Rosen House Connections: Merry Christmas from Anita Loos

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,* but a good friendship is worth its weight in gold. In 1929, Caramoor's founders Lucie and Walter Rosen, made a new friendship with the married couple John Emerson and Anita Loos. Though filmmaker Emerson was better known in Hollywood at the time, Anita Loos and her work have continued to be a source of entertainment and inspiration. Loos wrote one hundred and fifty scripts during her thirty-year career in Hollywood. Her most famous novel-turned-play-turned-movieGentleman Prefers Blondes follows the dalliances of the gold-digging and diamond-loving Lorelei Lee who was brought to life on the silver screen by Marilyn Monroe.

Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. "Anita Loos" New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Her other novels and movie scripts include The New York Hat (1912), But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1927), and The Women (1939). Loos was also a member of the Lucy Stone League, a women’s rights organization that fought for women to keep their maiden names when married.

Loos and Emerson visited with the Rosens in New York and abroad and kept in touch with letters and Christmas cards. Here is an example from the collection.

*Song title from the 1949 musical version Gentleman Prefer Blondes, which became well known from Monroe's performance.