David Brown (producer) editor of "Cosmopolitan" before his wife, Helen Gurley Brown, joined the magazine. In 1951, the producer Darryl F. Zanuck hired Brown to head the story department at Zanuck's studio, 20th Century-Fox. Brown eventually rose to become executive vice president of creative operations. He and Richard D. Zanuck, Darryl's son, left Fox in 1971 for Warner Bros., but the following year they set out to form their own production company. The caper film "The Sting" (1973) starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford was a Zanuck/Brown "presentation". In 1974, the company produced, along with Universal Pictures, "The Sugarland Express", Steven Spielberg's directorial
Helen McCully then spent ten years as food editor for "House Beautiful". By 1960, McCully had become an icon in the food industry, bringing noted chefs together, serving as a mentor, a contact with peers, and hosting regular culinary salons in her Upper East Side apartment. Though she had a somewhat abrasive manner, McCully was very influential counting among her friends both American and foreign chefs. Helen Evans Brown and James Beard were close friends and colleagues. While running the kitchens for "McCall's" magazine, she allowed Beard to use the kitchens for his cooking school and helped many chefs gain notice. When