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Not Pretty Enough

Page 56

by Gerri Hirshey


  Three generations of the Spiegel family have made us welcome as part of their extraordinary West Eighty-Third Street community; we mourn the recent passing of the building elders Helen and Aaron who first welcomed us, and take comfort in living amid the remarkable and loving clan they left behind. Cindy, you’re right; this building is a book. But it would take a village …

  I won the in-law lottery, big time, when I married Jeanie and Gary Zwonitzer’s eldest son and got two superb brothers, Scot and Mike; our nieces, AJ and Arin; and a sweet, roiling pack of rescue dogs. Despite the vexing geography, they are always with us. So many times, upon turning up another delectable HGB anecdote, I wished that I could have shared it with my brothers, Don and Harland, both wry connoisseurs of Old Weird America. I miss them so. My mother, Rose, has watched me operate in a world quite alien to her, but her quiet lessons in compassion and respect have helped me snare the toughest interviews and harvest the best stories—the kind conferred by mutual trust. At ninety-one, Mom is still an exemplar of How to Treat People. My sister Barbara—my rock—has steadied me with a sweet equanimity I only wish were genetic. Navigating the last few difficult years in our family would have been impossible without the resilience, hard labors, and wicked humor of her husband, Robert, and their sons, Robert and Christian. Thank you, gentlemen, with all my heart.

  Our children, Sam and Lila, could not be more different from each other, but they are equally loving, quietly astonishing, and always restorative when they put their feet back under our dinner table. They are the mightiest of so many joys that followed meeting my husband, Mark. For nearly thirty years, he has never quit promising, “It will get better.” It has. It will, because of you—only and ever you.

  Index

  The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abernathy, Ralph

  abortion

  Abzug, Bella

  Adams, Junius

  Addison, Lovell

  Adler, Buddy

  Adler, Renata

  advice columns

  African Americans

  Agee, James

  AIDS

  AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP)

  Ailes, Roger

  Alda, Alan

  Alexander, Shana

  Alexis, Kim

  Alford, George

  Alford, Mary; alcoholism of; comet watched by; death of; and death of mother; HGB’s letter to; marriage of; and mother’s remarriage; movies seen by; polio of; telephone surveys taken by

  Alka-Seltzer

  Allen, Woody

  Allyn, David

  American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR)

  American Society of Magazine Editors

  American Weekly

  Ames, Kathy

  Amory, Cleveland

  “Analyst’s Couch, The”

  Angela

  Angkor Wat

  Ann Landers

  anti-Semitism

  Any Woman Can (Rubin)

  Appleton, Myra

  Appleton, William

  Arden, Eve

  Arendt, Hannah

  Arkansas Democrat

  Arkansas Gazette

  Arvey, Jacob

  Ashley, Bobbie

  Atherton, Robert

  Atlantic

  “August Is a Wicked Month” (O’Brien)

  Austen, Jane

  Auten, Henry Franklin

  baby boom

  Bacall, Lauren

  Bad Feminist (Gay)

  Bahrenburg, Claeys

  Bailey, J. S.

  Bailey, Lee

  Bailey, Leelah

  Baker, Miss

  Baker, Russell

  Balbo, Italo

  Ball, Lucille

  Balzac, Honoré de

  Banderas, Antonio

  Bandy, Way

  Bara, Theda

  Barbara

  Barnett, Mr.

  Barr, Candy

  Barrett, William

  Barthel, Joan

  Battelle, Kenneth

  Bazaar

  Bazelon, David

  beats

  Beattie, Ann

  Beier, Elizabeth

  Belafonte, Harry

  Belding, Alice

  Belding, Don

  Bell, Jerrit

  Bell, Wayne

  Bell Jar, The (Plath)

  Belushi, John

  Benchley, Peter

  Bendel, Henri

  Ben Hur (film)

  Bennack, Frank

  Benny, Jack

  Benton, Robert

  Beresford

  Bergman, Ingmar

  Bergman, Ingrid

  Berlin, Ellin

  Berlin, Irving

  Berlin, Richard

  Bernard Geis Associates

  Bernstein, Leonard

  Best of Everything, The (film)

  Best of Everything, The (Jaffe)

  Bettelheim, Bruno

  Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (film)

  Bilheimer, Elizabeth, see Jessup, Elizabeth

  Bilheimer, Roy

  Birmingham, Stephen

  Birnbaum, Alex Mayes

  Birney, Jim

  birth control

  Black, Cathie

  Bloomberg, Michael

  Blyth, Myrna

  Bob Newhart Show, The (TV show)

  Bogart, Humphrey

  Bonaparte, Marie

  Borgen, Patrick

  Boshko, Nathalie, see Brown, Nathalie Boshko

  Bouvier, Black Jack

  Bradley, Omar

  Brady, Mrs.

