Enter Helen (40 page)

  
55
  
“Honey, nothing can live”:
The Misfits
, Seven Arts Productions, 1961.

  
55
  
The film was troubled from the start: Background on
Something's Got to Give
and David's impressions of Marilyn Monroe taken from David Brown's memoir,
Let Me Entertain You
(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1990), p. 53.

  
56
  
they didn't know her: Background on Marilyn Monroe's life from Donald Spoto,
Marilyn Monroe: The Biography
(New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001), passim.

  
56
  
“She used to come into my office and sit on my lap”: David Brown,
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 53.

  
56
  
Unfortunately, it didn't last: Background on Monroe's psychiatrist's meddling and the Fox lawsuit from Donald Spoto,
Marilyn Monroe
, passim.

  
56
  
David had committed to producing a historic drama: Murray Schumach, “Fox Will Step Up Filming for 1963,”
New York Times
, March 26, 1962.

  
56
  
There were many other films on Fox's list: Ibid.

  
57
  
“the greatest grossing film of all times”: Kenneth S, Smith, “Skouras Defends ‘Cleopatra' to Stockholders,”
New York Times
, May 16, 1962.

  
57
  
Costs for
Cleopatra . . .
skyrocketed: Ibid. Additional background on
Cleopatra
remake from David Kamp, “When Liz Met Dick,”
Vanity Fair
, April 2011.

  
57
  
“intemperate vamp who destroys families”: Referenced by Kitty Kelley,
Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), chapter 17. Also, reference to pope: David Bret,
Elizabeth Taylor: the Lady, the Lover, the Legend, 1932–2011
(Vancouver, Canada: Greystone Books, 2011), p. 156.

  
57
  
“a big picture” on “a big subject”: Background on
Cleopatra
movies from David Brown,
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 73.

  
58
  
“Only the Romans left more ruins in Europe”: Ibid., p. 76.

  
58
  
Warner Bros. was offering $200,000: Information on the film option and adaptation challenges of
Sex and the Single Girl
from Shana Alexander, “Singular Girl's Success,”
Life
, March 1, 1963.

  
59
  
also busy trying to sell the stage rights: Lucy Kroll to David Brown, June 25, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
59
  
“You're old enough, do you want a little sip?”: Impressions, descriptions, scenes, and dialogue in this chapter taken from extensive interviews and email exchanges between author and Helen's cousin Lou Honderich, 2013–15.

  
61
  
“Do you think you might possibly be homesick?”: Ibid.

  
62
  
“We're going to go shopping!”: Ibid.

  
63
  
“Where are all the bags?”: Ibid.

  
63
  
“What do boys at your age do?”: Ibid.

  
64
  
Lou could tell that David liked her company: Impressions, descriptions, scenes, and dialogue, ibid.

  
64
  
Her cousin had been her “glamorous go-to”: Ibid.

  
65
  
“You don't have to be perfect”: Ibid.

  
66
  
the friends and relatives who had read it were shocked: Ibid.

  
66
  
“She sold her family down the river”: Cleo's comment, per Lou Honderich, from an email exchange with the author.

  
66
  
“Would your mother mind if you read it?” Lou Honderich, interview with the author, November 2013.

  
66
  
“Absolutely . . . I believe the things I said”: Ibid.

9: T
HE
W
OIKING
G
IRL'S
F
RIEND

  
67
  
“She's a phony”:
Breakfast at Tiffany's
, Jurow-Shepherd, 1961.

  
67
  
“I've never been able to flirt before”: David Brown described some of the fan mail that Helen received in “Sex and the Single Girl as Seen by David Brown,”
Cavalier
, April 1964.

  
68
  
“The best way to get this across”: Bernard Geis to Helen Gurley Brown, June 8, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC. Reproduced with the permission of Bernard Geis Associates.

  
68
  
She said yes to all kinds of meet-and-greets: Details are 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.

  
68
  
“female-type supervisors”: “FEMALE DAY,” Jack Mauck, circa 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
68
  
“Once a year the dimly illuminated S.H.I.T. Society”: Ibid.

  
69
  
Among the ideas Helen and Berney discussed, over time: From collected
memos between Helen Gurley Brown and Bernard Geis, March 1962 and later, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
70
  
“not too old nor too unattractive”: Helen Gurley Brown, “The Girls of Beverly Hills” (in addition to the treatment for this novel, Helen saved her other early book proposals, including ones for “Topic A” and “Executive Wives”), early 1960s, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
70
  
“She is not the performer with her husband”: Helen Gurley Brown, “The Girls of Beverly Hills,” HGB Papers, SSC.

  
70
  
“The doctors I've talked to tell me”: Helen Gurley Brown to Bernard Geis, March 5, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
71
  
“The book I could write best”: Helen Gurley Brown to Bernard Geis, March 14, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
71
  
“We are beginning to get fervent letters”: Bernard Geis to Helen Gurley Brown, June 7, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC. Reproduced with the permission of Bernard Geis Associates.

  
71
  
the post office in Pacific Palisades refused to deliver the mail: Jennifer Scanlon,
Bad Girls Go Everywhere
(New York: Penguin Books, 2009), p. 149.

  
71
  
“Hold onto your lovely wig”: Bernard Geis to Helen Gurley Brown, October 9, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC. Reproduced with the permission of Bernard Geis Associates.

