the world” and made her the first female screenwriter of Hollywood. The intertitle is a printed narration or portion of dialogue flashed on the screen between the scenes of a silent film. A prolific writer who appeared in the press in a manner as glamorized as the stars she wrote for, Anita Loos wrote over one hundred and fifty scripts in her thirty years as a Hollywood screenwriter and elevated intertitles to an art. She is best remembered not only for defining the silent era personas of stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and the Talmadge sisters, Constance and Norma, but for also creating the character of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a 1925 novel adapted to films in 1928 and 1953 which Edith Wharton called the Great American novel. She was also known as Mrs. John Emerson, Corrine Anita Loos, J. Emerson Loos, Anita Luus. But behind her prolific output were two failed marriages and a very unhappy in love woman.

Sources:

Anita Loos, Women Film Pioneers Project, Columbia University, https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp...

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