  Brando, Marlon

  Breslin, Jimmy

  Brickhouse, Jamie

  Bridges, Lloyd

  Brinkley, Christie

  Broderick, Matthew

  Brothers, Joyce

  Brough, Charles Hillman

  Brown, Al

  Brown, Bruce LeGacy; death of; psychological problems of

  Brown, David; Adler’s death and; background of; Beresford apartment purchased by; and Bruce’s death; burial of; and Cleopatra; Cosmo titles written by; death of; depression of; end of Zanuck’s partnership with; father’s death and; films produced by; and financial decisions; fired from Fox; and Greatest Story Ever Told; health problems; HGB given career advice by; and HGB’s affairs; and HGB’s arrest; and HGB’s book tour; HGB’s cosmetic surgery disdained by; HGB’s Cosmo contract negotiated by; HGB’s dates with; and HGB’s fan mail; and HGB’s firing; and HGB’s first day at Cosmo; HGB’s marriage to; HGB’s meals for; high earnings of; hired at Cosmo; ideal woman of; and Jaws; library of; magazine proposed by; morgue job of; in move to New York; in plans for independent production partnership; previous marriages of; Sex and the Single Girl edited by; Sex and the Single Girl sold by; stalker of; Thalberg Award won by; and TV project for HGB; and Vagina Monologues; Valley of the Dolls rights purchased by; will of; and writing of Sex and the Single Girl

  Brown, Edward (half-brother)

  Brown, Edward F.

  Brown, Helen Gurley: abortion and; acne of; advertising jobs of; affairs of; on African Americans; AIDS ignored by; antipathy to procreation; anxiety of; apartment decorated by; archives of; arrest of; baptism of; birth control used by; birth of; book contemplated by; boys rated by; Bradley’s speech and; breast cancer of; brown hair of; and Bruce’s death; and Leigh Bryan’s death; burial of; Cadillac of; called slut; car accident of; and Carter Vanderbilt’s suicide; Catalina assignment of; and chaos at Cosmo; childhood of; and children; Citron’s relationship with; and Cleo’s visit to New York; Clifton’s relationship with; colitis of; columns of; Continental tour; cooking by; cosmetic surgery of; Cosmo bonus of; Cosmo changed by; dancing enjoyed by; dating by; David’s dates with; and David’s death; and David’s stalker; death of; Dempsey’s relationship with; depression of; Didion’s critic
ism of; dirty talk of; DJ’s relationship with; donations of; eating habits of; editorials of; editorial style of; editor’s letter of; entertaining by; Ephron’s interview of; exercise by; extroversion of; Eye edited by; fan mail received by; fashion sense of; and father’s death; FC&B job of; financial decisions made by; first day at Cosmo of; fishnet stockings worn by; Freddy’s affair with; Friedan’s criticism of; frugality of; Getty’s date with; girlfriends of; in Glamour contest; hair color of; hate mail received by; in high school; hired at Cosmo; Hollywood hostess debut of; at horse races; hypochondria of; in interview with Wells; K&E job of; Kelly hired by; legacy of; legal work of; letter to FDR from; in Life; long work hours at Cosmo of; magazine proposed by; on marriage; marriage of; Marvin’s relationship with; at MCA; measurements of; memory loss of; Mercedes purchased by; Miller’s relationship with; mother’s relationship with; and mother’s remarriage; in move to Beresford; in move to New York; movies seen by; New Year’s resolutions of; number of sexual partners of; nutritionist seen by; outbursts of anger by; Parker’s dispute with; at peak of sexual prowess; pets of; political views of; protests against; public speaking by; radio job of; replacement of; research firm’s interview of; salaries of; salons held by; Sandburg entertained by; and selling of Sex and the Single Girl; sewing by; sexual awakening of; sexual education of; in sexual harassment controversy; showers and weddings disliked by; singing by; and sister’s marriage; stepson cut out of life of; successful friends of; Sunkist work of; Susann’s first meeting with; talk show of; tell-all autobiography of; in therapy; traveling by; treatment for Broadway musical; tuna loved by; TV project sought by; twenty-fifth anniversary at Cosmo of; typing skills of; underdogs helped by; unmarried sex approved by; vagina monologue about; vagina studied by; as valedictorian; varied life of; weight gain of; at Women’s Strike for Equality; at Woodbury; at World’s Fair; yoga practiced by; Ziffren’s relationship with

