\'Dear Pussycat\': Editors Remember Helen Gurley Brown

By THE EDITORS

The influence of Helen Gurley Brown, who died on Monday at age 90, extended widely across the culture, and deeply within the world of magazines. What follows are remembrances from women who worked with Ms. Brown: Lesley Jane Seymour, Bonnie Fuller, Jill Herzig, Cathleen P. Black, Kate White and Donna Kalajian Lagani.

Lesley Jane Seymour
Editor in chief, More magazine

I first met Helen Gurley Brown when I was the new editor in chief of Redbook magazine in 1998. I'd come up through the ranks in fashion and beauty at Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and though I'd successfully edited teen fashion magazine, YM, I was stymied by the Redbook cover: the lead cover line - right up in the important left-hand corner -was always about sex. This was sex for young moms and their husbands. What did I know about that? Yes, I was a young mom myself but I had never “sold” sex on a magazine cover before.

Terrified of getting it wrong, I called HGB who I understood had an office on one of the executive floors in the Hearst building. She received me in her leopard-carpeted office and listened to my concerns. She offered to take a look at my planned cover lines and story ideas and get back to me. About two weeks later I was summoned back to her office. Helen laid my papers out on her desk and told me that she and her husband, David, had just gotten back from vacation but not to worry: they had spent time there going over my work! (Legend had it that David Brown had written most of or all of the Cosmo cover lines for years.)

I was mortified that this power couple would have spent time on their vacation working on my problem, but thrilled when she told me that David said “the sex lines are all perfect!” She had just a few critiques of my story ideas and she laid the papers out for me on her desk. For months afterward - and on through my time as editor in chief of Marie Claire - I wo uld receive a hand-typed note from Helen, critiquing the current issue of the magazine I was editing. She'd read every word and give thoughtful pointers. I framed the first note and put it on my wall; I was flattered and awed that an icon took the time to help me develop my work. Helen and I would have lunch every now and then and at one point she said, “You know, I never had children. But if I did, I would have liked to have had a daughter like you.”

Bonnie Fuller
Former editor in chief of Cosmopolitan,
current editor in chief of Hollywoodlife.com

I first met Helen Gurley Brown when I was about 29 years old and the editor in chief of Flare, the national fashion magazine in Canada. I was introduced to her by Gil Maurer, the C.O.O. of Hearst, who I had met through a friend. Gil thought we should meet because I was thinking about making a move back to New York City and he thought perhaps there might be a spot for me as a features editor or senior editor at Cosmo.

First of all, I was stunned by Helen's office. I'd never seen an office like that. It was almost like a boudoir! Leopard print rug on the ground, comfy floral couch covered in needlepoint and floral pillows, girly, frilly curtains, and there was Helen, curled up on her couch, her shoes off and her feet tucked under her skirt. This had not been my vision of the powerful famous editor in chief of Cosmopolitan. But I learned that this was very Helen, who was as warm to everyone she met as she was to her readers.

Within a few minutes, we were chatting like one “Cosmo girl” to another. She was calling me pussycat and making me feel so comfortable that I could practically confide anything to her, while she almost purred in response. She ended our meeting by suggesting that I might send her a few story ideas to see if there might be a story that I could write freelance for Cosmo. I took her suggestion to heart, went back t o Toronto and promptly fired off a letter with 100 story ideas for Cosmo. Well that provoked an immediate response with one of her famous “Dear Pussycat” notes, which she typed on her old Corona typewriter. She loved that I had sent 100 ideas and from that moment forward, I was the girl with the 100 ideas. She never forgot that.

Helen Gurley Brown told me that she was so freaked out after her first day as the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan, that she literally crawled under her desk to hide. That's where her husband, David, found her when he came to pick her up at the end of the day.

Jill Herzig
Editor in chief, Redbook

I arrived at Cosmo as a 22-year-old editorial assistant in the book and fiction department and fell deeply in love with my job, my immediate boss, Betty Kelly, and the incomparable Helen Gurley Brown. Two years and a promotion later, I was still enthralled with the whole enterprise, but I wanted more t han the tiny standard raise I was given on my anniversary. I appealed to Betty, who promised to get back to me. “Helen wants to talk to you about this,” she told me soon after. “Make an appointment to meet with her.”

I did as I was told, knees knocking. That afternoon, I was in Helen's office, surrounded by her memorabilia and liberal splashes of animal print. She sat down with me on her couch and wasted no time on small talk. “Betty tells me you want a nicer raise,” she said in her famously breathy, Pussycat-Doll voice. I said yes, and made my case, telling her why I thought I was worth more. “Jill, honey, you are very smart, very good, and you are going to get a raise,” she told me, “but you won't get it here at Cosmo.”

She smiled in a way that made it clear we were done. The message was clear: If I wanted to make more I had to exit the safety of a job that felt like home and find the next gig. That's how I wound up moving to a men's magazin e as a senior editor, making 10 grand more, a few months later. Helen was brave by nature, and taught the women who worked for her by example. When example wasn't enough, she had no problem telling you, Oh come on - be gutsy. I did as I was told.

Cathleen P. Black
Former chairwoman of Hearst Magazines

Hearst always had an employee-only Christmas party at Tavern on the Green, tables filled with shrimp and crab meat and roast beef. Helen always in her Pucci dress with the fringe was always the first on the dance floor. She would dance with everybody, the mail guy, the stock room clerk. She never forgot her roots. She would reach out and dance with everybody. She called everybody pussycat and she wrote magnificent letters typed on her Royal. It would be some long fabulous letter about something incredible. She would describe it in great detail. If you sent her flowers, she would not just come back with they were pink and blue. She would say what kind they were. She adored David. He was her heart and soul.

Kate White
Editor in chief, Cosmopolitan

When I was the editor at Redbook, I once slipped into the ladies' room at some event or another, and I discovered Helen in there. She seemed to be talking to herself, and she said, “Excuse me, Kate, I'm just rehearsing my remarks.” And what I loved about that was that she wasn't afraid to admit that it didn't all come easily, that you had to work hard, you had to do your homework, and you had to rehearse your remarks if you wanted to be at the very top. And I never again was ashamed to slip into the ladies' room and practice a speech.

The first time I had lunch with her I saw she ate her salad with her hands. She very sensuously picked up the lettuce leaves and slipped them into her mouth. She said it was sexier than using a fork.

Donna Kalajian Lagani
Senior vice presiden t and publishing director,
Cosmopolitan Group

I loved Helen from the moment I met her. I had come to her office to discuss becoming the publisher of Cosmopolitan, but within minutes we were seated on her rose chintz sofa, stilettos kicked to the fabulous leopard print carpet, feet curled up underneath us. We spent the next two hours like that, talking about everything from our careers to magazines to men. At the end of our chat, she said, “Honey, I don't know if you want to come work here or not, but I hope we can be girlfriends forever.” And that's just how Helen was. She had people on her team who had worked for her for 20 years - that's the kind of loyalty she inspired. She never had an unkind word to say about anyone, and when she spoke to you, you got the feeling you were the only person in the room. My darling Helen, I love you and will miss you forever.