JOAN CRAWFORD - PAUL HESSE - MAYBELLINE

Paul Hesse clearly understood the power

that an image can have over the public. 

Paul Hesse was the first professional photographer to  create a true-to-life likeness but idealized, glamorized and enhanced by his ground breaking technique of producing only delicious color values.

To Maybelline-The eye make-up I would never be without, signed.....

Hesse designed rear projection screens for creating custom backgrounds that framed his subjects.  The twinkling background in this Maybelline ad made Joan Crawford's eyes sparkle with expression......  Women who wanted that Star Quality chose Maybelline.....
Tom Lyle, contracted Crawford to be Maybelline's official spokesperson between 1946 and 1960.

This Hesse photo of Joan Crawford was so highly stylized and hyper-realistic..... she just leaped off the page.  

Hesse took this photograph of Joan Crawford and gave it a style that captured the hearts and minds of the American public.  He inspired countless celluloid  dreams of beauty, glamour and sex appeal.

He was so admired in Hollywood that the actor Bob Cummings modeled his television character on the popular Bob Cummings Show (1955-1959) after him.


Stay tuned for Merle Oberon, Paul Hess and Maybelline next week.