  Brown, James

  Brown, Jim

  Brown, Kathy

  Brown, Nathalie Boshko

  Brown, Robert C.

  Brown, Tibby LeGacy, see LeGacy, Liberty “Tibby”

  Brown, Tina

  Brownmiller, Susan

  Brown’s Guide to the Good Life (Brown)

  Bruce, Edwina

  Bruce, Mrs.

  Bryan, William Leigh; cancer and death of

  Buchwald, Art

  Buck, Pearl S.

  Buckley, William F.

  Bulldog Beer

  Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (film)

  Burton, Eve

  Burton, Richard

  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (film)

  But Enough About Me (Reynolds)

  Byrnes, Sean

  Cahall, Lois

  Cahall, Maxine

  California Scholarship Foundation

  Calloway, Cab

  Camino Real (Williams)

  Campbell, Mary

  Camus, Albert

  Canadian Bacon (film)

  Candela, Rosario

  Candy, John

  Cantor, Eddie

  Capote, Truman

  Carangi, Gia

  Carbine, Pat

  Carnegie, Dale

  Carter, John Mack

  Casanova, Giacomo

  Cass, Bob

  Catalina

  Catch-22 (Heller)

  Cavett, Dick

  Chamberlain, Wilt

  Chandler, Dorothy

  Chappelle, Dave

  Chayefsky, Paddy

  Chicago World’s Fair

  Citizens Food Committee

  Citron, Herman

  civil rights movement

  Civil War, U.S.

  Clark, Wayne

  Clayton, Carolyn

  Cleopatra (film)

  Clifton, Chester “Ted”, Jr.

  Clinton, Bill

  Coburn, James

  Cohn, Nik

  Cohn, Sam

  Colen, Helen

  Collier’s

  Collins, Pat

  color television

  Columbia, David Patrick

  Comet Kohoutek

  Comstock Laws

  Condé Nast

  Cooke, Charles

  Cooney, Joan Ganz

  Cooper, Anderson

  Cooper, Gary

  Cooper, Wyatt

  cosmetic surgery

  Cosmo Girl

  Cosmopolitan: advertising in; AIDS protest against; anthologies from; chaos at; cover girls of; cover lines of; David hired at; excerpt from Jaws in; first issue of; foreign editions of; Fuller’s redesign of; HGB’s first day at; HGB’s last issue of; HGB’s makeover of; home décor features of; lack of sex focus of; made-up articles in; male centerfold in; media mockery of; and mothers; “penis” first used in; poor sales of; racial diversity and; readers’ sex life stories in; rising circulation of; self-improvement tips in; serialization in

  Cosmo Report, The (Wolfe)

  Crawford, Cindy

  Crawford, Joan

  Crescendo

  Cronkite, Walter

  Crosby, Bing

  Crow, Elizabeth

  Cullen-Harrison Act

  Cunningham, Miss

  Curtin, Jane

  Curtis, Tony

  Dahl, Roald

  Daily News

  Daisy (horse)

  Dalí, Salvador

  Dallas, Tex.

  Darer, Norman

  David, Saul

  Davidson, John

  Davies, Ardath

  Davies, Marion

  Davis, Bette

  Davis, Charlotte

  Day, Doris

  D-Day

  Dear Abby

  Dear Pussycat (Brown)

  Deems, Richard “Dick”

  Deliverance (film)

  Dell Magazines

  DeMille, Cecil B.

  Demme, Jonathan

  Dempsey, Jack

  Depew, Chauncey

  DeVore, Irven

  Dickinson, Janice

  Didion, Eduene

  Didion, Joan

  Disney, Walt

  Dole, Elizabeth

  Don Giovanni (opera)

  Don Juan (DJ)

  Don Juan, or the Libertine Destroyed (pantomime)

  Doors

  Douglas, Mike

  Douglas, William O.

