Enter Helen (45 page)

219
  
“How would you go about telling your date”: Referenced by Lily Rothman, “The Surprisingly Feminist Roots of
The Bachelorette
,”
Time
, May 18, 2015.

220
  
“The Girl Ghetto”: Paul Stewart, “The Girl Ghetto: Manhattan's Swingiest Square Mile,”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1966.

220
  
At night they gathered at singles bars: Background from Malachy McCourt,
A Monk Swimming
(New York: Hachette Books, 1998), passim; and Nicola Twilley, “A Cocktail Party in the Street: An Interview with Alan Stillman,”
New City Reader
, November 12, 2010, available at www.ediblegeography.com/a-cocktail-party-in-the-street-an-interview-with-alan-stillman/.

220
  
“passion pads”: Background on singles housing from “Housing: Pads for Singles,”
Time
, August 26, 1966.

221
  
“Many single women take cruises or head alone”: Thomas Meehan, “New Industry Built Around Boy Meets Girl,”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1965, SSC.

221
  
“Don't listen to the pessimists. You can do it!”: Lyn Tornabene, “Do Be an Actress!”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1965.

221
  
“What's new this month, pussycat?”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1965.

222
  
“If you hate being away from
your
darlings”: Ibid.

222
  
“rumple-proof” sari; “Of course I'm purring, pet”
and following caption excerpt
: “Husband-Coming-Home Clothes,”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1965.

223
  
The merchandising editor: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1965.

223
  
“I never paid much attention to them”: Melvin Sokolsky, interview with the author, September 2014.

30: T
HAT
C
OSMOPOLITAN
G
IRL

224
  
“A color photograph of a pretty brunette”: Eugenia Sheppard, “‘Any Woman Can Get a Man . . . ,'”
New York Herald Tribune
, September 9, 1965.

224
  
The stretchy, red-jersey wraparound dress: Melvin Sokolsky, interview with the author, September 2014.

224
  
“Basically, that red dress is selling the most beautiful set of breasts”: Ibid.

225
  
Working in a spotless, white-walled studio: Background on Scavullo, his studio, and his style of working from
Scavullo: Francesco Scavullo Photographs 1948– 1984
(New York: Harper & Row, 1984). Also per Harry King, interview with the author, September 2014.

225
  
“I don't know what other models ate”: Kecia Nyman described her first
Cosmopolitan
session with Scavullo in an interview with the author, August 2014.

226
  
“We all loved Scavullo”: Ibid.

226
  
It was a place of legend and extraordinary leverage: History and legend of “21” drawn from H. Peter Kriendler with H. Paul Jeffers,
“21”: Every Day Was New Year's Eve
(Dallas: Taylor, 1999).

227
  
“just another 102-pound nobody in a Pucci dress”: Gael Greene detailed Helen Gurley Brown's relationship with “21” and her famous
Cosmopolitan
luncheons in “That Cosmo Girl at ‘21,'”
New York
, January 18, 1971.

227
  
Playing the hostess, Helen used her charms: Description of Helen's hosting skills per former
Cosmo
beauty editor Mallen De Santis, interview with the author, October 2012.

227
  
“She would go through the dummy”: Ibid.

228
  
Change didn't necessarily mean improvement: Helen Gurley Brown, statement for advertisers, 1965, HGB Papers, SSC.

228
  
a woman between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four: Helen Gurley Brown described her target reader in many articles, including an early Q&A she did with
The Writer
, “New Direction for
Cosmopolitan,” Writer
, July 1965.

229
  
The
Cosmopolitan
cover girl was a different species altogether: Jennifer Scanlon wrote about this disconnect between the
Cosmo
reader and the
Cosmo
cover girl in
Bad Girls Go Everywhere
(New York: Penguin Books, 2009), p. 170.

31: T
HE
I
RON
B
UTTERFLY

230
  
“The U.S. Weather Bureau did
not
track”: Chris Welles, “Soaring Success of the Iron Butterfly,”
Life
, November 19, 1965.

230
  
By November, the magazine would average about a million copies per issue: Ibid.

230
  
“Congratulations, Chieftess”: Helen saved the actual gold record, HGB Papers, SSC. There are also great photos of the champagne party accompanying Welles's story.

230
  
Shortly after penciling “Life Mag”: Helen Gurley Brown, red diary, 1965, HGB Papers, SSC.

231
  
“It's just a half-baked crusading idea, I guess”: Chris Welles, “Soaring Success of the Iron Butterfly.”

231
  
“Helen's terribly polite, terribly innocent”: Ibid.

231
  
“She had a nickname: the Iron Butterfly”: Vene Spencer, interview with the author, September 2014.

232
  
“quite obscene”; “utter contempt for women,” and
following quotes
: Chris Welles, “Soaring Success of the Iron Butterfly.”

32: R
ESOLUTIONS

233
  
“This is it. The turning point”: David Lachenbruch, “Everything's Coming Up Color,” “TV Set Buyers Guide,”
TV Guide
, 1966.

233
  
In the beginning of 1966: Charles Mohr, “Raids on North Vietnam Resumed by U.S. Planes as 37-Day Pause Is Ended,”
New York Times
, January 31, 1966.

234
  
screen-tested potential book covers: Martin Kasindorf, “Jackie Susann Picks Up the Marbles,”
New York Times Magazine
, August 12, 1973.

234
  
“A new book is just like any new product”: Requoted by David Streitfeld in “Book Report: Writing to Sell,”
Washington Post
, March 25, 1990.

234
  
“Take 3 yellow ‘dolls' before bedtime”: Letty Cottin Pogrebin, press release for
Valley of the Dolls
, 1966, requoted by Barbara Seaman in
Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann
(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1987), p. 303

234
  
Using
Sex and the Single Girl
as a model: Barbara Seaman,
Lovely Me
, p. 282.

234
  
In early May,
Dolls
took the number-one slot: Amy Fine Collins, “Once Was Never Enough,”
Vanity Fair
, January 2000.

234
  
“What matters to
me
is telling a
story
that
involves
people”: Jane Howard, “Happiness Is Being Number 1,”
Life
, August 19, 1966.

235
  
“He must have gotten very far down the list”: Gloria Steinem, interview with the author, December 2013.

235
  
“MADDENINGLY SEXY”: Helen Gurley Brown's blurb on the back of the
Valley of the Dolls
paperback (New York: Grove Press, 1997).

235
  
Helen titled the last talk “What Business Men Should Know About Girls”: John W. Fisher, “Packed House Hears Helen Gurley Brown's Tips on Making Ads Appeal to Distaff Side,”
Adcrafter
, March 25, 1966.

235
  
“Women are interested in everything men are interested in”
and following
: Ibid.

236
  
Toward the end of 1966, they went to Europe: Helen wrote about her trip in detail in “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, December 1966.

236
  
London was such a
male
city: Ibid.

236
  
From London, they continued on to: Ibid.

237
  
In 1966 alone, Helen spent $3,343.30: Helen recorded her expenditures and her measurements in a file, “Clothes: drawings, measurements, and expenditures,” 1966–71, HGB Papers, SSC.

237
  
“We lunched at the Tea Room”: Lyn Tornabene, interview with the author, November 2014.

237
  
“fewer but better clothes”; “There's no use resolving anything major, of course”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, January 1967.

237
  
“None of us had ever been there”: Vene Spencer recalled Helen taking her and Les Girls out for lunch at “21” in interview with the author, September 2014.

238
  
“But you ladies stay”: Ibid.

238
  
“Where do you live?”; “Do you have a boyfriend?”; “Do you want to get married?”: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording file no. 2549b, “General Personality” tape 5, (side B), 1970–71, HGB Papers, SSC. Note: Dialogue is slightly altered, but meaning is similar.

239
  
Helen had her nose done at age forty: Helen Gurley Brown,
I'm Wild Again Snippets from My Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), p. 266.

239
  
“Both Robin and I got our noses fixed”: Vene Spencer, interview with the author, September 2014.

239
  
In December 1966, along with show mainstays:
What's My Line?
Season 18, Episode 16, 1966.

240
  
“She wasn't taking any chances”: Vene Spencer recalled this “dress rehearsal” of
What's My Line?
in interview with author, September 2014.

240
  
“I hope you will accept this as a little token”: Ibid.

240
  
“I was laughing to myself”: Ibid.

240
  
“Loosen my tie!”: Story of Bill Guy's heart attack per Vene Spencer, his former assistant, told to the author in interview, September 2014.

240
  
“I was buying the fiction, negotiating with the agents”: Ibid.

241
  
In a matter of months, Helen had lost her fiction editor, her articles editor, and a resourceful assistant: Timeline and details of their departures per Vene Spencer and Walter Meade, interviews with the author.

241
  
the office couldn't stop talking about her: Helen Gurley Brown to Vene Spencer, undated, courtesy of Vene Spencer.

33: T
HE 92
P
ERCENT

242
  
“Everyone has an identity”: Jacqueline Susann,
Valley of the Dolls
(New York: Grove Press, 1966), p. 111.

242
  
“You're the first lady analyst”: Judy Klemesrud, “Mrs. Brown, Your Subject Is Showing,”
New York Times
, December 31, 1967.

242
  
a failure, one of the few Helen ever had: Jennifer Scanlon,
Bad Girls Go Everywhere
(New York: Penguin Books, 2009), p. 147.

242
  
A tall and striking woman: Information about Mallen De Santis's career per De Santis, interview with the author, October 2012.

243
  
“I did what Helen referred to as ‘material evaluation'”: Ibid.

243
  
“She really relied on Mallen being her guidepost”: Eileen Stukane, interview with the author, January 2013.

244
  
Every four weeks, they reviewed the
last
issue: Helen described this evaluation process, and her doubts about the current issue, in “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, May 1967, SSC.

244
  
“Every time an editor sees”: Ibid.

245
  
“Everybody—and especially me—needs editing!”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Memo 1,” January 18, 1967,
Cosmopolitan
editing and writing, HGB Papers, SSC.

245
  
“RULE 1. WRITING SHOULD BE CLEAR”: Ibid.

245
  
“She was always interested in clarity”: Nat Hentoff, interview with the author, 2014.

246
  
“All instructions for making
anything
”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Memo 1.”

246
  
“She edited the magazine for three Helens”: Walter Meade, email exchange with the author, January 2015.

246
  
“I just didn't get David in his boutonnière”: Lyn Tornabene, interview with the author, November 2014.

247
  
“RULE 22.
DON'T ATTACK THE ADVERTISER!
”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Memo 1.”

247
  
“25 men will follow you down the street”: Ibid.

247
  
“Show no mercy toward sloppiness”: Ibid.

248
  
“It wasn't that we didn't get letters”: Barbara Hustedt Crook, email exchange with author, February 2014.

248
  
“We made up things all the time!” Mallen De Santis, interview with the author, October 2012.

248
  
“It's pretty tough, as you know”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Memo 1.”