Not Pretty Enough
Page 49
Charles’s last will and testament: Copy and typescript of original document on file at Carroll Country Historical Society. Helen also provided a copy for her papers archived at Smith College, HGB-SSC, Box 13, Folder 11.
The ensuing war years: For information on how the Civil War impacted areas of Carroll County, see “Berryville in the Civil War,” entry for Berryville at arkansascities.com. Also, Jim Lair, An Outlander’s History of Carroll County, Arkansas, 1830–1983 (Berryville, AR: Carroll County Historical and Genealogical Society, 1983); “Carroll County,” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture (Little Rock: Central Arkansas Library System), www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=752; and Lt. Col. Leo Huff, “Guerillas, Jayhawkers and Bushwackers in Northern Arkansas During the Civil War,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 24, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 127–48.
Charles Sneed’s pretty homestead: From genealogy in CCHS and author visit to Sneed cemetery on Route 412 in Osage, Arkansas.
Ira was born: On Ira’s parentage: listing in genealogy at Carroll County Historical Society: 1. Cedella Melvin LIPPS was born 31 OCT 1855 in Carroll County, Arkansas, and died 10 DEC 1924 in Boone County, Arkansas. She was the daughter of 2. James Harrison LIPPS and 3. Elizabeth ANN. She married John Henry GURLEY 10 FEB 1881 in Boone County, Arkansas. He was born 28 SEP 1860 in Gadiston, Georgia, and died 10 FEB 1940 in Alpena, Boone County, Arkansas.
Ira had three sisters: Ira Gurley obituary. “Ira Gurley Dies in Elevator Mishap,” North Arkansas Star, June 23, 1932.
law degree from Cumberland University: Ira Gurley’s matriculation and graduation records provided by Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, as follows: “According to our files in the Stockton Archives, Ira Marvin Gurley from Alpena Pass, Ark. graduated from the Cumberland University School of Law in June 1916. His name is listed in the 1916 Phoenix Yearbook as well as the Cumberland University Bulletin 1916–1917. Ira is also mentioned in other yearbooks viewable on the following links, which also contain information on tuition and coursework in the School of Law during that era: The link for the 1916 yearbook is: https://archive.org/details/phoenix1916cumb. The link for the bulletin is: https://archive.org/details/cumberlanduniver1917cumb.”
Helen was horrified: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC. The appellation “caveman Gurley” from Cleo’s letter to Helen, June 1962, HGB-SSC, Box 6, Folder 5.
In the fall of 1918: Details on campaign and election results in North Arkansas Star, November 1, 1918, and November 6, 1918.
By the time the next election neared: John Wells, paid commentary, “Ira Gurley’s Record in the Legislature,” North Arkansas Star, October 29, 1920, followed by Ira’s “Dear Sir” challenge, November 5, 1920; election returns in the same newspaper on November 13, 1920.
Archival records of the session suggest: Research conducted by Jane Wilkerson, archival manager, Arkansas History Commission, yielded this information: The legislature that Ira Gurley participated in was in session from January 13, 1919, to March 13, 1919. He sponsored three bills that session. One of them became Act 151 of 1919.
“In the matter of the bill”: Paid commentary supporting Ira Gurley after his defeat in North Arkansas Star, November 5, 1920.
“Cleo also told me a hundred times”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 78.
“She didn’t ruin my life”: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
2. DADDY’S GIRL
“I’m just a little girl from Little Rock”: lyric from the score of Broadway adaptation of Anita Loos’s 1925 bestselling book, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady.
it was first christened Pulaski Heights: Illustrated history of the neighborhood by Cheryl Griffith Nichols and Sandra Taylor Smith, Hillcrest: The History and Architectural Heritage of Little Rock’s Streetcar Suburb (Little Rock: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 1990). See also “Pulaski Heights,” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6575.
at 404 North Spruce Street: Site visited and locations confirmed on author’s trip to Little Rock to the neighborhood once known as Pulaski Heights.
The whole family could hop: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC. Company history of Franke’s in Little Rock at frankescafeteria.com.
How the couple treated each other: Helen describes her mother, Cleo, as not a sexual person in an interview about her own sexual history with Dr. David Allyn, DAP.
