Enter Helen (39 page)

  
28
  
he became a mentor to David: Account of David Brown's relationship with Herbert R. Mayes from
Let Me Entertain You
, pp. 28–30.

  
28
  
“the best editor in New York”: Ibid.

  
28
  
“I said, ‘No, Herb, the truth is”: Ibid.

  
29
  
David soon built a reputation in Hollywood: Background on David Brown's early career in film from Herb Stein, “Hollywood: Brown No Newcomer to Picture-Making; Producer Versatile in Story ‘Know-How,'”
Morning Telegraph
, February 9, 1961; and from Hollywood columnist Joan Dew, “Joan Dew's Male Call: A Producer Who Isn't Stereotyped,” publication and date unknown, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
29
  
Wayne, a leggy brunette: David Brown discussed his ex-wife Wayne's unhappiness in Los Angeles, and the decline of their marriage, in
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 250; he later wrote about the importance of a wife having her own career in “Sex and the Single Girl as Seen by David Brown,”
Cavalier
, April 1964.

  
29
  
she and David finally married: Helen gave an account of their wedding in David Brown's memoir,
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 40, as well as in her unpublished autobiography, 1962–63, in which she described the later outing to see stripper Candy Barr, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
30
  
something of a little mascot: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording file no. 2552a, tape 8, “3/25/72” (side A), HGB Papers, SSC. Helen described her comfortable position at Foote, Cone & Belding.

  
30
  
Working on the Max Factor account: Helen described this naming process in Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Office
(Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2004), p. 308.

  
30
  
WHIPPED CHERRY
and following names
: Helen Gurley Brown, “SHADE NAMES,” circa 1959, early advertising copy, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
30
  
She doubted herself: Accounts of Helen's frustrations at Kenyon & Eckhardt from Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording no. 2552a, tape 8, “3/25/72” (side A), HGB Papers, SSC; and from Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Office
, p. 308.

  
31
  
“What am I going to do?”: Dialogue from Helen Gurley Brown's version of the story told in David Brown's memoir,
Let Me Entertain You
, pp. 104–5.

  
31
  
“There's a chapter on the apartment”: Ibid.

  
31
  
“that sounds like my book”: Ibid.

  
31
  
“It won't work”: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, dialogue from audio recording no. 2552a, tape 8, “3/25/72” (side A), HGB Papers, SSC.

  
32
  
the stigma of the single woman: Eleanor Harris, “Women Without Men,”
Look
, July 5, 1960.

  
32
  
“There are two sound ways”: Betsy Marvin McKinney, “Is the Double Standard Out of Date?”
Ladies' Home Journal
, May 1961.

  
33
  
“I think you've got it”: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, dialogue and account from audio recording no. 2552a, tape 8, “3/25/72” (side A), HGB
Papers, SSC. Helen talked about how David made her rewrite three times. She also cited the article “Women Without Men” as a motivating force.

  
33
  
It was David who told Helen: David explained how he wanted Helen to write the book under her married name, sharing her own experiences, in “Sex and the Single Girl as seen by David Brown.”

5: A
F
UN
S
CAM

  
34
  
“An extra woman is a problem”: Marjorie Hillis,
Live Alone and Like It: A Guide for the Extra Woman
(London: Virago Press, 2005), chapter 1.

  
34
  
“Your very kind, very superlative comments”: Letty Cottin to Helen and David Brown, February 6, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
35
  
“When the clock says Charlie's due home”: Michael Drury, “Live the Life You Love,”
Good Housekeeping
, April 1962.

  
36
  
In 1960, there were an estimated 21 million: Eleanor Harris, “Women Without Men,”
Look
, July 5, 1960.

  
36
  
“I think marriage is insurance for the
worst
years of your life”: Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Single Girl
(Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2003), p. 4.

  
36
  
Letty would pull off a lot of stunts: Descriptions based on Letty Cottin Pogrebin's interview with the author, January 2014; Letty's eulogy for Bernard Geis; and description of billboard from Barbara Seaman's excellent biography
Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann
(New York: William Morrow, 1987), p. 325.

  
38
  
“She worked very hard to create this package”: Letty Cottin Pogrebin, interview with the author, January 2014.

6: S
INGLE
W
OMEN OF THE
W
ORLD,
U
NITE!

  
39
  
“Should Men Be Allowed?”: Letty Cottin, press release for
Sex and the Single Girl
, April 16, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
39
  
“It's the old ‘
Everybody
is talking about
Sex and the Single Girl
' approach”: Letty Cottin to Helen Gurley Brown, March 14, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
40
  
“We're not getting too far”: Ibid.

  
40
  
“Maybe a Catholic ban!”: Helen Gurley Brown to Letty Cottin, March 19, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
40
  
Mary Magdalene, pre-salvation: Letty Cottin to Helen Gurley Brown, March 30, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
40
  
No, Helen wrote back, her semi-famous exes were out: Helen Gurley Brown to Letty Cottin, March 19, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
40
  
“I know you worked like a dog”: Letty Cottin to Helen Gurley Brown, March 14, 1962.

  
41
  
“I just don't think there would be anything
in
it for them”: Helen Gurley Brown to Letty Cottin, March 19, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
41
  
“Douse the perfume on cotton”: Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Single Girl
, p. 80.

