Take a wild romp through N.Y.C.
When Tina Brown arrived in New York City, she was 29 years old and “brimming with fear and insecurity.” An enfant terrible of London’s Fleet St. scene, the plucky Oxford ingénue had become editor of the society glossy Tatler at 25, swiftly making the flagging title a must-read for the smart set and catching the attention of the Condé Nast brass across the pond. In the early ’80, its venerable celebrity bible had just been revived after a half-century hiatus — and was tanking. Brown’s new outing, The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992, is the story of its astonishing turnaround under her reign, which the supercharged Brit chronicled daily in stacks of blue notebooks.
A wild romp through the drawing rooms of Manhattan’s elite, the memoir pulls back the curtain on a world of glamour and excess. In her quest to make the magazine central to the zeitgeist, Brown takes a madcap tour of duty through Park Ave. co-ops, glitzy fundraisers and intimate literary dinners, plus power lunches with publishing heavyweights, seductive cocktail tête-à-têtes with Hollywood’s most charismatic leading men, and epic encounters with pop stars and royals. Throughout, she provides deliciously witty commentary, forever playing the role of skeptical social observer.
Brown is, of course, a fabulously entertaining writer. She’s also a pioneer. What she accomplished as a young upstart in the treacherous media boys’ club is truly remarkable, and we have much to learn from her vision and unshakable confidence. And — good God — stamina.
Add to that, this book offers endless “anecdote porn” for journalism junkies. Not the least of which: contributors were then paid $10,000 an article, and wined and dined at the finest restaurants.
But what emerges is not just a glimpse into a bygone era of arts and letters, or the story of smashed glass ceilings, or the jet-set lives of the “1per cent,” but a portrait of a pivotal time in history. The ’80s in New York City was a period of out-of-control opulence, and one that set the stage for the staggering income inequality and Trump presidency to come. (There’s loads of juicy Trump sightings in these pages, almost none of them complimentary.)
As such, there’s a missed opportunity with The Vanity Fair Diaries. Brown does little to analyze the extremes of American culture, beyond skewering clueless trophy wives and paranoid Master of the Universe-types.
“Please don’t expect ruminations on the sociological fallout of trickle-down economics,” she warns in the book’s introduction.
Still, having had a front-row seat at the sinking of the Titanic, Brown surely has some insight into how America wound up in the mess it’s in.
It’s a shame she didn’t share it here. Tara Henley is a writer and radio producer.