The Women

Since the birth of Triangle Publications' Seventeen five years ago, Helen Lachman Valentine, a lively, bright-eyed grandmother, has been its editor-in-chief. She liked to call it "my baby," and mothered not only the money-making teenagers' monthly (circ. 1,012,998) but the 50 girls and lone man on its editorial staff. One afternoon last week, 56-year-old Editor Valentine called her brood into her neat chartreuse-and-green Manhattan office. "Seventeen has grown up," said Mrs. Valentine with a catch in her voice. "It's a big girl now . . ." Like a mother who has watched her daughter growing away from her, "Mrs. V." was reluctantly ready to say goodbye. Silently, the staff filed by to shake her hand; several girls wept.

Editor Valentine's dignified resignation capped a running disagreement with attractive, 39-year-old Publisher Alice Thompson, who was promoted from executive editor (over Mrs. V.'s head) only last spring (TIME, May 16). Explained Mrs. Thompson: "Helen thinks that Seventeen is not only her baby--and, true, it was her idea--but also her property." The two old friends were taking the breakup hard; neither was speaking to the other.

Publisher Thompson announced that she herself would assume the title and duties of editor-in-chief. For the moment, she was also Lady High Everything Else; four members of Mrs. V.'s cabinet, including the managing editor, departed too.

As the tumult and the shouting died at Seventeen, fresh outcries filled the nearby offices of Street & Smith's Charm (circ. 581,848), a magazine aimed at the "business girl" audience. Editor-in-Chief Frances Harrington, a peppy, prematurely white-haired woman of 45, had been fired after seven years. Her successor: Helen Valentine. To Charm with Mrs. V. came Seventeen's ex-managing editor. Out with Editor Harrington went six members of her cabinet. (Total casualties at week's end on both Seventeen and Charm: twelve.) Sweetly oblivious to all the tirades and tizzies swirling around her, Editor Valentine announced firmly that she had plans for Charm: "There is need for a forceful magazine for women who work."

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