The Barbizon by Paulina Bren (ebook reader browser TXT) 📕

Her love of shoes: Taylor, “At Mademoiselle.”

Her golden rule was: “Betsy Talbot Blackwell. Editor-in-Chief of Mademoiselle,” box 7 correspondence, 1965, BTBC.

What BTB had effectively done: The Writers’ Institute: A Monthly Special Report for Writers, Literary Agents, Publicists, Artists, Cartoonists and Photographers: “Mademoiselle: A Publication Portrait” (no date)—online, BTBC.

The College Board editor, just three years out of Vassar: “Memo from the Editor,” BTBC.

Later, the Los Angeles Times: “Betsy Blackwell, Former Magazine Editor, Dies,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1985.

Advertisers went crazy for the College Issue idea: “Memo from the Editor,” BTBC.

ABC news reporter Lynn Sherr: Julia Keller, “To a Generation, Mademoiselle Was Stuff of Literary Dreams,” Chicago Tribune, October 5, 2001.

The February 1954 Mademoiselle issue: Meg Wolitzer, “My Mademoiselle Summer,” New York Times, July 19, 2013.

The publishers originally refused: Taylor, “At Mademoiselle.”

Mademoiselle became a prolific publisher: Writers’ Institute, “Mademoiselle: A Publication Portrait,” BTBC.

she did not have the budget: “A Short History of Mademoiselle,” 1965, BTBC.

A flyer for College Board membership announced: From the personal archive of Phyllis Lee Levin, generously shared with the author.

Just out of college: Phyllis Lee Levin, The Wheels of Fashion (New York: Doubleday, 1965), xvi.

BTB had not been exaggerating: BTB, “The Dollars and Cents of Fashion Magazines,” speech to the Chicago Fashion Group, September 26, 1951, BTBC.

Eight hundred and fifty young women: BTB, “Dollars and Cents.”

The very next day the most anticipated of telegrams: Telegram to Nanette Emery, May 8, 1945. All of the following references to Nanette Emery, unless otherwise noted, are from her diary and memorabilia, courtesy of the Nanette Emery Mason Private Collection.

Lanie Diamond, a 1947 GE winner: Lanie Bernhard, telephone interview with the author, April 12, 2016.

Nanette would miss out on seeing: Gale Harris, “Barbizon Hotel for Women,” Landmarks Preservation Commission, Designation List 454 LP-2495, April 17, 2012, 7, http://npclibrary.org/db/bb_files/2012-BarbizonHotelforWomen.pdf.

When Cloris Leachman arrived: Michael Callahan, “Sorority on E. 63rd St.,” Vanity Fair, April 2010, 169.

Her 1945 collection: “McCardell ‘Newies,’ ” courtesy of the Nanette Emery Mason Private Collection.

At first, American women: Sara M. Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America (New York: Free Press, 1997), 243.

The writer Diane Johnson, author of a string: Diane Johnson, “Nostalgia,” Vogue, September 2003, 208.

The sum of $150: Marybeth Little, College Board editor, memo to BTB, November 16, 1953, box 3 correspondence, 1946–1955, BTBC.

It was she who pulled aside: Harmon and Elsie Tupper, “The Barbizon—For Women Only,” Collier’s, December 25, 1948, 21.

When men would drive by the hotel: Nan Robertson, “Where the Boys Are Not,” Saturday Evening Post, October 19, 1963, 29.

One Ohio resident explained: Tupper, “The Barbizon,” 21.

Miss Peck, who would end up being: Taylor, “At Mademoiselle.”

After dinner, Nanette and her new friends: Jan Whitaker, “When Ladies Lunched: Schrafft’s,” Restaurant-ing Through History, August 27, 2008, https://restaurantingthroughhistory.com/2008/08/27/when-ladies-lunched-schraffts/.

When General Ike Eisenhower: “Memo from the Guest Editor,” Mademoiselle, College Issue, August 1945, 10–11.

Nanette’s workload was not demanding: Mademoiselle College Board to Nanette Emery, April 10, 1945, courtesy of the Nanette Emery Mason Private Collection.

