Enter Helen (44 page)

188
  
They were as “close as stitches” . . . and they both wielded the power to wound: Helen Gurley Brown, “Memories of Mother and Early Life in Little Rock.”

188
  
She was elected president: Helen Gurley Brown's class stats are from various article clippings that she saved from her high-school newspaper,
The Optimist
, John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, late-1930s, HGB Papers, SSC.

188
  
Hal didn't have a date: Helen Gurley Brown,
I'm Wild Again
, p. 7.

189
  
luck had little to do with Helen's high school success: Background from various article clippings that she saved from
The Optimist
.

189
  
“It lowers the respect of other fellows”: “Slacks on Campus Out of Place, Say Students,” publication unknown (possibly
The Optimist
), circa spring 1939.

189
  
“I've dreamed of being an Ephebian”: Untitled short profile of Helen Gurley, publication unknown (possibly
The Optimist
), circa spring 1939.

189
  
she soon lined up big plans: Account of Helen's attempt at attending college; Cleo and Mary's move to Warm Springs, Georgia; and Helen's consequent move back home from Jennifer Scanlon,
Bad Girls Go Everywhere
(Penguin Books, 2009), pp. 18–19.

191
  
Helen became attuned to the clawing sounds of the gophers: Helen Gurley Brown,
I'm Wild Again
, p. 8.

192
  
She found him to be embarrassing: Ibid., p. 9.

192
  
Sometimes it felt like believing in Santa Claus: Helen Gurley Brown,
Dear Pussycat
, p. 308.

193
  
“If I'd been beautiful I might be a gold digger”: Ibid.

194
  
“She really did it because she saw me being a semi-nurse-companion”: Helen Gurley Brown,
I'm Wild Again
, p. 10.

25: T
URNING
P
OINTS

195
  
“The world that shaped Helen”: Walter Meade, email exchange with the author, February 2014.

195
  
They should just use Helen as the girl: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording no. 2268, tape 10, “HGB interview,” 1970–71, HGB Papers, SSC.

196
  
“That nearly killed me”: Ibid.

196
  
“I learned very early to be good in bed”: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording no. 2547a, “Sex Is Power” tape no. 3, (side A) 1970– 71, HGB Papers, SSC.

196
  
She didn't lose her virginity until she was twenty: Helen Gurley Brown interview with David Allyn for his book,
Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution: An Unfettered History
(New York: Routledge, 2011).

196
  
“It was the most
marvelous
feeling”: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording no. 2268, tape 10, “HGB interview.”

197
  
In no particular order; “the boys in the band” “devastating”: Helen described her conquests in Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording file no. 2547a, tape 3, “Sex Is Power” (side A).

198
  
Psychoanalysis, hypnosis, touch therapy—Helen tried it all: Helen described her various therapists and therapy sessions in Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording no. 2268, tape 10, “HGB Interview.”

198
  
he told her she didn't have the right looks; “What about your mother?”: Ibid. Helen recalled this disturbing session and dialogue to Lyn Tornabene.

198
  
It wasn't until she went to group therapy: Helen talked about Charles Cooke and group therapy with Lyn Tornabene. Milton H. Erickson's assessment of Cooke is from Milton H. Erickson, Jeffrey K. Zeig, and Brent B. Geary, eds.,
The Letters of Milton H. Erickson
(Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, 2000), p. 249.

199
  
Standing there, naked and vulnerable: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording no. 2268, tape 10, “HGB Interview.”

199
  
Another time, when Charles brought a “potty” to a session: Ibid.

26: S
ELF-
P
ORTRAIT

200
  
“God damn it, Helen, you aren't a mouseburger anymore”: Lyn Tornabene to Helen Gurley Brown, January 20, year unknown (possibly circa 1982-83), HGB Papers, SSC; “hillbilly stock”: Helen Gurley Brown quoted in Janet Cawley. “Yes, a Feminist Can Love Men,”
Chicago Tribune
, June 12, 1994.

200
  
she believed that she was: Helen wrote extensively about her insecurity. In
I'm Wild Again: Snippets from My Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), she revisited her humble roots, plain-girl looks, and “average” IQ, in the section “Insecurity—a Girl's Good Friend.”

201
  
“I thought they'd
interest
you”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, July 1965.

201
  
“A guy reading
Playboy
”: Helen Gurley Brown in
Providence Journal
, 1965, HGB Papers, SSC.

201
  
“to the point of ridiculousness”; “a bona-fide genius”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, August 1971, SSC.

202
  
“We like our apartment”
and following
: Hugh Hefner,
Playboy
, December 1953.

202
  
he liked the idea of there being “a female version of
Playboy
”: Hugh Hefner, interview with the author, November 2013.

202
  
“It was the beginning of the sexual revolution”
and following
: Ibid.

203
  
“Playmates,” Hefner says, “were often
Cosmo
Girls”: Ibid.

203
  
“I think magazines are the most personal form of mass communication”: Ibid.

204
  
“She seems constantly aware of her lack of fulfillment”: Runner Associates, 1957 job evaluation of Miss Helen Marie Gurley, HGB Papers, SSC.

204
  
“a woman's 3 worst odor problems”: Ad in July 1965
Cosmopolitan
, SSC.

205
  
“You also want to be inspired”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, July 1965, SSC.

27: P
ARLOUR
G
AMES

206
  
“Desk accessories should be female”: Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Office
(Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2004), p. 48.

206
  
“I always thought that when Helen decided to call her column”: Walter Meade, email exchange with the author, February 2014.

207
  
“About every four weeks”: Linda Cox, interview with the author, June 2015.

207
  
From the start, David edited “Step Into My Parlour”: In David Brown,
Let Me Entertain You
(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1990), pp. 109–10, Helen says that David still edited her column every month.

207
  
He wanted her to cut a risqué cover line: Helen recalled this episode ibid., p. 110.

207
  
Like the company itself, Berlin was conservative: Description of Berlin and his position at Hearst draws from James Landers's comprehensive history of
Cosmopolitan
,
The Improbable First Century of “Cosmopolitan” Magazine
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2010), pp. 211–13.

208
  
“The new pill that makes women more responsive to men”: Helen in David Brown,
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 110.

208
  
“Why don't you try this on Mr. Berlin?” he asked: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording file no. 2553b, tape no. 9 (side B), 1970–71, HGB Papers, SSC.

208
  
Helen learned something about power: Ibid.

209
  
“The new pill that promises to make women more responsive”:
Cosmopolitan
cover, July 1965.

209
  
The July issue sold approximately 954,000 newsstand copies: Jeannine Locke, “The Pippy-Poo World of Helen Gurley Brown,”
Star Weekly
, Toronto, January 1, 1966.

209
  
“Guess how much?”: Walter Meade, interview with the author.

209
  
“I think she said, ‘We're on the Yellow Brick Road'”: Ibid.

210
  
“I will not have it in my home”: Reader letter, “Dear Cosmopolitan,”
Cosmopolitan
, October 1965, SSC.

210
  
“whorish” model on the cover; “nothing but a stupid, idiotic
cow
of a sexpot”: Reader letters, “Dear Cosmopolitan,”
Cosmopolitan
, September 1965; October 1965, SSC.

210
  
advertising giants like AT&T and Coca-Cola backed away or bailed: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording file no. 2553b, tape no. 9 (side B).

210
  
“The July issue of
COSMO
is alive”: Reader letter, “Dear Cosmopolitan,”
Cosmopolitan
, October 1965.

210
  
“I feel that you have given career girls a ‘laughing look'”: Reader letter,
Cosmopolitan
, October 1965, SSC.

211
  
One of those magazines was
Look
: Background on Gardner “Mike” Cowles Jr., Fleur Fenton Cowles,
Look
magazine, and Samuel “Shap” Shapiro from the following sources: Online biography of Gardner Cowles Jr. (Mike) by Herb Strentz, www.lib.drake.edu, Cowles Family Publishing Legacy, Drake University, Cowles Library; Amy Fine Collins, “A
Flair
for Living,”
Vanity Fair
, October 1996; “Cowles Closing Look Magazine After 34 Years,”
New York Times
, September 17, 1971; and “Samuel O. Shapiro, 87, a Circulation Director,” obituary,
New York Times
, September 6, 1990.

211
  
even he had never seen anything quite like the newsstand sales figures: Patricia Carbine recalled this episode in the conference room at
Look
, interview with the author, January 2014.

211
  
“I thought she was talking about somebody I didn't know”: Ibid.

212
  
“What she had managed to do was turn her book into a magazine”: Ibid.

28: J
AMES
B
OND ON A
B
UDGET

213
  
“She had flattery down to a high art”: Liz Smith, interview with the author, May 2013.

213
  
A few weeks into her appointment as editor: Descriptions of Helen's walk per Walter Meade, interview with the author.

214
  
“How's your summer going?”: Barbara Hustedt Crook, interview with the author.

214
  
“She always made me nervous”: Ibid.

214
  
Richard Berlin had been reluctant to hire Helen: James Landers,
The Improbable First Century of “Cosmopolitan” Magazine
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2010), p. 224.

214
  
Deems monitored
Cosmopolitan
's editorial content: Background on the supervising roles of Richard Deems and Frank Dupuy Jr., ibid, pp. 224, 230.

215
  
She also needed to cut costs, drastically: Chris Welles, “Soaring Success of the Iron Butterfly,”
Life,
November 19, 1965.

215
  
“Well, I don't understand it”: Helen Gurley Brown and Lyn Tornabene, audio recording file no. 2553b, tape no. 9 (side B), 1970–71, HGB Papers, SSC.

215
  
“Well,” they huffed, “if Herb Mayes”: Ibid.

215
  
“Those two-faced bitches”: Ibid.

216
  
It was amazing how sloppy writers could be: Helen outlined some of her writing pet peeves in memos to the staff, beginning with “Memo 1,” January 18, 1967,
Cosmopolitan
editing and writing, HGB Papers, SSC.

216
  
“One thing I decided”: Liz Smith, “Cosmo Goes to the Movies,”
Cosmopolitan
, August 1965.

217
  
Helen penciled in: Red diary, 1965, HGB Papers, SSC.

217
  
People wanted to see only the “after,” he said: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, October 1965.

217
  
Typically, there might be around thirty articles: Helen occasionally explained how the magazine was put together in “Step Into My Parlour.” Additional background from Walter Meade and Linda Cox, interviews with the author.

217
  
George made up a schedule for an upcoming issue: Ibid.

218
  
“How can you have a hole”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Step Into My Parlour,”
Cosmopolitan
, August 1965, SSC.

218
  
“Have you written anything recently?”: Ibid.

29: M
R.
R
IGHT
I
S
D
EAD

219
  
“The girl of the fifties would stay home”
:
Associated Press, reprinted as “The Bookshelf: ‘Romance Wanes in Cynical Sixties,'”
Milwaukee Sentinel
, September 13, 1965.