Maybelline Brand-merchandising in the 1930's, is common place today.

Maybelline products mounted on a card and placed on display racks for easy accessibility, was the brain child of Maybelline's marketing man, Rags Ragland, in 1935.

 What we consider common merchandising today actually began at the Maybelline Company as a way to display their products in an organized fashion in drugstores like JJ Newberry and Company.

 Maybelline eye-shadow on a card in 1935.

Today all Brands are carded but 80 years ago

products were haphazardly thrown on a table, causing, great frustration, for the consumer. 

Carded merchandise extended the promotional impact of Maybelline.  Cards increased impulse buying, attracted customer's attention, organized products, enhanced shopability and increased the bottom line. 

By the 1950's and 60's, all beauty products were carded

 and displayed on free-standing, 

 or on twirling racks, another idea of Rag's Ragland.

By 1964,  ULTRA LASH MASCARA, was  born, taking the place of Maybelline's first wand mascara,  MAGIC MASCARA.  Some of you might remember buying a carded Maybelline ULTRA LASH,  for 69 cents. 

 Before ULTRA LASH,  the little red box with a cake of Maybelline mascara, or Maybelline cream mascara, was the only choice available.

In the 1950's, a ladies make-up bag was filled with Maybelline products. It was the only makeup advertised on television.  No longer a little mail order business, advertised in the classifieds of magazines and news papers.


Maybelline has remained The King, of Advertising for over 100 years.


Thank you for following the Maybelline Blog, tell your friends and be sure to get your copy of The Maybelline Story, you will love it !!!!

Maybelline - Queen of the Drug Store in the 1930s

Vintage Drug Store Advertising Banner announcing Maybelline sold in it's original 75 cent box.

The original Maybelline box was sold only through classifieds in newspapers and magazines and wrapped in brown paper to protect a woman's reputation between 1915 and 1933.

Today this original Maybellne box is almost
 100 years old.

Maybelline brought a new flux of young customers into Drug Store's hoping to be discovered in Hollywood.

Maybelline was positioned at the front door of the drug store to encourage impulse buying.

Another drug store strategy was to place a carton of Maybelline boxes on the lunch counter and near the cash register to encourage ladies to grab it before they left the store.

A vintage Maybelline sign found in early drug stores.

The original Maybelline brush fit perfectly in the
 little red box.

During the Depression, the price of Maybelline was dropped to 10 cents and packaged in a much smaller box than the 75 cent version.  Now every woman could afford a box of maybelline and have beautiful eyes.

The Maybelline Girl now on carded merchandise, was introduced in the early 1930's at the drug store.

Color was added in the late 1930's.

A 10 cent Depression size brass tin of Maybellne Eye Shadow, featuring the original Maybelline Girl.

It was the beautiful advertising that brought the crowds of women into their local drug store for a box of Maybelline in 1932.

Maybellilne's Before and After Ad's were first seen in vertical  advertising found in news papers and magazines in the early 1930s.

The Film Cleopatra staring Claudette Colbert, inspired this before and after ad in 1934. 

Big Stars like Jean Harlow along with the Good Housekeeping seal of approval expanded Maybellines credibility in the 1930
http://www.maybellinebook.com/2011/07/maybelline-targeted-average-housewife.html


While your browsing, why don't you check out my new hilarious Blog called Saffrons Rule at  http://saffronsrule.com/

No one was more generous than Maybelline founder Tom Lyle Williams.

My father, ten year old Bill Williams was selling magazine subscriptions hoping to win a a new Schwinn two wheeler, but he was having trouble competing with the other boys at school... until he made his rounds at the Maybelline Company.  There he found a pot of gold, when uncle Noel, uncle Chet, uncle Ches, Rags Ragland and all the rest of the Maybelline employees bought up half his orders.  Bill had one more call to make and was excited as he patiently waited in his uncle Tom Lyles office hoping to sell a few more subscriptions before heading home.  An hour went by and he almost fell asleep on the leather sofa when the door finally swung open and there stood the majestic figure of  uncle Lyle, or Unk Ile as he liked to called him. 

