"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by Anita Loos. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, (1928). Photoplay Edition.
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady” is a comic novel, first published in 1925. It is one of several famous novels published that year to chronicle the Jazz Age, including F. Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby.” Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovesick schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually enjoyed the work and saw to it that it was published. Originally published as a magazine series in Harper's Bazaar, it was published as a book by Boni & Liveright in 1925 and became a runaway best seller, becoming the second best selling title of 1926 and earning the praise of no less than Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The Great American Novel."
A 1928 silent film based on the novel was co-written by Anita Loos and released by Paramount Pictures. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a lost film. The Broadway version “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” starring Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee was mounted in 1949. It was made into a film with Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw and Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee in 1953. [Source: Wikipedia]
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by Anita Loos. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, (1928). Photoplay Edition.
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady” is a comic novel, first published in 1925. It is one of several famous novels published that year to chronicle the Jazz Age, including F. Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby.” Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovesick schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually enjoyed the work and saw to it that it was published. Originally published as a magazine series in Harper's Bazaar, it was published as a book by Boni & Liveright in 1925 and became a runaway best seller, becoming the second best selling title of 1926 and earning the praise of no less than Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The Great American Novel."
A 1928 silent film based on the novel was co-written by Anita Loos and released by Paramount Pictures. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a lost film. The Broadway version “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” starring Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee was mounted in 1949. It was made into a film with Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw and Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee in 1953. [Source: Wikipedia]