German measles: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
My father was a very affectionate man: From a short Father’s Day piece that Helen wrote for Good Housekeeping, 1975.
Ira took the girls: Information on the state fairs the Gurleys attended from The WPA Guide to 1930s Arkansas, 169.
Cleo “poured all her frustration”: HGB, “Memories of Mother.”
One of Cleo’s clients: Ibid.
Ira moved steadily: Record of Ira Gurley’s various positions held from Historical Report of the Secretary of State, 2008 (Little Rock, AR: Office of the Secretary of State).
“She thought I was not pretty”: Helen speaks of her mother’s statements or implications of her not being “pretty enough” on many occasions, in many published writings. One example, from I’m Wild Again (p. 276): “my mother pretty much convinced me I wasn’t (beautiful enough) and would need to use whatever brain I had to attract life’s blessings … I wish she hadn’t done that … you spend years trying to be more smashing without ever feeling you’ve smashed!”
Ann was a perfect doll: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
Neither could recall: Letter from Elizabeth Jessup Bilheimer to Helen, HGB-SSC, Box 6, Folder 8.
“Our darling mother”: HGB, The Late Show, 157.
Much of the state’s population was still reeling: “The Ten Costliest Floods in American History,” The Atlantic, May 23, 2011; The WPA Guide to 1930s Arkansas, 43; and John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997); as well as the account in “Green Forest (Carroll County),” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=844.
Worthen Bank: History of the Worthen Bank in “William Booker Worthen,” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2438.
On Christmas Day 1930: Letter from HGB to Elvin MacDonald, editor at House Beautiful, April 8, 1976, HGB-SSC, Box 35, Folder 5.
rather Proustian raptures: HGB letter to Schneider, HGB-SSC, Box 13, Folder 11.
Patsy was designed by: Andy Port, “Dollmaker Played Papa,” Newsday syndicate, Milwaukee Journal, January 23, 1974; Patricia N. Schoonmaker, Patsy Doll Family Encyclopedia (Cumberland, MD: Hobby House Press, 1992); history of the Americana doll company Effanbee at http://patsyann.net/patsy-anns-story-pictures/.
that was all too dear for Ira’s: Salary approximations from the 1929 Acts of Arkansas for the Game and Fish budget, listed as follows: Secretary $1,200, Book-keeper $4,200, Fish Culturist $3,000, Game Breeder $2,400, Boat Mechanic $1,500, One Clerk $1,800, One Stenographer $1,800.
415 North Monroe Street: Copy of warranty deed obtained from Pulaski County Clerk’s office listing Grantors, JS and Leelah Bailey to Ira M and Cleo Gurley.
In the summer of 1932: Intent of Ira to run for secretary of state from interview with Sharon Priest, former secretary of state for Arkansas, per her meeting with HGB. Further details of his office routine from tour of state house premises and site of elevator accident with Dr. David Ware, capitol historian, in Little Rock on July 27, 2014. Accounts of the accident: “Ira Gurley Dies in Elevator Mishap,” North Arkansas Star, June 23, 1932; “Injury in Elevator Fatal to Ira Gurley,” The Harrison Times, June 23, 1932.
Her memories of that day: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
The first came just weeks after: Ibid.
Afterward, Cleo
would often refer to: Ibid.
Helen remembered the amount: Helen’s memory of the settlement amount for her father’s death was deemed excessive by capitol historian David Ware, during author’s interview at Arkansas State Capitol building on July 27, 2014.
3. FEAR ITSELF
“So, first of all”: From Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration speech in 1933.
In the first months after Ira’s death: Helen’s letter to Cleo, HGB, Dear Pussycat, 337–43. Also, HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
The motion picture business: Information on the origins and deployment of the Motion Picture Code as well as Max Factor’s work with Jean Harlow from Fred E. Basten, Max Factor: The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2013). Also, information on his work with Jean Harlow at Max Factor’s website: http://maxfactor-international.com/heritage/iconic-look/jean-harlow.
When they were in the fifth grade: HGB, “Memories of Mother.”
The eruption was over: Ibid.
Helen was ecstatic: Ibid.
