Show I tElsa T sa Maxwells Maxwell's Daily Particles of ot Patter Before I 1 became a fledgling member of the press I stood In unholy awe of editors But f it was th the theS e women editors who fascinated 5 and Intrigued S me most Ages Age sago ago women were dragged 5 a around r 0 un d by their h hair air They considered consid consid- S t. t ered the th themselves them them- e m- m selves lucky if occasionally n naIl a 11 y 1 they were given givS t en a skin of S 1 water to car- car Maxwell laxwell ry instead S of being conked on the cranium with a aJ J brontosaurus bone Today they edit edit the news r fr Not so long ago women were i n not t even supposed to act Shakespeare's heroines were played by smooth cheeked young men with soprano voices voices But But Eve pulled off a corking histrioniC histrionic onic job under an apple tree r and rand Lots Lot's wife did all right for herself until she missed her herI I cue But women today have taken their places on the mastheads of fame The first on my list is Edna Chase of Vogue the matriarch matriarch matriarch ma ma- of the magazines The war ar has slowly but ut surely burned Ednas Edna's bridge of Vogue behind her her first the Berlin Vogue then the Paris Pans Vogue leaving leav ing log only the British and American Ameri Amen can sisters to her administering administer administer- lug ing wings She rebuilt t the these h e s e bridges after the last war and the she will wiil ill do it again I You'd expect Edna to be one I of those exotics of a fashion- fashion magazine cover undulating cover undulating in la wedge soled shoes and a turban more nore extreme than that of the maharajah in a Mogul minia- minia ture Actually Edna is a seni sensible sen- sen i Eible sible straight-forward straight honest simply-dressed simply practical imperious imperious im- im hn- hn woman devoid of nonsense a woman with the I power of a caterpillar tractor a woman who can juggle 10 hard-boiled hard advertising men meni i in the palm of her left hand We were both war refugees on the Manhattan in September I 1939 hanging over the radio ra ra- ra- ra dio Oli listening to the gloomy reports re re- re- re ports orts of of the German invasion of Poland Edna sEdna exclaimed furiously Those ghastly Germans murdering innocent people and destroying our world no wonder they dress so badly badly and and know nothing about hats If Genevieve and Dorothy Thompson are goddesses goddesses goddesses god god- desses of political prophecy Edna Chase is the Cassandra of cloak and suits a Delphic oracle for Seventh avenue Margaret Case the modern modem bachelor girl assistant editor to Edna is like a Gertrude Stein book written book written by Louisa M. M Alcott a a. fantastic combination combination combination tion of Alice B. B and Jo Join Join Join in Little Women She has a keen sensitive modernistic side and yet she is sufficiently old- old fashioned to 10 place affection ahead of affectation and friendship before fashion The woman who is the complete complete com corn reverse spiritually reverse spiritually and intellectually of of the fashion arbiters is Mrs William Brown Meloney editor of the Sunday supplement This Week Although Although Although Al Al- though Missy Meloney who I think one of the finest women I 1 ever met is not strong physically cally yet cally-yet yet her inward force and fire could knock down the Brooklyn bridge She puts out outher outher outher her great weekly magazine by most unusual methods for her editing is done entirely through personal contacts her contacts her writers are her friends She wanted the duchess of Windsor to write a series of articles on cooking So Soshe Soshe Soshe she asked the duchess to tea got a slant on her her personality and the articles were produced My old friend Carmel Snow the editor of Harpers Harper's Bazaar was the first woman editor or any editor who dared to treat me as a writer instead of a circus circus cir cm- cir cir- cus phenomenon She actually had the pluck to pay me for a a. six-installment six sketch of my scatterbrained life called I 1 Have Lived by My Wits Another woman editor who ch charms me above many others is Mrs Eleanor Patterson of the Washington Times Herald She like the dynamic Mrs Ogden Ogden Ogden Og- Og den Reid of the New York Herald Herald Her Her- ald aid Tribune is to me one of the gr great at great newspaper editors editor |