Fashion Show Or, the Adventures of Bingo Marsh: A Novel Hardcover – January 1, 1992 by James Brady
 
Founder-publisher of "Fashion" and a legend in the business, Bingo Marsh's grooming of John Sharkey as leading columnist runs afoul of family politics, demolishing Marsh's magazine and his alliance with Sharkey, and giving Sharkey a sharper perception offriendship
 
From Kirkus Reviews
Another mildly entertaining haute-fashion farce by Brady (The Coldest War, 1990; Designs, 1986, etc.)--this one featuring the chatty Mr. Bingo Marsh, fashion-magazine publishing phenomenon and social butterfly extraordinaire, and the respectful Ohio journalist who falls into his clutches. As a Pulitzer-winning journalist in his early 20s, Paris-based New York Times reporter John Sharkey's path would probably never have crossed that of giddy Bingo Marsh if Sharkey hadn't written a biography of Coco Chanel. When Coco happens to die the week that Sharkey's book goes on sale, the author attains instant celebrity status--whereupon fashion-obsessed Bingo descends upon him. Wacky heir to an American publishing dynasty, Bingo (who loathes confrontations and tends to skip about when excited) is titillated by rumors of a May-December dalliance between Sharkey and the elderly Chanel. He decides he must add the self-made Ohioan to his New York-based magazine, Fashion, where clothing styles take a backseat to celebrity gossip and where the ability to make or break a designer's career is routinely used to solicit ads. Luring Sharkey with Faustian assurances of cash, women, fun, and his own weekly column, Marsh succeeds in taking Sharkey on as this year's prot‚g‚, and the Mutt-and-Jeff pair proceed to blaze a trail through a garment-industry glitter-land of gossip, innuendo, and intrigue. Though entertained by Marsh's peeping-Tom expeditions through the villas of the rich and famous, Sharkey soon tires of hiding his humbler private life (which features a passion for a certain female Army officer) beneath a veneer of sophistication. He needn't worry, though--Fashion is soon taken over by a Rupert Murdoch stand-in, Bingo resigns in a huff, and Sharkey, at sea in a world he never really understood, bails out in pursuit of a more satisfying destiny. Silly fiction--for those who prefer their Coco, Ivana, and Calvin hot and spicy. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
 
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