Maybelline welcomes Mabel's husband, Chet Hewes, into the family business.

Tom Lyle's brother-in-law, Chet Hewes, joins the Maybelline Company and becomes part of the Executive staff by 1934.

Vogue, in 1934, continues to be the leader in style, glamour and  fashion.  Notice how Mabel has a similar hat on, in the picture below. 

Maybelline remaines the undisputed leader, in Eye fashion, the world over in 1934, with a new modern, line of products. 

The executives at Maybelline, in 1934:  Papa TJ, Tom Lyle, Tom Jr, Chet Hewes, Ches Haines, Noel Williams. (Rags Ragland isn't in this picture, just the Williams family.

Seven years after their Wedding, Mable and Chet establish their family, with three beautiful children, Shirley, Tommy and Baby, Joyce Mae. 

Shirley says, "Tom Lyle asked my father, to come to work at Maybelline for years because he was a hard worker and had advertising experience, but he was loyal to Montgomery Wards.  In about 1932 or 1933 a new management team fired all the top-level staff, including my father, so he finally agreed to join the family business."

Because of a nighmare lawsuit with FDA over the Lash Lure cosmetic co in 1933, Tom Lyle, had Chet Hewes, open The DeLuxe Mascara company.  Read all about it in Cosmetics and Skin. By James Bennett.


Other exciting events that took place in 1934.

Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is released.  It becomes the first film to win all 5 of the major Academy Awards – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. Gable and Colbert receive their only Oscars for this film

The 1934 Chicago World's Fair.  Tom Lyle found a custom, 1934 Packard Victoria and bought it on the spot.

Tom Lyle with his new 1934, Packard Victoria.

- Prohibition was repealled the year before, (1933,) after 13 years of chaos, created by it's wrath.

                       1934 Events:

- John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and their gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa.
- Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kill 2 young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.
- John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin.
- Dust Bowl: A strong 2-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl
 - New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- The Hays Office censorship code for motion pictures goes into full effect in the United States
 - Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
- Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.
- Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio.
- A running gun battle between FBI agents and bank robber Baby Face Nelson results in the death of one FBI agent and the mortal wounding of special agent Samuel P. Cowley, who was still able to mortally wound Nelson.

Read more about what was going in America and the Maybelline Company in the 1930's, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Signed copies available at www.maybellinestory.com

Automobile designer Alain Clenet's version of a 1934 Packard Convertible.

It's no wonder Maybelline founder Tom Lyle Williams nephew, Bill Williams, loved his 1977 Clenet Series 1, # 13 out of 250.
 

The nostalgic features reminded him of his childhood in the 1930's, growing up surrounded by his uncle's beautiful custom-designed, Packard's.

Tom Lyle's 1940 Packard Victoria, at the Villa Valentino, where Bill spent his youth.  All of Tom Lyle's Packard's were custom made. One was famous for having gold plated chrome. 

Bill with his uncle Tom Lyle Williams, 1934.

 The 1934 Packard offered a line of semi-custom cars that were usually built in numbers of at least five. The 11th series cars were distinguished from all other models by their raked back, “vee” windshields, extra long hoods, extra wide cowls, and their extra tall radiators.

These were unique to only this model year.

11 year old Bill Williams, was with his uncle, Tom Lyle, at the 1934 Chicago's World Fair, when this car was shown.  Tom Lyle ordered the car and had it delivered to the Maybelline Building, where the key's were handed to him.  A picture of the delivery is documented in Packard's private journals.

Imagine how this super long, super ornate automobile, must have looked to a young boy.  So it's no wonder, that when Alain Clenet, produced his series 1 convertible in 1977, Bill was one of the first to purchase it for, $80,000 - with custom etched windows and his initials etched in the door. 

Bill's Clenet will be shown at the Santa Barbara Concours D' Elegance, next weekend.  Hope so see some of you there.  

Alain Clenet will also be in attendance. 

Watch for Sharrie next week on The Morning Scramble, making, Mrs. Noel J. Williams, "auntie Frances"

 to die for, Chocolate Extravaganza. 

 Show will be posted on the Maybelline Blog as well.

Clenet preservati​on discussion​. Steve Kouracos and Sharrie Williams discuss the preservati​on restoratio​n of her father Bill Williams Clenet. Come meet Steve next weekend at the Santa Barbara Concours.

Maybelline profits go off the charts with actress Myrna Loy in 1934.

             Myrna Loy became "The Perfect Wife." 

In 1934 when Myrna Loy was cast opposite William Powell in
The Thin Man, based on Dashiell Hammett's novel -  (Click where highlighted.)  They became the quintessential 1930's couple. 

Myrna Loy, known as the Queen of Hollywood, the perfect wife, a living doll and the Queen of the movies was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses, and in 1937 and 1938 she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year. What more could Tom Lyle ask for to draw another target market The Wife, into the dime stores across the country to buy Maybelline.

Tom Lyle's genius with Maybelline was his ability to appeal to every type of woman and of course "The Wife" with her wholesome all American good looks was the perfect target market.  Myrna Loy illustrated here in black and white in 1934 looking rather modest yet made up like a movie star sold more Maybelline that year than ever before.  Her image ran throughout the 1930's until the Pinup Girls during the War years became Maybelline's image around the world. 

Maybe that's why when Tom Lyle, Emery, TJ and Billy went to the 1934 Chicago Worlds Fair that year Tom Lyle had to have the Dietrich custom bodied Packard. As you can see in the picture below Tom Lyle had superb taste in cars as his car is only one of five ever built in 1934.

Thanks in part to Myrna Loy's influence that year Tom Lyle had the confidence and flair as well as the money to flaunt Maybelline's success during the depths of the Depression. Tom Lyle was in good company however, since Al Jolson and Gene Sarazen, the famous golfer, also owned rare Vee Windshield Dietrich Packards.

Click here to see video of Myrna Loy and William Powell in The Thin Man and see why they became the power couple of the Depression.

When you think of the great automobiles from the 1930’s, very few can rival the class and elegance of the 1934 Packard Dietrich. More than any other car from this time, the Dietrich brings back memories of movie stars and financial money barons who traveled in affluent style and class.

Many Packard experts consider the 1934 Packard 12 to be the best overall year of Packard production. It has been said up until that time that Queen quality ruled over King price.

I wonder if that's where Emery got the idea for his famous Maybelline slogan,

                     Quality yet Sensibly Priced.

 Read more about Tom Lyle and his partner Emery Shaver and why they decided to leave Chicago in 1935 and live in Hollywood at the Villa Valentino.  Could it be the flash, the qlitz and glamour didn't fit in the gangster run city any longer?