Helen Gurley Brown

At 90 years old, Helen Gurley Brown has this physical status:

Helen Gurley Brown (February 18, 1922–2012; born Helen Marie Gurley) was an American author, editor, and businesswoman.

She was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years.

Early life

Helen Marie Gurley was born in Green Forest, Arkansas, on February 18, 1922, and the younger brother of Cleo Fred (née Sisco; 1893-1980) and Ira Marvin Gurley. At one time, her father was named Commissioner of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The family migrated to Little Rock, Arkansas, after being elected to the Arkansas state legislature. On June 18, 1932, he died in an elevator crash.

Gurley, her older sister Mary Eloine (later Mrs. Alford, 1917-1997), and their mother moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1937. Mary had polio only a few months after moving. Brown attended John H. Francis Polytechnic High School while living in California.

The family migrated to Warm Springs, Georgia, after Gurley's graduation. She attended Texas State College for Women for one semester and then moved to California to attend Woodbury Business College, where she graduated in 1941. Cleo and Mary were moved to Osage, Arkansas, in 1947, while Helen remained in Los Angeles.

Gurley spent time with Foote, Cone & Belding's advertising company as a secretary after working at the William Morris Agency, Music Corporation of America, and Jaffe talent companies. Her boss recognized her writing abilities and promoted her to the copywriting department, where she quickly rose to become one of the country's highest-paid ad copywriters in the early 1960s. She married David Brown in 1959, who would go on to become a well-known film director.

Personal life and death

Helen Gurley Brown died on August 13, 2012, at the McKeen Pavilion in New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, following a brief hospitalization. She was 90.

Hearst Publications' tweet announcing the death of Helen "Helen was one of the world's most well-known magazine editors and book writers, as well as a true pioneer for women in journalism and beyond." Her death was not revealed because of her cause.

"Gurley Brown will be remembered for her influence on the industry, her contributions to the art movement, and sly quips like her famous line, "Good girls go to heaven," Entertainment Weekly reported. Bad girls go everywhere.' "Today New York City lost a pioneer who not only changed the media industry but also the country's culture," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a tweet. She served as a role model for the millions of people whose private thoughts, questions, and aspirations she displayed so beautifully in print."

David Brown, Brown's only husband, preceded her in death in 2010 and died on February 1, 2010, at the age of 93. Brown and her husband were buried in adjacent graves at Sisco Cemetery, Brown's maternal family cemetery in Osage, Carroll County, Arkansas, in late November 2012.

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Career

Brown's book Sex and the Single Girl was published in 28 countries in 1962, and it remained on the bestseller charts for more than a year. Natalie Wood's book was inspired by the book's 1964 film of the same name. Brown founded Cosmopolitan, then a literary magazine known for high-toned content, and redesigned it as a magazine for the modern single career woman. Brown, a vocal promoter of women's sexual rights in the 1960s, was adamant advocate for role models in her magazine. "Love, sex, and money," she said, and that women could have it all. glamorous, fashion-focused women were often described as "Cosmo Girls" as a result of her activism. Her career was instrumental in the sexual revolution, according to some.

Brown was fired from her position as the Cosmopolitan's US editor in 1997 and replaced by Bonnie Fuller. Cosmopolitan ranked sixth at the newsstand and ranked first in bookstores on college campuses for the 16th year in a row. However, she stayed on at Hearst Publishing and became the international editor for all 59 international editions of Cosmo until she died on August 13, 2012.

Brown was named as the 13th-most influential American over the age of 80 by Slate magazine in September 2008.

Gurley took over as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine in 1965 and was on the job until 1997. Brown redesigned the magazine by moving it from a men's magazine to one of the most widely distributed women's magazines, which are now available in more than 100 countries. Brown had no editing expertise when she first started at the magazine.

In this latest Cosmopolitan version, she was supposed to be honest when writing about sex. Brown was given the same formula as today's Cosmopolitan, Sex and the Single Girl. Women were given the opportunity to know that women have sexual aspirations. Brown's Cosmo Girl was described as "self-made, sexual, and supremely optimistic by the New York Times. "She looked stunning, wore fab clothes, and had an unashamedly good time when those clothes were off." Helen Gurley Brown was promoted to editor of the international Cosmopolitan journals after being gently let go in 1996 at the age of 74 due to her growing disconnection from young women.

Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, disliked what Brown had done in her book and in the magazine. Brown's behavior, according to Friedan, was "anti-feminist" and a "immature teenage fantasy." Feminist viewpoints of the magazine were re-evaluated in the 1990s, but Randall Rothenberg, a New York Times media reporter, wrote, "In retrospect, the magazine played a vital part in supporting young women in redefining their positions in society." Helen "has been dubbed a bad girl, a Prada pioneer, and a stiltto genius," Audie Cornish said. Brown referred to herself as a feminist, but several others challenged this assertion.

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Awards

• 1985 Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications
• 1995: Henry Johnson Fisher Award from the Magazine Publishers of America
• 1996: American Society of Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame Award
• 1998 Editor of the Year by Advertising Age magazine
• 2013 (posthumously): Woman of Achievement Award from the Women's Project Theater