Merry, Merry, Marriage

Anita Loos (screenwriter)

N.p. N.p., 1944. First Draft script for an unproduced film by noted screenwriter Anita Loos. With Loos' manuscript ink annotations throughout, most noting editorial changes. Incomplete as issued.

Loos was arguably the most famous of the women screenwriters of the silent era, a celebrity on the level of Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford—unheard of at the time (or any other time) for screenwriters. In 1925, just prior to the advent of the talkies, she wrote her first novel, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," which would become one of the most famous books of the Jazz Age, and the work for which Loos would become best known. She gained renown as a writer who could rescue any adaptation, saving the now-legendary pre-Code film "Red Headed Woman" after F. Scott Fitzgerald gave up on it, and doctoring the script for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" in 1944.

This screenplay, written shortly before her 1945 retirement from film, follows an independent, ambitious young woman who leaves her powerful politician husband to begin a career on Broadway. According to contemporary newspapers, the script was created for Universal Pictures, with Deanna Durbin intended for the lead role, but was ultimately never produced in its entirety.

Tan titled wrappers, noted as First Draft on the front wrapper, dated 9-6-44, with credit for screenwriter Anita Loos. Title page present, dated 9-6-44, noted as First Draft, with credit for screenwriter Anita Loos. 98 leaves, with last page of text numbered 97. Carbon typescript, rectos only. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Very Good plus overall, bound with three gold brads.


[Book #149837]