Tom Lyle sat down at his over sized carved walnut desk and listened to the little speech Bill had prepared.  He thought for a minute than proceeded to give him a lecture about safety and riding a bike on the streets of Chicago.  Bill promised that if he won the bike he would always look both ways before crossing the street and would never pull out into traffic.  Once Tom Lyle was satisfied his nephew understood the dangers of owning a two wheeler, he took out his check book and wrote a check for the entire amount... Bill won the contest hands down and never forgot what his Unk Ile had done for him.

This is just a small example of the kind of man Tom Lyle was.  He always went beyond the call of duty for his family and everyone he knew for that matter and today though he is just a memory he will live in our hearts forever as a loving, generous angel.

You can read more about Tom Lyle, Noel James, Chet Hewes, Ches Haines, Rags Ragland and the Maybelline Company in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  It makes a great Christmas gift and you can order a signed copy directly from me. http://www.maybellinebook.com/p/buy-my-book.html

1934 Dietrich Packard, leader of the pack.

          Tom Lyle's 34 Dietrich Packard.  

My grandmother, Evelyn Williams, (Nana,) with my dad, Bill Williams and Tom Lyle with his life-partner, Emery Shaver, sitting on the running board in 1934.

http://www.maybellinebook.com/2012/01/on-hunt-for-tl-williams-1934-packard.html

Click on highlighted post above, for information on this stunning automobile.

Women clamor, for the promise of Provocative, Alluring Maybelline Eyes!

 America sinks deeper into hopelessness, during the 1930's, yet, Maybelline expands as the demand for beautiful eyes, continues to grow.

 

Top picture, Billy, Preston and Evelyn, with Tom Lyle. Bottom picture, Tom Lyle and his son Tom Jr. Right, Tom Lyle, President and sole owner of The Maybelline Company, with his 1934 Packard.

Tom Lyle, brilliantly used top actresses, to advertise Maybelline in film magazines, during the golden age of the 1930's.

One of Maybelline's most popular stars, Betty Grable, highlights the joys of beautifully made-up eyes.  Grable was part of the Hollywood Star System Tom Lyle helped create.

Read more about Tom Lyle Williams, sensational advertising techniques, that helped make some of the biggest Hollywood stars, and Maybelline, a household word, in...... 

               The Maybelline Story.

  Get a signed copy today at www.maybellinestory.com.

Maybelline's Cosmetic King and Queen of the 1920's.

Evelyn and Preston Williams, 1935

Preston Williams, 1900-1936

Tom Lyle's baby brother, and one of Chicago's hottest playboys during the 1920's.  A shell-shocked World War 1 Vet, he turned down a position at the Maybelline Co. to continue his destructive lifestyle, as a tough guy who boxed for prize money, scabbed for during railroad strikes, modeled for  Lord and Taylor. Only one word sums up Preston Williams - "Evelyn Boucher." 

Evelyn Boucher Williams 1901-1978

One of Chicago's reigning beauties in the 1920's. She ran away with the circus at 16, joined the Russian Ballet at 18 but gave it all up after meeting and falling in love with both Preston and Tom Lyle Williams on the same day. 

Read about Preston and Evelyn's white hot love affair and her never ending devotion to her brother in law Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Company in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It, by Sharrie Williams with Bettie Youngs, published by Bettie Youngs Books. 

Maybelline's namesake was Mabel Williams.

Here is a picture of Maybel, Chet and their three children, Shirley, Tommy and Joyce taken in Chicago, 1934

It was Auntie Maybel's simple beauty trick that inspired her brother Tom Lyle Williams to produce Lash Brow Ine in 1915.  He eventually renamed the product to Maybelline in 1917 in honor of his sister and formed Maybel Laboratories in Chicago. 

Read all about Maybel and Chet in The Maybelline Story, as well as the rest of the Williams Family and all the people who helped make the Maybelline Company the number one eye makeup in the world;  a position it still holds today, 95 years after that first 'burning of the cork' at Maybel's dressing table. 

You can get an autographed copy now directly from my website at www.maybellinestory.com.