JAMES BRADY
Honor, Humility, Humor, Loyalty, Integrity
We met in January 1951 at the U.S. Marine Corps’ Quantico, VA base. The Third Officers Special Basic Class was the Marine Corps program to refresh young junior officers for combat in Korea. In the first platoon were Lts. Douglas Bradlee, Jim Brady, Richard Brennan and Jim “Wild Horse” Callen amongst others. We cruised and boozed until we got our orders in late April to ship out. Jim Brady was with the bunch who would ship out, literally, by boat in September. Doug, Dick “Wild Horse” and I flew commercial to Moffett Field in California to fly to Korea in May 1951.
One month later in June 1951, Doug Bradlee and “Wild Horse” Callen were killed in action by Chinese mortar fire. On May 11, 1951, Doug’s Harvard 1950 classmate, Carly Rand, died in my arms, in our commercial air crash. Jim Brady and Dick Brennan survived Korea. In all the 50 plus years since April 1951, Jim Brady exemplified the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis. Everything he did in his life was targeted at giving, never taking.
This young Irishman, born in Brooklyn, graduated from Manhattan College and joined the Marine Corps reserve. This led him into a course of life that reflected the meaning of honor, humility, humor, loyalty and integrity.
After Korea, we met in Washington D.C. where he worked for Women’s Wear Daily in 1956. Barely a year later, Jim was sent to London by John Fairchild to head that office. Humor was always intertwined with his reporting. In London, as in Washington, his focus was on people and their place in the particular scene. He searched for stories and taught his staff to dig for the facts. In publishing, Jim was a platoon leader engaged in reporting and writing with his women and men. He guided his team with a firm hand but with humility and humor.
From London, Fairchild sent Brady to Paris as its Paris bureau chief. This assignment changed the face of Women’s Wear Daily and the image of fashion for its American audience. In Paris, Brady met Coco Chanel and their relationship became magnetic. The young reporter with a gracious demeanor and a responsive sense of humor caught Coco’s spirit. She loved to view this Irish Marine from Brooklyn as an American Indian. Brady brilliantly evaluated the reality of fashion in this Paris universe.
Fashion was a creative art and the artist was his focus and the perception he reported. WWD evolved and revolved from the retailing of haut couture and ready-to-wear to the image of the creative force i.e. the Designer. The presence of the individual and the celebrity status of that person became Brady’s writing target. Throughout his life, humor was there for Jim, who felt that we must always have joy in our lives.
He returned to WWD in New York in the early 60s. At the helm, with his friend John Fairchild, whom he succeeded as Publisher looking on, Brady installed the changes which made WWD the flagship of fashion publishing.
When WWD merged with Capital Cities Broadcasting, the corporate capital world and Jim clashed. The merger was a submerger for Brady who could not accept editorial direction from bankers. From there, Brady moved to Harper’s Bazaar with the same result and moved on to writing for Clay Felker’s New York magazine’s Intelligencer column and wrote and hosted its cable t.v. show that got him an Emmy.
Jim Brady fell into the Murdoch empire when Murdoch signed him on to edit the tabloid Star. In Rupert Murdoch’s world, Brady was to succeed Clay Felker as Editor of New York magazine. As he put it, his next “Vice” was as Vice Chairman and Associate Publisher of the New York Post. Murdoch kept the top titles without the “Vice” and “Associate.”
At the New York Post, Page Six was Jim Brady’s editorial creation, and this celebrity gossip column would become a means of expression for him. However, his Page Six had substance and somewhat less gossip than would appear years later.
In all his life and writing, Brady never forgot those with whom he shared his life’s experiences. He kept that inner humor to bring himself through difficult times. The prolific writer could never leave his Marine Corps colleagues and his experiences with them. Although the 1951 to 1953 years were brief, they were to be his crucible of courage and lifetime commitment to his fellow Marines and his nation.
In the last decade, he became a part of the Forbes family of American heroes. His writings and commentaries on Forbes.com reflected his life’s experiences. His books were a product of writing excellence, and they were prolific.
In that tradition, his last work on John Basilone is being published. Basilone, a Medal of Honor winner, had a story that always mesmerized Jim. This Marine enlisted man who earned the Medal of Honor on Guadalcanal on his return in 1944 hosted War Bond drives nationally. Basilone, a true Marine who hated this display of his award, pressed to return to combat. John Basilone went back to the Pacific. He was killed in the landings at Iwo Jima. Jim Brady could never get him out of his mind.
Publication of his last book will coincide with the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks miniseries “The Pacific” due out in October 2009.
James Brady left us on January 26, 2009 but he lives with us forever.
Semper Fidelis.
John G. Ledes