ABSTRACT
Anita Loos lived-and wrote-for most of the twentieth century. The first of her scenarios to be turned into a motion picture appeared in 1912 and the last book that she supervised through publication appeared sixty-seven years later, in 1979. Moreover, in those seven decades it was her fortune to be in the right place at the right time, meeting many notable people: Los Angeles at the birth of the motion picture industry, New York in the roaring twenties, Hollywood again at the height of its golden studio years, and later New York again at the height of its Broadway musical years. In between, literally on a trip between Hollywood and New York, she concocted one of the most enduring characters in American humorous fiction, Lorelei Lee of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Born in Sissons, California, to Minnie Smith and a roving, R. Beers Loos, Anita early began meeting the creative, offbeat kind of people whom she attracted all of her life.
