Cast of Thousands

by Anita Loos

Loos shares her collection of memories, photos, and anecdotes of a life spanning over 80 years, roaming from New York to Hollywood, to Paris, Berlin and Rome. It features a case of the most famous and fabulous personalities of the stage and screen.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

280 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1976

About the author

People best know American writer Anita Loos for her novels, especially Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925), which she later adapted for film; her many screenplays include The Girl from Missouri (1934).

She authored plays and her blockbuster comic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Loos

Reviews

[Anthony McGill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buried away at the bottom of one of my bookshelves, I rediscovered this wonderful (and heavy) tome compiled by Anita Loos. Published nearly 45 years ago by a company that I don't think exists anymore or more likely absorbed into some other conglomerate a long time ago.

Anita Loos - she was known, loved and wooed by the greatest celebrities of her time. She penned "A Girl Like I," "Kiss Hollywood Good-by," worked with Colette in adapting her famous novel "Gigi" to the Broadway stage starring an "unknown" Audrey Hepburn and will always be cherished for creating the character of Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

For this book she shares her collection of memories, photos, and anecdotes of a life spanning over 80 years, roaming from New York to Hollywood to Paris to Berlin to Rome. It features an all-star cast of the most famous and fabulous personalities of the stage and screen - including Carol Channing, Helen Hayes, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Harpo Marx, Audrey Hepburn, Clark Gable, plus all the famous writers of the time including Erich Maria Remarque, H.L. Mencken, Colette, William Faulkner and H.G. Wells - to namedrop a few!

There are sparkling stories about her friends and admirers, behind-the-scenes glimpses of the stars which are counterpointed by striking, sometimes surprising, candid snapshots of the great and famous on and off their guard.
There are some fascinating firsthand accounts of the early days of movie-making as Loos recounts her days when she was writing scenarios for D.W. Griffith and risque gags for Mack Sennett.

Anita Loos led a colorful, glamorous and exciting life in show business and in this delightful scrapbook of photos, letters and sketches complimented by the witty and in-the-know observations of a show biz legend, we get the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the celebrity circus to share those golden moments.
Printed on heavy stock paper, the photos alone (especially of early Hollywood); many of which have rarely been seen in other books are a treasure trove of discovery.

Review based on original Grosset & Dunlap hardcover edition, 1977. 280 pages with more or less an equal number of beautifully reproduced black and white photos.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This large-format book is much like a scrapbook narrated by a lively old lady. Scads of wonderful photos and illustrations, mostly very large. The type and captions are large print.

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing was seeing the tres elegant clothing Anita Loos wore her entire life. Also some of the interior shots.

Loos was friends with many of the important figures in the film, theater, and literary worlds from the 1920s through the 1970s, and she has comments on lots of folks. It helps comprehension if the reader already knows something about these people.

Lots of fun, but could have been better with some really good editorial oversight. Sometimes it's a bit hard to make sense of the many, many photos -- exactly what do they refer to?

[Sarah Andreotti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I randomly found this book in an antique shop and thought for $10 it would be a fun read. I was right! Anita Loos is such a delightful storyteller. Every bit of this book was fun and interesting. She tells about her childhood, how she became a writer and made her way to Hollywood as a screenwriter. She shares stories about her friends like Paulette Goddard, spending time in Paris in the '20s, about working with Jean Harlow in Red Headed Woman and Saratoga, being at MGM with Irving Thalberg, the plays she wrote, and her experiences with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on stage, screen and the many printing runs of the book. This book was also full of photos (so many fun photos!) of Anita with friends, in many fashions of the times and on trips she took. Another neat feature is all of the drawings of her included in the book that her talented friends drew for her. Cast of Thousands is out of print, but if you are able to get a copy, do so! This is the first book I have read of hers, and now I'd love to read her other non-fiction and fiction books. I enjoyed this book for the summer #classicfilmreading challenge at the Out of the Past blog.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

"On a bright day in the mid-thirties, Mrs. Eddie Duchin, Leopold Stokowski, and I disported at my beach home in Santa Monica." In her own flippant, name-droppy way, writer Anita Loos shares several decades' worth of memories, photos, artwork, and press clippings in this coffee table-sized memoir/scrapbook. Probably not the best choice for those unfamiliar with Loos, although there's some interesting stuff on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - mostly the book and Broadway musical versions. She dismisses her own sister as "pretty and blonde and very average" while devoting an entire, loving paragraph to her housekeeper (both women coincidentally named Gladys). This book was set in that most '70s-nostalgic of typefaces, Souvenir.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. The last time I saw it was nearly 9 years ago when I had found it in my University library in the Anita Loos section. I loved all the stories and anecdotes about other writers, and actors/actresses, and all-around famous people. Loos's humorous, but matter-of-fact style drew me in.

The photos were also great. This is a rare kind of book, and helped me gain knowledge of the prominent people and culture from Hollywood's (and America's) Golden Age, the kinds of things not really found anywhere else. And I appreciate it for that.

Also, love that Faulkner was jealous of Loos for coming up with Dorothy.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great photos. Great read if you want to hear about all the famous people Anita Loos got to hang out with.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book off with an open mind as I, like many other who wrote reviews, found this book after it had been sitting on a bookshelf abandoned for years. I almost feel as if I wasted my time.

Whilst some stories are interesting, most are not and are difficult to get through - even though the writing is easy to follow. The book starts off by going too much into Loos family background, something which I personally don't find that interesting as I didn't even know who Looks was before starting the book. The book should have started off with a better hook so that readers understand why we should pay attention/care about her family. The book also mentions several names, some of which are well known today (Garbo, Gable, Thalberg) but a large portion of which are not. Many are not even introduced effectively so you are left to google tens of people in order to get a basic understanding of who people Loos mentioned are. I gave up on this journey early on.

Additionally, Loos internal misogyny is quite confronting. I know these attitudes would not be an issue for many, but as a young Gen Z woman I found her to resemble a 'pick me' and find a way to tear down successful women unnecessarily. Marilyn Monroe is apparently a narcissist and Zelda Fitzgerald shouldn't show off her body because only those who have 'got it' should flaunt it according to Loos. However, I know that Loos' opinions are likely largely products of her time. Nevertheless, it's not pleasant to read a book from someone writting with this mindset.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anita Loos is the president of the Anita Loos Fan Club, and the vice president, and the secretary, and the treasurer, to the extent that her husband barely gets mentioned in the (scanty) text, but she assumes (rightly) that we don't really care about her dumb husband, we care about all the old movie and theatre names that she can drop, so she drops them with abandon and provides plenty of photos from her own collection to illustrate the truly groovy life that she led, which she presents in such a (non-chronological BTW) way as to imply, "See? See how much groovier my life was than anything you might possibly manage?" and I have to agree with her but jeez.

[Bruce ColemanJR]

I recommend cast of Thousands for any good reader trust me you will enjoy reading this book .