Overview
Scripts, film review, theater program, Christmas card, and letters to Anita Loos as well as photographs of Anita Loos, the Talmadge family, and others.
Dates
- Creation: 1917-1979
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.3 linear feet (1 box)The collection, consisting mainly of personal photographs of Anita Loos and the Talmadge family, covers the time period 1917 to 1979. The bulk of the collection is a series of photographs made up of photographs of Anita Loos, including pages from her personal photo album, photographs of the Talmadge family, and photographs collected by Anita Loos. The majority of the photographs were used in her memoirs: A girl like I: an autobiography, Kiss Hollywood good-by, and The Talmadge girls: a memoir. Some prominent persons depicted in photographs include: John Emerson, Douglas Fairbanks, Buster Keaton, Constance Talmadge, Margaret L. Talmadge, Natalie Talmadge, and Norma Talmadge. Also includes three typescript copies of Anita Loos’s scripts, The duel and The king’s mare; film review by poet and contributor to the New Republic, Vachel Lindsay; letter from Ralph L. Schroeder to Anita Loos regarding his Lindsay biography; letters from Jule Styne to Anita Loos regarding Anita Loos and Joseph A. Field's adaptation of her novel into the Broadway musical, Gentlemen prefer blondes; letter from Robert D. Loomis to Anita Loos concerning Jule Styne’s 1978 biography and a typed synopsis of the book; program of The constant wife and a Christmas card from actress Elsa Maxwell.
Biographical / Historical
Screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and child actress Corinne Anita Loos was born in Sissons (now Mount Shasta), California on April 26, 1893. In 1912, she began her career as a screenwriter at D.W. Griffith’s Biograph Company, where she wrote over 100 scenarios. She married and divorced her first husband, Frank Pallma, Jr. in 1915 and was remarried to director, producer and writer John Emerson in 1920 until his death in 1956. Between 1916 and 1917, Loos formed a unit within the Biograph Company, with Emerson and actor Douglas Fairbanks, collaborating on ten films. She continued to collaborate with Emerson as a co-writer from 1916 to 1934 and as a co-producer beginning in 1919. Between 1916 and 1925, Loos worked extensively with silent film stars Norma and Constance “Dutch” Talmadge, and became close friends with their family, including their sister, Natalie Talmadge (wife of Buster Keaton), and their mother, Margaret “Peg” Talmadge. In 1919, Loos left the Griffith studio to go to New York with Emerson and work for the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. It was during this time that she wrote the bestselling novel, Gentlemen prefer blondes: the illuminating diary of a professional lady (1925). Loos returned to Hollywood in 1932 to work as a screenwriter for MGM, before returning to New York in 1943 to write and adapt scripts for the stage. In 1949, she adapted Gentlemen prefer blondes: the illuminating diary of a professional lady with playwright Joseph Fields, and it was later popularized in the film version of the stage musical starring Marilyn Monroe (1953). Loos died in New York City on August 18, 1981.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Compositions
- II. Photographs
- ___A. Photographs of Anita Loos
- ___B. Photographs of the Talmadge family
- ___C. Photographs collected by Anita Loos
- III. Other materials
- IV. Correspondence
- V. Printed materials
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2006MT-178r. Gift of Frederick R. Koch, received: 1984 July 17.
Bibliography
- Carey, Gary. Anita Loos: a biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.
- Loos, Anita. A girl like I: an autobiography. New York: The Viking Press, 1966.
- Loos, Anita. Kiss Hollywood good-by. New York: The Viking Press, 1974.
- Loos, Anita. The Talmadge girls: a memoir. New York: The Viking Press, 1978.
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Jessica Green.
The curatorial file includes the relevant auction catalog and a list of missing and unreceived items.
- Title
- Loos, Anita, 1893-1981. Anita Loos papers, 1917-1979: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02242
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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