  
41
  
On her pink paper, Helen drafted a note to Max Factor: Helen Gurley Brown to Letty Cottin, May 2, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
42
  
“You are that
rara avis
”: Letty Cottin to Helen Gurley Brown, March 14, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
42
  
“There are just too few single girls browsing through book stores”: Helen Gurley Brown to Letty Cottin, March 19, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
43
  
“Don't Knock It, Girls, Says Author”: Letty Cottin, press release for
Sex and the Single Girl
, April 16, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
44
  
“What
The Best of Everything
did”: Letty Cottin to Jerry Wald, April 24, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
44
  
“Naturally, not all of your girls will become the wife of a Hollywood producer”: Letty Cottin to Director, Katherine Gibbs Schools, April 27, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
45
  
“The book may shatter conventional shibboleths”
and following
: Letty Cottin to editor,
Record Chronicle
, Denton, Texas, April 26, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

7: T
HE
D
ECLINE OF
W
ESTERN
C
IVILIZATION

  
46
  
“As tasteless a book”: Robert Kirsch, “Sex and the Single Girl Falls Short of Its Promising Title,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 6, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
46
  
“HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS”: Bernard Geis Associates to Helen Gurley Brown at the Hotel Madison, 15 East 58th St., New York, NY, HGB Papers, SSC. Reproduced with the permission of Bernard Geis Associates.
Note:
The telegram is dated “23 1050 EDT,” which author interpreted to mean May 23 at 10:50 eastern daylight time. Letty Cottin Pogrebin confirmed that Bernard Geis sent his book authors a congratulatory telegram on their publication dates.

  
46
  
Godless Gotham: Letty Cottin Pogrebin, eulogy for Bernard Geis.

  
46
  
Helen's book tour had begun: Details taken from various correspondence between Helen Gurley Brown and Bernard Geis Associates, as well as from collected book tour itineraries and miscellany, 1962–69, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
48
  
Sex and the Single Girl
instead of
Sex for the Single Girl
: “Playboy Interview: Helen Gurley Brown,”
Playboy
, April 1963.

  
48
  
“How does it feel to be on top of Richard Nixon?” Letty Cottin Pogrebin to Helen Gurley Brown, June 21, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
49
  
“Now, I don't have to go out and promote”: Ron Fimrite, “The Single Girl's Expert on Sex,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, July 6, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
49
  
“Of course you feel alone sometimes”: Joy Miller, AP, reprinted as “Former Little Rockian Analyzes Spinsterhood,”
Arkansas Democrat
, June 7, 1962.

  
49
  
“So do murder and rape!”: Cleo Bryan to Helen Gurley Brown, May 3, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
49
  
“When Mrs. Cleo Bryan”: Art Berman, “Helen's Book Was a Shock to Her Mother,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 24, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
50
  
Helen didn't mention that she thought her mother was being totally selfish: Helen aired her true feelings about her mother's reaction to Lyn Tornabene years later in audio recording no. 2552b, “Emotions,” tape 8 (side B), HGB Papers, SSC.

  
50
  
“My mother is quite a dame”: Art Berman, “Helen's Book Was a Shock to Her Mother.”

  
50
  
“David put me up to writing the book”: Ibid.

  
51
  
“HUSBAND SAID ‘WRITE'”: Ibid.

  
52
  
Pickwick's in Hollywood devoted a window display: “How to Promote a Book and Sell 1,000 Copies,”
Publishers Weekly
, October 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
52
  
“There are no girls that age down here”: Stephanie Gervis, “In Greenwich Village, Sex Is Where You Find It,”
Village Voice
, July 26, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC. 53 “a libel against womanhood”: reader letter,
San Francisco Chronicle
, July 12, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
53
  
“Miss Brown provides the blueprint of a female so phony”: Robert Kirsch, “Sex and the Single Girl Falls Short of Its Promising Title.”

  
53
  
“At long last someone has written a book”: Anne Steinert, “Being a Single Girl Can Be Fun,”
New York Journal-American
, May 23, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
53
  
“sometimes shocking but always stimulating philosophy”: Mildred Schroeder, “‘Sex and the Single Girl'—Startling, Stimulating,”
San Francisco Examiner
, May 30, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
53
  
“racy and sassy”: Initials T. M., “1962 Baedeker for ‘Les Girls,'
Houston Chronicle
, date unknown, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
53
  
“‘Do I dare go on?'”
and following
: Miss Zora Ann Krneta, “Handbook for ‘The Chase,'”
Charleston Gazette
, West Virginia, June 10, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC. Quote is slightly condensed.

  
54
  
“David Brown in for new scrutiny”: Information about
Sex and the Single Girl
's success is from Helen Gurley Brown's memo, “Brief Resume of What's Happened With the Book So Far,” July 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
54
  
“Now it's time to get down to work”: Diane Patrick, “Royal Correspondence: PW Talks with Helen Gurley Brown,”
Publishers Weekly
, February 23, 2004. Helen spoke about her Royal manual typewriter in this interview as well.

8: S
OMETHING
'
S
G
OT TO
G
IVE