The Women at the Table: Writers, Artists, and Photographers in the Early Days of the Voice

Nell Blaine (photographer unknown), ca. the late 1950s. The image has been heavily airbrushed and highlighted with white retouching paint, a common practice in those days. (The “Pentagon” note in the upper-right corner may refer to the Pentagon Printing Co., one of many print service houses in the city in the postwar era.)

"In the current season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Abe Weissman—protagonist Midge Maisel’s father—is greeted by the crabbily avuncular staff on his first day of work as a Village Voice theater critic. 'Kennedy for President' posters are plastered throughout the bustling office, and as the editor makes introductions around a conference table plunked right in the middle of the hubbub, we meet the only woman on the editorial staff, Bernie, who is given the straightforward title 'News.' Considering that the story is set in 1960, that’s about right, since at the real-world Voice that year, Mary Perot Nichols was listed simply as 'News' on the masthead, editing other journalists and writing her own coverage of street-level concerns in the city. ..."

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