  Downey, Jim

  Dreiser, Theodore

  Dreyfuss, Richard

  Drogin-Feldman, Judi

  Duke, Patty

  du Maurier, Daphne

  Duncan (collie)

  Dunham, Lena

  Dunlap, J. E., Jr.

  Dunne, John Gregory

  Dupuy, Frank, Jr.

  Dust Bowl

  Dylan, Bob

  Dystel, Oscar

  Eastwood, Clint

  Economist

  Edmiston, Susan

  Edsel

  Eisenhower, Dwight D.

  Eisenstadt v. Baird

  El Codobés

  elections, U.S., 1960

  Ellis, Albert

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo

  Engstead, John

  Engstron, Betty

  Ensler, Eve

  Ephebian Society

  Ephron, Nora; HGB interviewed by

  Equal Rights Amendment

  Erikson, Erik

  Erlichman, Marty

  Esalen

  Esquire

  estrogen

  Evans, Joni

  Evans, Robert

  Every Night, Josephine (Susann)

  Eye

  Factor, Max

  Fallaci, Oriana

  Farrow, Mia

  Fashion Week

  Fawcett Publications

  Fear of Flying (Jong)

  Felker, Clay

  Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan)

  feminism

  Ferber, Edna

  Ferrara, James

  Ferrara, Rena

  Ferrer, Mel

  Fink, David H.

  Finkbine, Sherry

  Flatley, Guy
/>   Flynn, Errol

  Fonda, Henry

  Fonda, Jane

  Foote, Cone & Belding (FC&B)

  Forbes, Malcolm

  Forbes

  Ford, Eileen

  Ford Motor Company

  Forst, Don

  Fortune

  Fox; David fired from

  Fox, Margalit

  Francis, Dick

  Fraser, Forrest “Woody”

  Frazier, Ian “Sandy”

  Freddy (pilot)

  Freedoms Foundation

  Freimanis, Anna

  Freud, Sigmund

  Freundlich, Lillian

  Friday, Nancy

  Friedan, Betty

  Friedan, Carl

  Friedkin, William

  Fritz the Cat (film)

  From the Terrace (O’Hara)

  Fuller, Bonnie

  Gable, Clark

  Gabor, Zsa Zsa

  Ganz, Cheryl R.

  Garbo, Greta

  Gardner, Ava

  Gay, Roxane

  gay men

  Geis, Bernard “Berney”

  General Motors

  Geng, Veronica

  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

  Germany

  Getty, Jean Ronald

  Giant (film)

  GI Bill of Rights

  Gilman, Charlotte Perkins

  Gilmore, Bill

  Girls (TV show)

  Girls Like Us (Weller)

  Girl Talk (TV show)

  “Give Me the Splendid, Silent Sun” (Whitman)

  Glamour

  Glenn, John

  Godard, Jean-Luc

  Goddard, Paulette

  Godwin, Gail

  Goldberg, Molly

  Goldberger, Paul

  Golden, Callie

  Golden, Kit

  Good Housekeeping

  Good Humor

  Good Morning America (TV show)

  gophers

  Gordimer, Nadine

  Gornick, Vivian

  Gottlieb, Carl

  Gottlieb, Robert

  Gould, Beatrice

  Gould, Robert E.

  Grable, Betty

  Gray, Francine du Plessix

  Great Depression

  Greatest Story Ever Told, The (film)

  Green, George

  Greenburg, Dan

  Greene, Gael

  Green Forest, Ark.

  Gregory (cat)

  Griffin, Merv

  Griswold v. Connecticut

  Gross, Mr.

  Groucho and Me (Marx)

  Grubman, Lizzie

  Grunwald, Henry

  Grunwald, Louise

  Gurdin, Michael M.

  Gurley, Bob

  Gurley, Cedella Lipps

  Gurley, Cleo Sisco Bryan; car purchased by; childhood of; children spoiled by; daughter’s pregnancy feared by; death of; health problems of; HGB’s letter to; HGB’s relationship with; horse racing enjoyed by; and husband’s death; letters of; marriage of; melancholy worldview of; money fears of; moving in with Browns; New York visited by; remarriage of; Sears job of; and second husband’s cancer; and second husband’s death; sewing of; and Sex and the Single Girl, 2246; teaching career of; at World’s Fair

 

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