Helen Gurley Brown, iconic Cosmo editor, dead at 90

(CBS/AP) Helen Gurley Brown, the editor who made Cosmopolitan magazine into a single girl's handbook of sex and glamour, died Monday after a brief hospitalization in New York, according to the Hearst Corporation. She was 90.

Pictures: Helen Gurley Brown: 1922-2012

Brown died Monday morning at the McKeen Pavilion at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.

"It would be hard to overstate the importance to Hearst of her success with Cosmopolitan, or the value of the friendship many of us enjoyed with her. Helen was one of the world's most recognized magazine editors and book authors, and a true pioneer for women in journalism--and beyond," the Hearst statement read.

"Sex and the Single Girl," her grab-bag book of advice, opinion, and anecdote on why being single shouldn't mean being sexless, made a celebrity of the 40-year-old advertising copywriter in 1962.

Three years later, she was hired by Hearst Magazines to turn around the languishing Cosmopolitan and it became her bully pulpit for the next 32 years.

She said at the outset that her aim was to tell a reader "how to get everything out of life - the money, recognition, success, men, prestige, authority, dignity - whatever she is looking at through the glass her nose is pressed against."

Along the way she added to the language such terms as "Cosmo girl" - hip, sexy, vivacious and smart - and "mouseburger," which she coined first in describing herself as a plain and ordinary woman who must work relentlessly to make herself desirable and successful.

She put big-haired, deep-cleavaged beauties photographed by Francesco Scavullo on the magazine's cover, behind teaser titles like "Nothing Fails Like Sex-cess - Facts About Our Real Lovemaking Needs."

Male centerfolds arrived during the 1970s - actor Burt Reynolds' (modestly) nude pose in 1972 created a sensation - but departed by the `90s.

Brown and Cosmo were anathema to militant feminists, who staged a sit-in at her office.

An early critic, Betty Friedan, dismissed the magazine as "immature teenage-level sexual fantasy" but later came around and said Brown, "in her editorship, has been a rather spirited and gutsy example in the revolution of women."

"Bad Girls Go Everywhere," the 2009 biography of Brown by Jennifer Scanlon, a women's studies professor, argued that her message of empowerment made Brown a feminist even if the movement didn't recognize her as such.

"Helen Gurley Brown was an icon. Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry," said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corp. in a statement. "She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential 'Cosmo girl.' She will be greatly missed."

18 Photos

Helen Gurley Brown : 1922-2012

[lewtx]

Well it's about time....The Witch is dead!!!! The Witch is Dead!!!!
What a total waste of humanity...she was always so full of herself...

[credibility2]

...by today's standards and what she advocated was tame...females today are much more promiscuous...

[janjan179]

Y'all.. she was 85 when this picture was taken...cut her some slack!
Dang!

[Jaylah54200]

by danaseilhan August 13, 2012 9:20 PM EDT
Maybe if her husband had bothered attending to *her* every comfort once in a while, she might not have looked so awful.

______________________

Agreed. But if you read any of her books written after she got married, you know that didn't happen and why.

Helen was much younger than David, and was still struggling to get ahead. David was already a star in the world of film production, so he had the ability to open a lot of doors to Helen. When they were dating and first married, it was a lot more like a sugar-daddy/sugar-baby relationship. And Helen knew that, which is why she did everything she could to keep him happy.

I honestly think the deep love came much later in their marriage. And, by that time, this was just the way things were in their home. David didn't interfere in Helen's professional life and she played dutiful wife to him at home. She also often talked about the "secret contracts" in marriages and how disastrous it was when somebody in a marriage violated them. And that was theirs.

And that's also why I'm not going to even consider calling her a gold-digger. Yes, she wanted David for what he could give her, but she gave back by always being the "perfect little woman."

In later years, she had plenty of money for cosmetic surgery, "spa days" at a salon, and the best hairdressers money could buy. And it's not like she didn't take advantage of that. She openly wrote about her cosmetic surgery experiences, and how many hair extensions her hairdresser would put in for "red-carpet" events, etc.

But, again, I think it goes back to what I said about thinking she was more than "a bit" anorexic. We all have a self-image of ourselves that isn't usually exactly what other people see when they look at us. Helen was always very conscious, and proud, of being "tiny." So I think Helen was focusing on things like how great it was that you could see her collar bones, and didn't even realize that low necklines didn't really suit her because they made her look like a bag of bones.

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by danaseilhan August 13, 2012 9:20 PM EDT
And for the record? People don't only get divorced because they're "annoyed."

_____________

Okay, the exact quote:

"The only difference between people who get a divorce and those who don't is that the latter just don't *want* to; their aggravation with each other is just as serious; they get just as angry as the divorcers but they stick."

(The asterisks are mine. Helen overuses italics, which are not possible here. So the asterisks denote a word Helen wrote in italics.)

Again, I don't necessarily agree with that 100%. Even she said that if your husband was beating on you or in other ways actually abusive to you, you'd be better off leaving him. But I do agree with her about the fact that we have such a high divorce rate because a lot of people seem to go into a marriage with this idea that "if it doesn't work out, I can always get a divorce." She talks about only divorcing after you've given the marriage "a real college try." I think a lot of folks don't wait around that long.

[Jaylah54200]

She was an icon for her age. Sadly, her age ended almost half a century ago.

I always wondered if she wasn't anorexic. She wasn't just svelte, she was bony. As a result, her head always looked too big for her body. She even wrote, in one of her books ("Having It All") that she considered herself "slightly anorexic" but I think it was more than that.

And I always thought she'd have done better to have shaved her head and worn a wig. I don't know if it was too much coloring and blow-drying, but it always looked fried. I know she always bemoaned her thin hair, but I have always had fine, thin hair but mine doesn't look like I just stuck my finger in an electrical outlet.

Her beloved husband died two years ago, and I know she had to miss him like crazy since she'd devoted herself to his every comfort for decades and they were very much in love. If nothing else, she showed us that -- even in the glitzy world of the famous -- marriages could last forever if you were determined enough. I remember her saying once (paraphrased) that people who didn't get divorced got just as annoyed with their spouses. The difference was that they just chose NOT to resolve their anger through divorce.

I didn't always agree with her methods of "getting ahead" but reading her articles always renewed my ambition. And, quite frankly, Cosmo went to hell after she left.

[danaseilhan]

Maybe if her husband had bothered attending to *her* every comfort once in a while, she might not have looked so awful.

And how sad it is that the best you can say about her is (1) commentary on her looks and (2) how well she served men.

And for the record? People don't only get divorced because they're "annoyed."

[expatriate2]

It's true that one of the objectives of live should be to rise above the criticism of idiots.

[dannysteele]

After looking at these photos, there is something to be said for aging gracefully rather than trying to look young when one is old.

[signseeker1717]

It would also be nice if our society would stop being so obsessed with "youth and beauty" that some women (and men) feel compelled to fight the natural process. Perhaps that's because in America aging is often seen as the equivalent of contrating leprosy. Some societies VENERATE their elders for their wisdom and experience; ours seems to just want them to go away so we don't have to look at them.

Aging "gracefully" is simply aging. Period.

[sobobx]

Yes, yes, we know she was 90, but obviously the photo editor or some other male editor must still have an ax to grind with women libbers if that's their choice of photos.

[tiktin]

She was a great lady. She taught my generation of young men about girls, things we did not know in those days. Of course her frankness was made possible by the sixties, but even so, she was honest, courageous, a great writer, and funny.

[parisdakar]

Looks like she passed a long time ago. Yikes.

[parisdakar]

Quick! Put a stake through her heart to make sure.