  
72
  
“I am something of a little
star
now!”: Helen Gurley Brown to Bernard Geis, October 10, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC. Helen detailed the hassle of her recent appearances.

  
72
  
Eventually, “Woman Alone” would reach: Background on the offer and Helen Gurley Brown's syndicated newspaper column gathered from collected “Woman Alone” correspondence, clippings, and financial material, 1962–65, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
73
  
To pay for
Cleopatra
: Background on the cost of
Cleopatra
, the crumbling of Fox, the iron hand of Darryl F. Zanuck, and David Brown's eventual firing taken from David Brown,
Let Me Entertain You
(New York: William Morrow & Co. 1990), pp. 73–77. Additional background on
Cleopatra
remake from David Kamp, “When Liz Met Dick,”
Vanity Fair
, April 2011.

  
73
  
“The ‘We' explains why he oozes security”: Cindy Adams, “He Made Her a Married Woman,”
Pageant
, December 1963.

  
73
  
David was offered a position: Helen Gurley Brown in David Brown's memoir,
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 106.

10: N
EW
Y
ORK,
N
EW
Y
ORK

  
75
  
“I was a country girl from Los Angeles”: Helen Gurley Brown, quoted in an unidentified publication in collected clippings about her apartments and offices, November 22, 1993, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
75
  
extensive newspaper strike: Background information from Scott Sherman, “The Long Good-Bye,”
Vanity Fair
, November 30, 2012; Sheldon Binn, “114-Day Newspaper Strike Ends as Engravers Ratify Contract; Loss Is in Excess of $190,000,000,”
New York Times
, April 1, 1963; and “Newspaper Panel to Hear Disputes,”
New York Times
, February 14, 1964.

  
76
  
“These were costumes for women with energy to burn”: Jeanne Molli, “Balenciaga and Givenchy Styles Offer Last Word on Spring,”
New York Times
, Western Edition, March 1, 1963.

  
76
  
She barely left the apartment: David Brown described Helen's fearful reluctance to leave the apartment in
Let Me Entertain You
(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1990), p. 255. Helen wrote about her earlier visit to New York with David, recalling how Bruce's mother brought her a scarf and mittens, in her unpublished autobiography, 1962–63, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
77
  
Outside, it was gray, always gray: Helen documented her early impressions of New York that spring in “NEW YORK NEW YORK NEW YORK,” March 11, 1963, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
77
  
She wondered how New Yorkers felt when they went out west: Ibid.

  
78
  
The day they were supposed to leave 515 Radcliffe Avenue: David Brown,
Let Me Entertain You
, p. 254–55.

  
78
  
Once in the city: Ibid.

  
78
  
she stood in the doorway of No. 17C and cried: Background on Helen's first days in 17C from unidentified publication in collected clippings about her apartments and offices, November 22, 1993, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
79
  
she missed the feeling of having somewhere to
be
: Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Office
(Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2004), p. 281. Helen confided in the reader that, while at home writing
Sex and the Office
, she missed office life.

  
79
  
“CALLING ALL WIDOWS, DIVORCEES, BACHELOR GIRLS”: Helen Gurley Brown, “Woman Alone,” Los Angeles Times Syndicate, reprinted in
Helen Gurley Brown's Outrageous Opinions
(New York: Bernard Geis Associates in Cooperation with Avon Books, 1966), p. 17.

  
79
  
Her efforts to win over doormen: Helen Gurley Brown, “NEW YORK NEW YORK NEW YORK.”

  
81
  
“In many ways it's like Pittsburgh”: Ibid.

  
81
  
“The west is for the babies”: Helen Gurley Brown, untitled, undated notes on New York (different from above), HGB Papers, SSC.

11: T
HE
M
EANING OF
L
UNCH

  
82
  
“Lunchtime is fraught with possibilities!”: Helen Gurley Brown
, Sex and the Office
(Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2004), p. 96.

  
82
  
“You see them every morning at a quarter to nine”: Rona Jaffe,
The Best of Everything
(New York: Penguin Books, 2005), p. 1.

  
83
  
She would suggest two Brown Paper Bag Plans: Helen observed the lunchtime habits of working girls and then offered these solutions in
Sex and the Office
, pp. 100–4.

  
83
  
“American Beauty Lunches”: Ibid., p. 100.

  
83
  
“My idea is that a kind of secretarial handbook”: Helen Gurley Brown to Bernard Geis, November 8, 1962, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
84
  
“I'm best when I'm angry”: Ibid.

  
84
  
“The girl is sent as a bribe”: Helen Gurley Brown,
Sex and the Office
, p. 257.

  
84
  
“office wolves”; “If your instinct goes ‘sniff, sniff—peculiar, peculiar'”: Ibid., pp. 220–21.

  
84
  
“It makes me feel small and helpless”: Details about the material that Bernard Geis cut out of
Sex and the Office
are taken from “Three Little Bedtime Stories,” a chapter not used, from an early draft of
Sex and the Office
, HGB Papers, SSC.

  
85
  
“full of sincerity and friendship”: The story of Claudia and the young model is also from “Three Little Bedtime Stories.”

  
85
  
“and then her mouth was THERE”: Ibid.