Authors Interviewing Their Characters: Renee Rosen

Millions of single girls would become her disciples. She inspired the creation of Carrie Bradshaw, Hannah Horvath, and Peggy Olson. Her name was Helen Gurley Brown.

Told through the eyes of Helen Gurley Brown’s fictional assistant, Renee Rosen’s PARK AVENUE SUMMER (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; April 30, 2019) takes readers through the tumultuous beginning of Helen’s thirty-two-year reign as Cosmopolitan’s editor-in-chief. 

What follows is an interview with Helen, as imagined by Renee.

Interview with the iconic Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine, Helen Gurley Brown featured in Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen

RR: Welcome Helen Gurley Brown, thanks for joining us.

HGB: Why hello there, Pussycat. Thank you for having me here.

RR: In 1962 you wrote Sex and the Single Girl which sold 2 million copies within the first weeks. It literally sent shockwaves through the nation. Can you tell us how you came to write that book and your take on the reaction to it?

HGB: Ironically, I was actually married when I wrote that book. I was 37 and my husband, David, said I’d been the most fascinating single woman he’d ever dated. And mind you, David was a big-time Hollywood producer who’d dated all kinds of starlets. Well, I got to thinking about it and decided to take his advice. The result was Sex and the Single Girl.

I just felt it was so ridiculous for women to ‘save themselves’ for marriage. I not only told single women that it was okay to go out and have sex, but I told them how to find men and then what to do with them once they got them. I also threw in some fun beauty tips, entertaining tips, fashion suggestions and advice about single girl finances.

I don’t think any of us were prepared for the brouhaha it caused after it was published. Do you know that when I was on “Joey Bishop Show”, he couldn’t even say the title on the air? None of the TV talk show hosts could. They couldn’t say it on the radio, either.

RR: How did someone with no editing or magazine experience become the Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine?

HGB: I was getting so much fan mail after the book came out and you know, I wrote back to each and every person, even if it meant I had to stay up half the night doing it. That’s when my David said, “You ought to have your own magazine”. We knew Hearst was thinking of folding Cosmopolitan. It had been around since the 1800s and had gone from being a literary magazine to magazine for suburban housewives after WWII.  David convinced them to give me a shot at being the editor-in-chief.

RR: Can you describe those first few weeks when you started at Cosmo?

HGB: Oh, I was terrified. So many members of my staff, including my managing editor, quit right on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote that book. I admit I had no idea what I was doing, and they all knew it. But I showed them, didn’t I?

In the very beginning, those men running Hearst were all so uptight about sex and they were afraid that I was going to turn their magazine into a version of my book. And you know what? They were right. That’s exactly what I did.

Our first issue came out in July 1965 and sold over 250,000 more copies than the previous issue. We were an instant hit. We had a great cover—the first to display that lovely model’s bosom front and center, and lots of nifty articles like “The Pill that Promises to Make Women More Responsive.” And that piece on Aly Kahn, the “World’s Greatest Lover”.

RR: You really changed the industry. How did you feel when all the other women’s magazines began copying your style?

HGB: Oh Pussycat, I was just thrilled to see that the industry was finally talking to women about things they actually cared about. No one wanted another casserole recipe. What they wanted was advice on how to win over the man of their dreams. And how to be good in bed. How to make the very most of what they had.

RR: You discovered and helped a lot of women in their careers back in the 60s. Can you talk about that a bit?

HGB: Well, let’s see… Liz Smith was already working at Cosmo when I arrived. I remember she thought I was going to fire her, but I knew we just had to find the right spot for her. Judith Krantz was darling and a good little writer, too.  Now Nora Ephron was a firecracker, right from the start. When she wrote that satire about Women’s Wear Daily, they turned around and sued us. And of course, they got their revenge when they published my internal Bosom Memo, which I won’t say too much about since you covered that in Park Avenue Summer.

RR: How are you different from the iconic Vogue editor, Anna Wintour?

HGB: Oh, Anna was still in diapers when I took over Cosmo and remember, I didn’t have a predecessor or mentor like Anna did. She took over for Diana Vreeland. I was on my own and had to make it up as I went along. One of the biggest differences between us though is that I believe you can catch more flies with honey. That’s all I’ll say about that.

RR: As the original Cosmo Girl what advice do you have for single girls today?

HGB: Go out there and make your lives as full and interesting as you can. Make yourself happy now, the men will follow.

RR: You’ve been quoted a lot.  What are some of your personal favorites?

HGB: Probably my very favorite quote is: “Nearly every glamorous, wealthy, successful career woman you might envy now started as some kind of shlep.” That was me. I started out as a mouseburger.

RR: How did you convinced Burt Reynolds to bare all for his nude Cosmo centerfold?

HGB: One word: Alcohol.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Renée Rosen is the author of Windy City Blues, White Collar Girl, What the Lady Wants, and Dollface, as well as the young adult novel Every Crooked Pot.

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/ReneeRosen1

Find out more about her on her website http://reneerosen.com/

PARK SUMMER AVENUE

“‘Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada,’ which might as well be saying ‘put me in your cart immediately.’” —PopSugar

It’s 1965 and Cosmopolitan magazine’s brazen new editor-in-chief—Helen Gurley Brown—shocks America and saves a dying publication by daring to talk to women about all things off-limits…

New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands the job of a lifetime working for the first female editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.

Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed. While pressure mounts at the magazine and Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she quickly learns that in Helen Gurley Brown’s world, a woman can demand to have it all.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing