Vintage Hollywood lives on through The Maybelline Story

Tom Lyle Williams and Emery Shaver, standing in front of TL's 
1934 Packard Victoria, parked in front of the Villa Valentino.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo and remembering our generous and kind uncles, Tom Lyle  Williams and Emery Shaver...Left side, Jeff Welles, Donna Williams, Patty Welles.  Right side, Mary Ann Welles, Floyd Welles, Sharrie Williams.

1960s.  Uncle Emery at Christmas handing gifts.  Floyd and Jeff Welles right hand side of picture.

1960s. Family Christmas with Uncle Emery Shaver at the head of the table.

Excerpt from a letter written by Emery Shaver to his sister Betty during WW ll.

Villa Valentino

6776 Wedgewood Place

Hollywood, 28, California

Friday, Dec. 3, 1943

Dear Betty

Your plans for Christmas sound very practical, however, you must be sure that there are a lot of little, inexpensive games, books, toys, etc. to make the children feel that it is really Christmas.  It is difficult for them to properly appreciate the necessity for budgeting  especially at Christmas time and while I know they will be proud of any new clothes that they may get, yet the heart of childhood is in play, and the most absurdly cheap little distractions mean so much to them.  I am enclosing a check for one hundred dollars, which covers your allowance and my Christmas gift to you and the children.  May I suggest that you take one day to shop in town without the children and with someone who can help you with the packages, getting lots of little inexpensive trifles to please the Children.  Hope you can have a tree and the trimmings.  Remember how much joy we had as children on so little, but with the Spirit of Christmas strong and bright in keeping up the traditions.  It is high time that the children began to realize the true significance of Christmas, and I would impress on the religious meaning of the day, too.  Would it not be a good idea to let each of them have a little money with which to get a few little presents, so that they, too, can share in the joy of giving.

80 years ago, Williams and Shavers in 1923..... Maybelline's founder and owner Tom Lyle Williams right, with the Shaver family, Betty, Bud and Emery. Left, friend, Ches Haines and Tom Lyle's sister, Eva Williams.

Tom Lyle Willams and Emery Shaver shared their lives together for close to 50 years. Read all about it in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. Written by original Maybelline family descendant Sharrie Williams.

Thank you to Floyd and Jeff Welles for sharing pictures and letters from thier uncle, Emery Shaver, with me.

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.

Glamour during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Maybelline was synonymous with Hollywood Glamour in the 1930s.

Before and After Maybelline ad, with Paulette Goddard.

Carole Lombard, one of Tom Lyle's favorites.

Betty Grable, Maybelline Star.

Paulette Goddard, a personal friend of T L Williams.

Gloria Swanson, a Maybelline model from the 1920s.

Jean Harlow, another Maybelline model, Tom Llye, helped groom.

Marion Valle' brought fashion and Maybelline together.

Maybelline box, in the 1930s.

Black and white Maybelline ads, appeared in all the Hollywood gossip magazines.

Typical Maybelline ad found in Photoplay.

Tom Lyle Williams, with his son Tom Lyle Jr in 1934.

Read all about the Golden Age of Hollywood in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. 

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