The four-hundred-acre fairgrounds: Helen and Cleo’s trip through the fair draws from HGB, The Writer’s Rules, xiv, and HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC; from descriptions of fair attractions and controversies in the fair’s official booklet at https://archive.org/stream/officialguideboo00centrich/officialguideboo00centrich_djvu.txt; and in a comprehensive analysis of the 1933 fair, Sally Rand, and women’s issues at the time in Cheryl R. Ganz, The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair: A Century of Progress (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008), especially chap. 1, “Sally Rand and the Midway,” and chap. 5, “Women’s Spaces at the Fair.”
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt did speak: On Roosevelt’s appearance at the fair, see Paul Bernstein, Letters to Eleanor: Voices of the Great Depression (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2004), xxviii.
called herself Sally Rand: Ganz, The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, 9–27. Additional information on Max Factor from Mathis Chazanov, “Museum of Beauty Rescued from Ugly Prospect of Closure,” Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1992; Silviane Gold, “The Figure Behind the Fan: Celebrating Sally Rand,” The New York Times, June 27, 2004; footage of Rand dancing at the 1934 fair at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTEIWK9CaEs; Helen’s letter to Mary about Sally Rand from HGB, The Writer’s Rules, xiv.
Helen talked about her sexual awakenings: DAP.
“I never liked the looks of”: Helen, on distancing herself from her relatives in Osage, in HGB, Having It All, 39.
Her teenage uncle shadowed her: DAP.
4. ROADS TO NOWHERE
“The excursion is the same”: Eudora Welty in “The Wide Net.”
thousand-room Hotel Cleveland: History and location of the hotel from the Cleveland Historical Society, http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/465#.VInrWWTF8i4.
Helen was confused: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
Oaklawn Park Race Track: History and location of the racetrack from WPA Guide to 1930s Arkansas (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1987), x, liii, and 163–63. Helen’s recollections of the trips there from HGB, “Memories of Mother.”
The Jessup house was a lively spot: On Aleta Jessup’s attentions to Helen and other young people: letter to HGB from Elizabeth Jessup Bilheimer, HGB-SSC, Box 6, Folder 8, letter from Helen to Aleta Jessup reprinted in Helen’s collection of letters, HGB, Dear Pussycat, 317.
Helen did not recall being envious: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
the southern states would see outbreaks: Kathryn Black, In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996), 39–40, 80–83.
Freed was gently, briefly mourned: In December 1989, Elizabeth Jessup Bilheimer wrote a long letter to Helen, structured on “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and reminiscing about many aspects of their childhood together. HGB-SSC, Box 6, Folder 8.
Helen had a brush with their feral groping: DAP.
She traced her curiosity about sexual matters: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 54.
Tangee was their brand: For history and manufacture of lipstick, see Jessica Pallingston, Lipstick: A Celebration of the World’s Favorite Cosmetic (New York: St. Martins, 1999). For reproductions of Tangee lipstick advertising from the period, see www.cosmeticsandskin.com/cdc/indelible.php. Statistics and comments from Leonard Lauder in Kay Schaefer, “Hard Times but Your Lips Look Great,” The New York Times, May 1, 2008.
“Having babies isn’t all there is”: This, and information on Cleo hedging her bets again, in HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
“In my home-economics class”: HGB, The Late Show, 157.
“I couldn’t have had a more repressed”: DAP.
“She was terrified that my sister”: Ibid.
That year, Pontiac laid out its most aggressive: A video of the film Pontiac made for its sales force regarding the model that Cleo Gurley bought is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tiT5S2f7Ws. For gas prices in 1935, see http://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-835-august-25-average-annual-gasoline-pump-price-1929–2013.
The girls thought the car stunning: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
“Gloria Hibiscus”: Helen’s series of car names from HGB, Helen Gurley Brown’s Outrageous Opinions, 28.
Her logic for choosing that distant and unknown city: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
She was ready in the summer of 1936: Ibid.
PART TWO: LOS ANGELES
“Good times were the”: Joan Didion, Where I Was From (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), 129.
5. WHAT FRESH HELL
“My shrink says”: HGB, Having It All, 450.
One of her roommates: HGB, “Memories of Mother,” HGB-SSC.
John and his wife, Nita: The 1940 census for Los Angeles township lists John Gurley and his wife, Nita.
