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Manhattan-born and bred, Betsy Blackwell is the daughter of a playwright and a stylist. Her father, Hayden Talbot (he authored several successful plays and movies, was the first journalist to get an authorized statement from Wilhelm Hohenzollern after World War I), has been married six times, to the best of Betsy's recollection — she has not seen him since she was eight years old. Her mother used to be a fashion expert for Lord & Taylor.
Betsy got most of her education in a New Jersey convent (she is not a Catholic), where she edited the school magazine. At 18 she got a job as assistant fashion editor of Charm, held it for seven years, later did promotion for children's clothes. Twice married, she is now the wife of Lawyer James Madison Blackwell, has a young son (James Madison IV) known as Judge.
When Desmond Hall left Mademoiselle in 1937, Betsy Blackwell became editor-in-chief. Her managing editor is 28-year-old Johanna Ellen Hoffman,* whose qualifications, besides a knowledge of English, French and German, a little Turkish, and a little Arabian, include experience on McGraw-Hill's American Machinist.
In their tiny, sixth-floor offices at 1 East 57th St., Betsy Blackwell's editorial staff of 15 are beginning to feel cramped. As soon as they are sure that Mademoiselle is no fly-by-night lady, they intend to shorten her name to Mlle. Meanwhile, they call her Milly.
* No relation of Hairdresser Johanna Hofmann, arrested as a spy on the German liner Europa in 1938.