In 1971, a long advertising decline, coupled with a slide in circulation, prompted Hearst executives to hire Women’s Wear Daily executive James Brady to serve as both the editorial director and publisher of Bazaar. A brusque former marine from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Brady—who was brought in over longtime editor Nancy White—made his presence felt swiftly and decisively as he set to work transforming the magazine into a fashionable news monthly. His remake was sweeping in scope, aimed at infusing Bazaar with hard-hitting journalism and immediacy. Issues were built around themes like “Politics ’72” and “Gossip vs. Privacy.” Stories featuring Washington and the media were intermingled with dispatches from the cultural chattering class. Brady did away with what he referred to in his 1974 book, Superchic, as “pious little essays on elegance, saccharine poetry, and fiction that had earlier been rejected at other, higher-paying outlets.” He also banished fashion models in favor of “real” people and personalities, whom the magazine photo-graphed in more “relatable” situations (for instance, chasing a cab down the street).
Under Brady, Bazaar also delved into the one subject its founding publisher, Fletcher Harper, had considered verboten: politics. Bazaar coaxed playwright Tennessee Williams to pen an article about the nature of dissent in a country fractured by the Vietnam War; profiled Gloria Steinem just before the launch of her feminist magazine, Ms.; and published a controversial photograph of actress Faye Dunaway in bed with her unshaven armpit exposed.
Despite all this, Brady’s reimagining of Bazaar didn’t connect with readers or advertisers. The arrangement with White didn’t last long either. Though she’d remained cordial through the transition, she resigned three months later. Soon Brady was gone too, and the experiment ended after 14 months.