Helen was out in the yard: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 5.
While Mary struggled through: Ibid.
Orthopaedic Institute for Children: On Dr. Lowman and his pioneering work at the institute, see Cecilia Rasmussen, “A Medical Pioneer for Children,” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1997.
Though the paralytic disease had been seen: Kathryn Black, In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal and Social History (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996), 24.
Helen sat down and wrote: HGB, Helen Gurley Brown’s Outrageous Opinions, 233.
run-down spa/resort in Warm Springs: Black, In the Shadow of Polio, 24–25.
“Thank you with all my heart”: HGB, Dear Pussycat, 2.
forgettable sophomore year at Belmont High: HGB, Dear Pussycat, 145.
“Sometimes she [Cleo]”: HGB, The Late Show, 32.
these were hardly joyrides: Ibid.
“smeared with strawberry jam”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 6.
“At that time the medical profession”: Ibid. Acne Vulgaris information from Guy F. Webster, “Acne Vulgaris,” BMJ (British Medical Journal) 325 (August 31, 2002): 475–79.
At “Poly,” they were already calling the Arkansas import: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 6.
Poly, the second-oldest high school: Helen’s two years at Polytechnic High School are reconstructed with information from a variety of sources, including correspondence with Ari Bennett, current principal of Polytechnic High School, now located in Sun Valley, California, a January 22, 2015, interview with John Blau, Polytechnic High historian and teacher, retired, and author’s correspondence with Chi-Sun Chang, student advisor to the school newspaper, The Poly Optimist, who provided copies of articles from back issues. Also consulted: 1939 graduation program and clippings from both The Optimist and school yearbooks, HGB-SSC, Box 1, Folder 4, as well as Helen’s mentions of her high school years in “autobiographical work,” HGB-SSC, Box 35, Folders 9 and 10. For further history of the school, see “Famed Poly High Finds Valley Home,” Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1956.
.04-percent population: Statistics on population by race from www.city-data.com/city/Green-Forest-Arkansas.html.
“Would
you believe”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 5–7.
“So, what does a sixteen-year-old”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 6.
“I willed myself to become more outgoing”: Brown/Tornabene tapes, HGB-SSC, Box 36A.
number-two apple polisher: Clippings from the Polytechnic newspaper, The Poly Optimist, HGB-SSC, Box 1, Folder 4.
Recalling her best Poly teachers: Article on Helen’s favorite teachers written for Teachers Make a Difference, Harrison County Department of Education publication, Harrison, AR, 1987. HGB-SSC, Box 35.
writing quick skits: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 6.
She joined a clutch of Poly’s fifty clubs: Clippings from The Poly Optimist, HGB-SSC, Box 1, Folder 4.
On that day, she wrote to “Tabby”: Correspondence with Little Rock friends, HGB-SSC, Box 13, Folder 10.
“I wasn’t a belle”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 6.
who would remain her ardent admirer: Love letters and poems, letters to and from Bob Brown in service, HGB-SSC, Box 6, Folder 9.
“My theory from high school on”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 6.
Helen maintained that there was nothing hot and heavy: DAP.
“I would now say they were homosexual”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, 7.
She reported to Betty Tabb: High school correspondence to and from Betty Tabb, HGB-SSC, Box 13, Folder 10.
Cleo had discovered the racing scene: Santa Anita track history from its website, www.santaanita.com/discover/history/; Braven Dyer and Frank Finch, “The Story of Santa Anita,” Sport magazine, www.sportthemagazine.com/1947/01/the-story-of-santa-anita/.
New Year’s resolutions: Helen’s handwritten 1939 resolutions, HGB-SSC, Box 1, Folder 4.
She would be voted third most popular girl: Clippings from The Poly Optimist, HGB-SSC, Box 1, Folder 4.
a five-day information program: Ibid.
“Thoughts at Eventide”: Ibid.
Senior Prom was on St. Patrick’s Day: Ibid.
“It wasn’t because he considered me a wallflower”: HGB, I’m Wild Again, p. 7.
Still living in California: Hal Holker answered questions on his old flame through his daughter Janet Kessler in June 2014. He died in November 2014 at the age of ninety-four. Biographical information on Holker from author correspondence with Janet Kessler.