caa a22 4500 38804831X CHVBK 20180307125044.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199810 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0361233300006414 doi S0361233300006414 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0361233300006414 Lutes Jean Marie Authoring Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Mass-Market Beauty Culture and the Makeup of Writers [Elektronische Daten] [Jean Marie Lutes] Lorelei Lee, the "professional lady” who narrates her own adventures in the 1925 international bestseller Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, is not a likely alter ego for an aspiring writer. Indifferent to most books and unlikely to indulge in introspection, Lorelei makes writing far less a priority than managing social invitations and sexual conquests. Accordingly, Anita Loos, the author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, went to considerable lengths to distance herself from her blonde-bombshell narrator. As if to acknowledge and enforce such distance, Loos has Lorelei remark offhandedly in the opening pages of the book, "It would be strange if I turn out to be an authoress.” The novel's first edition highlights the incongruity of Lorelei's status as author, illustrating this remark with a drawing of a wide-eyed young woman clutching a pen and bending over a ruffle-skirted vanity table. She is dressed for writing in a pair of highheeled slippers, a sheer, rose-trimmed negligee, and a frilly bed cap tied under her chin. Years later, a publicity still for the musical version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes continued to emphasize the distinction by juxtaposing a seated, conservatively clad Loos with the standing figure of Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee, elaborately gowned and dripping with diamonds. As the photograph suggests, Loos carefully positioned herself in opposition to the glamour girl whose appearance has since been labeled "the most significant event in the evolution of the dumb blonde” (Everett, 254). Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998 Prospects Cambridge University Press 23(1998-10), 431-460 0361-2333 23<431 1998 23 PTS https://doi.org/10.1017/S0361233300006414 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0361233300006414 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Lutes Jean Marie NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Prospects Cambridge University Press 23(1998-10), 431-460 0361-2333 23<431 1998 23 PTS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge