Although I've never heard of this person I thought, “I’m always the best-dressed woman at the Acme,” she says., is the most South Philly thing ever I've come across this year.

She is warm and funny with crystal clear, perfectly-timed anecdotes about her glamorous Philly life. And the way people responded to her!

Since then, I've felt real pressure to ensure our article captures even a little of what it’s like to be with Rachel.

Did we? www.inquirer.com/life/a/harlo...

And of course, there is the woman, the myth, the icon herself, Rachel Billebault. I got to know Rachel first through @tomandlorenzo.bsky.social's vivid and detailed writing, and then through many phone calls, but it wasn't until we met in person that I fully appreciated her aura and energy.

Throughout the editing process, I would often come across an detail and think "This is wild. But is it true? How could I even fact check this?" And then there would be a Daily News clipping from 1972 that said exactly that.

As they say in the article, Harlow was a star "at a time when Philadelphia had enough daily and weekly newspapers to support over a dozen full-time columnists, documenting the movements and drama of the city’s celebrity circuit."

Do you love vintage #philly history? You'll love this story.

Most of the story, they told me, was in plain sight all along. It lived in the pages of our paper - deep in the archives, where the woman known simply as Harlow was covered incessantly in the 1970s.

@tomandlorenzo.bsky.social first told me about Harlow five years ago, in sort of a "wouldn't it be cool to track her down" way, but she remained elusive.

When I reconnected with them this year to see if we could revisit the idea, they were already deep into working with Rachel on her memoirs.

💙💙💙

It's science: www.inquirer.com/life/interne...

(For the record, I did not edit this piece.)

Peter Dobrin today: www.inquirer.com/arts/sasha-s...