Anita Loos
Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an acclaimed American screenwriter, playwright and author. She is considered one of the most renowned screenwriters of her era alongside June Mathis and Frances Marion.
Loos is perhaps best known for her short novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925), originally serialized in Harper's Bazaar before publication in novel format. It was a satire of a "dumb blonde" showgirl from Arkansas out to get a rich husband. It was an overnight bestseller and was translated into fourteen languages, even serialized into Chinese. Her stage adaptation opened on Broadway in 1926 and later toured successfully. In 1949, a hit musical of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opened on Broadway, for which she and Joseph Fields wrote the book. A silent movie of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was made in 1928 starring Ruth Taylor and Alice White, which Loos also wrote the subtitles for, and a sound version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was made in 1953 starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, which was adapted by Charles Lederer and directed by Howard Hawks.
Movies
Pictures
Several global companies are headquartered in the northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007), J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result.
In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states. Additionally, the city of Conway is the site of a school bus factory.
Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day.
Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually enjoyed the work and saw to it that it was published. Originally published as a magazine series, it was published as a book in 1925 and became a runaway best seller earning the praise of no less than Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The great American novel."
The sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, was published two years later.
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes follows the further adventures of Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw.
As a sequel to the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the 1955 film Gentlemen Marry Brunettes used only the book's name and starred Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain playing characters who were the daughters of Dorothy Shaw.
