Yesterday I wrote a post about Smallfoot screenwriter Clare Sera volunteering her time with an organization called WriteGirl in LA. It made me think of the original Hollywood WriteGirl born in 1888.
Anita Loos was an early pioneer in starting in the silent film era. One of her first writing credits was My Baby (1912) which starred Mary Pickford and was directed by D.W. Griffith.
When she died in 1981, her obit in The New York Times touched on her having written the book Gentleman Prefer Blondes. The comedy spoof was published in 1925 and “became a popular play, often revived, and the basis for two movies and a couple of musical comedies. . . . When Miss Loos wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she already had a formidable reputation as a skilled and witty screenwriter.”
She also wrote a book on dramatic writing called How to Write Photoplays (1920) with John Emerson.
Here’s timeless dramatic advice that’s almost 100 years old:
Crisis and conflict are the great essentials of a dramatic story. Something must happen speedily. There must be conflict between opposing elements, as Little Red Riding Hood and the wold [‘My what sharp teeth you have.’]—not necessarily physical conflict, since quite as thrilling a plot would have been obtained had the wolf, in the guise of a Wall Street magnate, threatened Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother with financial ruin. There must be crisis—matter must come to a head and not drag on in an eternity of suspense, as in some two volume novels. There must be the big scene where the matters are setteled definitely once and for all. Either virtue triumphs in the happy ending, or the hero meets his tragic Destiny. But the plot must have as definite an ending as it had a beginning.”
How to Write Photoplays
John Emerson & Anita Loos
P.S. Loos and Emerson wrote The Love Expert (1920).
H/T to Scott Myers at Go Into the Story for introducing me to Anita Loos and her work back in 2012.
Recommended book: Anita Loos Rediscovered