Dear Time Reader

Lisa Fonssagrives, America's top fashion model, is the 110th woman to appear on TIME'S cover (TIME, Sept. 19). In a manner of speaking, she represented all of them. As the cover story pointed out, a model is the advertising professions' Everywoman.

When TIME'S editors first decided to do the story, the problem, of course, was to find Everywoman. Mary Elizabeth Fremd, Business & Finance researcher, began by calling on model agency head, John Robert Powers. His first words were: "H'mmm, sit down. I think we can put you to work." Instead, Miss Fremd put Powers to work culling over his lists of models and giving her facts on the industry.

In the same way, she visited other agencies and admen, getting the names of leading models. The leaders were then asked to drop in to TIME'S office for interviews with her and Joseph Purtell, Senior Editor for Business & Finance. Most of the models were puzzled by TIME'S interest, and rightly so --this was the first cover story on a model TIME has ever done. But when the pretty girls trooped through the editorial halls, they found that TIME'S interest was high. Said Purtell: "I never had so many writers offer to help on a story."

As the search went on, so many models and photographers sang Lisa's praises that her selection was a foregone conclusion. To research the story, Miss Fremd spent long hours with Lisa. She ate lunches and dinners with her (and teased Lisa because she always ordered smoked ham), rode around in her red convertible while appreciative pedestrians whistled, went swimming on a lonely Long Island beach, and even persuaded Lisa to burlesque some of her high-fashion poses (see cuts).

Both Miss Fremd and Researcher Marcia Houston, who assisted her, learned to admire Lisa greatly; during the sweltering summer days, when they both felt limp as dishrags, Lisa always managed to look as cool and beautiful as a fashion ad.

Writer Henry Grunwald also spent many hours with Lisa. Once, when Lisa was having trouble putting on a jacket in a studio, Grunwald gallantly leaped to help her. The photographer, accustomed to letting models shift for themselves, said somewhat scornfully: "I can see you're new to this business." After two weeks' work on the story, Grunwald was an old hand, and so impressed by the smooth way in which Lisa worked with Photographer Penn that he decided to make it the lead of his story.

As usual, TIME sent queries to its correspondents in a dozen cities, including one to TIME'S Stockholm stringer, E. M. Salzer. He went to Uddevalla, Sweden, to talk to Lisa's family, and there learned that the family name, now Bernstone, had been changed from Anderson. Hardly had the story reached the newsstands, when Miss Fremd received an excited call from Lisa. "Is that true about my name being Anderson?" she asked. "I'm absolutely flabbergasted. I think it is the funniest thing in the world. I sent my father a cable and asked him: 'Why haven't you told me?' " Two days later she had an answer back. Her father told her that he had changed his name 70 years ago and never thought to tell her.

Cordially Yours,

James A. Linen

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