Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (silent film)
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is a silent film adapted from Anita Loos's 1925 novel, which satirizes male-female relations and critiques the societal excesses of the Roaring Twenties. The story follows Lorelei Lee, a charming but strategically savvy socialite, who chronicles her adventures in a diary format. As she navigates the opulent world of New York's elite, her experiences highlight the blurred lines of gender roles and class distinctions in post-World War I America. Originally serialized in Harper's Bazaar, the work sparked a Broadway musical and a notable 1953 film, featuring iconic performances by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. The narrative reflects on themes of materialism and romance, with Lorelei’s interactions with affluent admirers often suggesting an exchange of financial support for companionship. The subtitle of the novel hints at the complexities of her relationships, while maintaining an air of innocence. Celebrated by contemporaries and translated into multiple languages, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" remains a significant cultural touchstone, illustrating the lavish lifestyles and consumerism of its era.
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Subject Terms
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (silent film)
Identification: A comic novel about a 1920s gold digger who charms wealthy men
Author: Anita Loos
Date: 1925
Anita Loos’s novel about the exploits of an attractive blond woman satirizes male-female relations. It also highlights the excesses of the Roaring Twenties, poking fun at the veil of respectability in post–World War I American society.
Screenwriter Anita Loos wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes after watching her friend, journalistH. L. Mencken, fawn over an attractive but unintelligent woman with blond hair. In 1924, the story was serialized in Harper’s Bazaar magazine. The 1925 book spawned a Broadway musical, a Hollywood film, and the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
Written in diary form, the book chronicles the life of socialite Lorelei Lee. The wealthy blond from Little Rock, Arkansas, writes at the request of “Button King” Gus Eisman, a married businessman with “a friendly interest in educating a girl.” Eisman, a Chicago manufacturing mogul in the post–World War I economy, monitors Lorelei’s progress on outings to supper clubs, theatrical productions, and stylish society in New York and abroad.
Lorelei’s diary describes Prohibition-era luxuries and amusements, praising fancy hotels, Cartier jewelry, filmmaker D. W. Griffiths, alcoholic judges, and rich lords. She claims to be an old-fashioned girl among modern flappers; Lorelei prizes refinement and tries to teach manners to her wisecracking hometown companion, Dorothy. Men vying for Lorelei’s company pay for the Arkansas duo’s champagne cocktails, lavish shopping excursions, and European tours.
The subtitle of the novel, The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady, hints that Lorelei may be exchanging sexual favors for the financial support of her male admirers, but Lorelei keeps the tone of the diary sweet, flattering, and seemingly innocent.
Impact
Lorelei’s entry into high society is a comic exaggeration of 1920s reality, featuring class distinctions, social mores, and gender roles that had become blurred in the aftermath of World War I. Popular as a 1925 book character, and subsequently played by Carol Channing in the 1949 stage musical and Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film, Lorelei Lee has become America’s prototype for the material girl.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was lauded by novelist Edith Wharton and translated into fourteen languages. It remains an ironic testament to 1920s consumerism and expensive living, mocking romance and the American social elite of its time.
Bibliography
Gourley, Catherine. Flappers and the New American Woman: Perceptions of Women from 1918 through the 1920s. Minneapolis, Minn.: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008.
Loos, Anita, Cari Beauchamp, and Mary Anita Loos, eds. Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.