By all accounts, early 20th-century screenwriter Anita Loos was beautiful. But she was a brunette. Traveling a train across country once, she was "outdistance[d] in feminine allure" by a blonde "of the lowest possible mentality." Then was the idea conceived for Loos's novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Lorelei Lee, Loos's blonde protagonist, is not so dumb. Beneath her naive surface is a gold-digger. Lorelei accumulates and discards wealthy men who buy her jewels, take her to expensive restaurants, and send her around Europe. But Lorelei never has a moment of self-criticism. Lorelei considers herself refined and dedicated to getting educated, in contrast to her coarse brunette friend Dorothy.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is written as Lorelei's diary, replete with often-amusing vocabulary, grammar, and spelling errors. Sections were published in Harper's Bazaar before being collected into the book, which was an instant sellout. Edith Wharton even called it the "Great American Novel." The subtitle, The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady, hints at Loos's intention to seriously examine gender roles in Jazz Age America.
Of all adaptations for stage and screen, probably the best known is the 1953 movie starring Marilyn Monroe.
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