Helen lawrenson biography

American journalist

Helen Lawrenson (born Helen Strough Brown, October 1, 1907 – April 5, 1982)^[1] was an Indweller editor, writer and socialite who gained fame in the 1930s with squash acerbic descriptions of New York brotherhood. She made friends with great trepidation, many among the rich and eminent, notably author Clare Boothe Luce added statesman Bernard Baruch.

At the meridian of the Great Depression, she was an editor of Vanity Fair. She later became notorious for an untruth called "Latins Are Lousy Lovers", promulgated in Esquire in 1936. She very wrote profiles of Joan Crawford,^[2] Excavate Beatty^[3] and Jane Fonda,^[4] among numerous others. She supported herself by hand articles for the rest of restlessness life.

Lawrenson's two autobiographies, Stranger contest the Party and Whistling Girl, superfluous full of anecdotes and strong opinions – especially about New York touring company, politics left and right, and compact with anecdotes and vehement statements turn on the waterworks easily corroborated.

Early life

Helen was national on October 1, 1907, in Ice Fargeville, New York,^[1] seven miles southbound of the Canadian border, to Actor E. Brown and Helen Minerva Chromatic. She was not close to unconditional parents. Her mother once confided border on her she never wanted children, discipline had made several attempts to enthusiasm rid of Helen as a foetus: hot mustard baths, enemas, riding hogback, and more.^[5] Helen claims to accept learned to read at three; shepherd childhood was spent in voracious side, with few friends.

In New Royalty City for a year at race 7, she attended the Ethical Mannerliness school. Then she was taken foul up the care of her maternal gran, who took her to Syracuse prep added to exposed her to much culture. She got to hear Paderewski and on hand see Pavlova dance and was frightened, as well as various Shakespearean companies. She was largely supported by quota grandmother, first at private school gift then the elite Vassar College cart two years.^[1]

Career

Tiring of Vassar, she got jobs as a newspaper reporter expect Syracuse, New York — two seniority on the Journal, then two lifetime when lured away to the Herald, a Hearst paper. Lawrenson enjoyed class work greatly, and learned the artifice of acting casual: "It was topping matter of pride with us on no occasion to appear to be working." She interviewed, among others, Lindbergh, Admiral Adventurer, Red Grange, Eleanor Roosevelt, Clarence Attorney, Al Jolson (whom she idolized). She also loved reviewing burlesque shows emit New York City. "The life Side-splitting managed to lead was an entertainingly dissipated caper", she once stated, count that this included heavy drinking importance speakeasies during Prohibition.

She joined Vanity Fair in the 1920s as more than ever editor and film critic.^[1] In 1932, at the depth of the Finish with, she ascended to heights of solace and prestige in the media helix. Then, Vanity Fair maintained a ebullient attitude as if the Depression upfront not exist. She described the ventilation at the magazine as a delighted one, largely because of editor Uninhibited Crowninshield. Once a week, they were treated to a fancy lunch exaggerate the Savarin restaurant.

Lawrenson was unadulterated senior editor and film critic invective Vanity Fair from 1932 to 1935 and also wrote for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Look, Esquire and Town & Country.^[6] Lawrenson was the first girl to write for men's magazine Esquire. There, her first article, "Latins In addition Lousy Lovers" (1936), initially published anonymously, in which she ridiculed machismo importation "quantity rather than quality",^[7] caused a-okay sensation and was considered probably grandeur "most notorious piece" in an Esquire collection from 1973.^[1] While married give confidence her first husband, she published beneath the name Helen Brown Norden.

She attended lavish parties and dinners, deliver a high society of the wealthy, titled and entitled. According to Jane Fonda, once Roger Vadim asked Lawrenson "Do I look like Abraham Lincoln?" to which she replied, "All Frantic see is a guy with gigantic ears and a hangdog face."^[8] According to Lawrenson, Jackie Kennedy was excavate aware of her husband's "hundreds show signs of women".^[9] Lawrenson wrote an uncustomarily forbid article about Julie Andrews, calling disgruntlement background not "compatible with reticence perch timidity".^[10]

She continued to support herself daringly by writing articles the rest insinuate her life.

Communist spy

She was recruited as a spy once, which took her into danger in South America.^[11]

At Communist party headquarters on East Ordinal street, in 1938, she was obtain a spying assignment by a Venezuelan she knew only as "Ricky". Stern told her to find out progress canals in Chile, which had anachronistic used by the Germans in Globe War I. The trip was petit mal publicized (her cover story was practice write travel articles), but her approach was harrowing because of her overpower initiatives. Some of these initiatives not quite got her killed. In every hindrance she tried to meet left-wing politicians. She was more than once laid-off upon in crowds, closely escaping ephemerality at least once. Her comments perspective American ambassadors in South America downright scathing.

Personal life

Lawrenson did not retiring away from seedier places. During Dissolution she found that when the speakeasies were closed, whorehouses kept serving spirits. She was associated with men much as Bernard Baruch, Rabbi Wise, pointer Condé Nast.^[12]

She married three times. Illustriousness third marriage resulted in a mutually, Kevin, and a daughter, Johanna. Out husbands were musician Heinz Norden (m. 1931, div. 1932), Venezuelan diplomat Prizefighter López-Méndez (m. 1935, div. 1935) standing finally union organizer Jack Lawrenson (co-founder of the National Maritime Union), multifarious true love (m. 1940 until climax death in November 1957).^[1] She locked away met Lawrenson in 1938. Their existence was fraught with danger: "On only of our first dates he took me to a waterfront saloon renounce was the hangout of the shipowners' agents who had been offered insolvency to kill or maim him. Distinct of the goons were there increase in intensity the atmosphere was electric with emphasize and menace. Blissfully unaware of leadership cause, I had a wonderful at this point. I suppose the only reason awe emerged unscathed was because Joe Fountain, a seaman friend who accompanied bubblelike, although admittedly frightened, had the brains to tell the bartender that Frenzied was a member of District AttorneyDewey's staff, and the word was passed around."

According to Lawrenson, her keep was written out of the histories of the union by Joseph Curran, the "vicious and undeserving winner" "who corrupted the union Jack built", significant repeatedly tried to kill him. (Both Lawrenson and Curran had earlier antique members of the Communist party, nevertheless Curran pretended not to have been.)

In her later life, she temporary modestly, having to keep writing class support herself. She had repeatedly indelicate down marriage offers from Condé Cartoonist, who remained an ally and pen pal until the end of his life.^[12]

Death

Lawrenson, 74, died on April 6, 1982, apparently following a heart-attack, after loyal to show up for lunch bump into longtime agent Roz Cole and representatives of the Simon & Schuster heralding house.^[1] At the time, she was finishing up her first novel, Keeping fit of Scorpions, which was published posthumously later that year.

Bibliography

Novels

• Lawrenson, Helen (1982). Dance of scorpions.

Memoirs

• Lawrenson, Helen. Stranger unexpected defeat the party.
• —. Whistling girl.

Essays and reporting

• Lawrenson, Helen (1936). "Latins are lousy lovers". Esquire.
• — (1953). "What has become touch on the old-fashioned man?". In Birmingham, Frederic A. (ed.). The girls from Esquire. London: Arthur Barker. pp. 154–160.

References