Consulting with an expert: Nanette Emery and Bernice Peck, “Young Fat,” Mademoiselle, August 1945, 213.

Manhattan of the 1940s: John Cheever, “Preface,” in The Stories of John Cheever (New York: Vintage, 2000).

Phyllis Lee Schwalbe, when she arrived: Levin, Wheels of Fashion, xvii.

George’s three-story brownstone: Phyllis Lee Levin, interview with the author, New York City, August 17, 2016.

George Davis rented rooms: Rachel Shteir, “Everybody Slept Here,” New York Times, November 10, 1996.

Abels was supposedly an unattractive woman: Edie Raymond Locke, interview with the author, Thousand Oaks, CA, October 25–26, 2018.

George was unwilling to sacrifice form: Elizabeth Moulton, “Remembering George Davis,” VQR Online: A National Journal of Literature & Discussion 55, no. 2 (Spring 1979).

A review by Richard Wright: Richard Wright review of Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in the New Republic, August 5, 1940, 195.

She was a “plump woman with sad brown eyes”: Mary Cantwell, “Manhattan, When I Was Young,” in Manhattan Memoir (New York: Penguin, 2000), 159.

Just a year after Rita: George Davis to BTB, November 13, 1948, box 5 correspondence, 1942–1953, BTBC.

And then there were the tears: Davis to BTB, November 13, 1948.

He wrote: “Understand, I am sure”: George Davis to BTB, January 14, 1949, box 5 correspondence, 1942–1953, BTBC.

But as soon as he had given: George Davis to BTB, January 14, 1949.

BTB’s husband, James Madison Blackwell: Locke, interview.

One Columbia University professor theorized: Evans, Born for Liberty, 244.

In Counterattack: The Newsletter of Facts on Communism: Counterattack, Letter No. 118, August 26, 1949, box 3 correspondence, 1949, BTBC.

Another Red-seeing newspaper: “ ‘Mademoiselle’ Forum Found Red,” The Tablet, September 1949, box 3 correspondence, 1949, BTBC.

Truman Capote, in his unfinished novel Answered Prayers: Moulton, “Remembering George Davis.”

In 1951, Davis suddenly married: Moulton, “Remembering George Davis.”

Again he could not hold back: George Davis to BTB, July 14, 1953, box 5 correspondence, 1942–1953, BTBC.

She contacted Street & Smith’s legal team: Street & Smith to BTB, July 30, 1953, box 5 correspondence, 1942–1957, BTBC.

She was no stranger: “A Short History of Mademoiselle,” 1965, BTBC.

What bothered her most: BTB to Gerald Smith of Smith & Street, March 17, 1952, box 3 correspondence, 1946–1955, BTBC.

CHAPTER FOUR

Meche Azcarate from Mexico: Laura Brown, “Barbizon Hotel,” New York Sunday News, March 5, 1950.

Phyllis Kirk, lead actress: Buddy Basch, “Courage Brings Actress Success in New Field,” Tarrytown Daily News (New York), January 25, 1978.

Shirley Jones, later to star: Joyce Haber, “Shirley Jones Find Success, As Usual, with the Partridges,” Los Angeles Times, November 29, 1970.

Judy Garland insisted her daughter, Liza Minnelli: Basch, “Courage Brings Actress Success.”

Even J. D. Salinger: Philip Marchand, “Open Book: Salinger, by David Shields and Shane Salerno,” National Post, September 6, 2013.

Mae Sibley was used to being called: Harmon and Elsie Tupper, “The Barbizon—For Women Only,” Collier’s, December 25, 1948, 82.

She wanted one thing: Nyna Giles and Eve Claxton, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter: From Grace Kelly’s Wedding to a Women’s Shelter—Searching for the Truth About My Mother (New York: St. Martin’s, 2018), 9–12.

In 1945, Lorraine Davies: Lorraine Davies to family, letters from the personal archives of Lorraine Davies Knopf, generously shared with the author.

A former