1940's Maybelline Model, Lenore Aubert, Known for having "The most beautiful eyes in Hollywood,"

Lenore Aubert,  appeared in this beautiful color, glossy, autographed Maybelline ad, in 1948, as well as popular Vampire movies.

 Lenore Aubert,  played many a mysterious foreigner or femme fatale:  she was at her slinky best in  the 1948 horror comedy,  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

Poster for, Vampires, werewolves and monsters movie,

 featuring Lenore Aubert.

Frankenstein, Lenore Aubert and Count Dracula.

Abbott and Costello with The Wolf-Man, Count Dracula and Frankenstein.

Lenore Aubert, was born in present-day Slovenia, at the time still connected to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (her French name was

 pure Hollywood hokum, designed to make her background more

 exotic - though she did live for some time in Paris).

 Eleanore Maria Leisner was the daughter of an Austrian 

general and spent her formative years in Vienna.

New Video: Maybelline 1940's Classic Ads, sprinkled with a few family pictures

Hollywood Super Stars clamored to be featured in Maybelline color advertisements during the 1940s

During World War ll, Maybelline's market share skyrocketed, because so many women worked in air craft plants and refused to cut back on their cosmetics.  When the war ended Tom Lyle's thirty-year-old invention benefited mightily from the Postwar Boom when mascara and eye-shadow came out in matching colors - with new hues added every Spring and Fall - imitating the practice of fashion designers.  The increase in sales were dramatic and though in 1940 only one in four American women wore eye make-up, by 1949 this figure increased to three out of four, with Maybelline accounting for 45,000 units out of 51,000 eye products sold that year.

  

Merle Oberon Known for her sultry good looks Merle Oberon played Cathy Linton in Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier in 1939.  The 1940's proved to be a very busy decade where she appeared in no less than 15 movies. 

Tom Lyle contracted major motion picture stars to appear in Maybelline's advertisements.  War-movies showcased them as the ideal Amercan image and young girls around the world purchased Maybelline at their local dime stores.

                                             Rita Hayworth

 Merle Oberon, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford  and Hedy Lamarr (click to see) were some of the GI's favorite pin-up girls. They were top box office queens during the war years and their image represented money in the bank for Maybelline.  

Betty Grable

Tom Lyle contracted Betty Grable for her sex appeal, moxy and girl next door image.She appealed to young wannabees who saved their grocery money to buy hope in a little red box.  Maybelline turned simple shop girl's into  sex symbols - inspiring soldier boys to get back home.  In fact a G.I.'s morale was often dependent on pictures of their girls with"Those Maybelline Eyes."

 Tom Lyle spent more on his beautiful movie stars as cover-girls than any other cosmetic company in history and it paid off in the 1940's beyond his wildest dreams.

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford became the official face of Maybelline in 1945 after she won an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce."  Be sure to watch HBO's new version of "Mildred Pierce" with Kate Winslet airing Sunday March 27th.  This mini-series depicts the era, clothes and background painted in The Maybelline Story.  I'm sure if you watch the series and read the book at the same time you'll see The Maybelline Story come alive.

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress. Though known primarily for her extraordinary beauty and her celebrity in a film career as a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age.  She had a seductive look in her eye that appealed to Tom Lyle, because she targeted a certain audience of women who sought her sex appeal. 

Maybelline was synonymous with fashion, style and indisputable Hollywood glamor.  Here are a few of Tom Lyle's favorite movie queens of the silver screen during the 1940's. 

Dorothy Lamour starred in the "Road to..." movie series with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the 1940s and 1950s. The movies were enormously popular during the 1940s, and they regularly placed among the top moneymaking films each year

The Unique Beauty of Gene Tierney - Excerpted from Michael Atkinson's essay, Dec 1994 Movieline magazine.  "Among faces, Gene Tierney's is a tournament rose, an Opaline study in serene, sexualized perfection, a mad musky Egyptian daydream of cat thoughts."

Lana Turner was discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen.

                Nothing has changed in 100 years 
                     Girls still want to stand out 

Maybelline in the middle of Times Square, with eyes that stop traffic!

Read it all in The Maybellie Story
 and the Spirited family Dynasty Behind It.

Maybelline was the first to advertise Before and After Ads

Be sure to check out my new SAFFRONS RULE Blog,
taken from my 1964 High School Diary. 
/http://saffronsrule.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/told-my-history-teacher-i-lost-my-term-paper-in-the-baldwin-hills-flood/

Maybelline's Vintage Packaging,- 1915 - 1960

Some of the most memorable vintage Maybelline products, from the 20th Century.  Now a piece of art.

Tom Lyle Williams was one of the most innovative entrepreneurs and advertising wizards in the 20th Century.  People accused him of being a dreamer.  He proved the neysayer's wrong.  He never gave up on his dreams and he surrounding himself with like-minded, inspiring people, who helped him  shoot for the moon.
         
                           He made it!!!

Maybelline is still the number one Eye Cosmetic in the world, after nearly 100 years, and it all started with TL.

Tom Lyle Williams at 19 years of age.

Tom Lyle Williams Villa Valentino and his Estate at 900 Airole Way, Bel Air, California

Tom Lyle's family meant the world to him and visited often at the Villa Valentino in the Hollywood Hills, (until it was taken for the Hollywood freeway,)  than at his new modern glass and steel estate in Bel Air, California.

 My Grandmother,  Evelyn, Great uncle,Tom Lyle and my parents, Bill and Pauline Williams at the Villa Valentino, 1942.

Aspiration overlooking the pool in the 1930's.                                                    

Tom Lyle's sister Eva with her husband Ches Haines, and their kids, June, Marilyn and Bob, 1947.

Tom Lyle in the director's chair at the Villa, with his sisters Mabel Williams Hewes and Eva Williams Haines and their husbands Chet Hewes and Ches Haines, 1938.

Noel James and Frances Williams, at Tom Lyle's new home in Bel Air, 1950.

Tom Lyle's brother Noel James Williams and Sparky at Tom Lyle's new estate, 1950.

Here I am at 4 years old holding on for dear life in 1951..

My parents Bill and Pauline with Noel Allen on the lounge chair, at the Bel Air estate, 1954.

Tom Lyle's niece, Annette Williams Corbett, standing with him at the gate of 900 Airole Way in 1961.  At that time the estate was valued at $250,000.  In 2005 it was sold for $19,500,000.  After his death in 1976, the 8,256 sq foot estate was sold to  Polish-French film director, producer, writer and actor Roman Polanski.

Tom Lyle with Sparky getting the mail at the door of the Bel Air estate, 1960.

Jean, Chuck and Nancy Williams with Annette Williams Corbett, her daughter Ann Louise, Tom Lyle and Annette's husband George Corbett, 1961.

My cousin's Ann Louise, Princie, her dog, with Nancy and Chuck Williams at the Bel Air estate, 1961.

Cousin Chuck, Nancy and Ann Louise in Bel Air, with the statue Aspiration moved from the Villa to Bel Air in 1949.

Ann Louise, Chuck and Nancy in Tom Lyle's Ultra Chinese Modern den.


As I head into the 1960's I wanted to recap the years before the Maybelline Company sold in 1967.  Stay tuned for fascinating vintage 60 ads and more family pictures to come this week. 

Maybelline and the teenage market, Post WW ll, USA.

Maybelline was readily available in drug stores after World War ll and the average teenager was able to purchase Maybelline mascara, shadow and pencil for one dollar.   

Maybelline ad, 1946

The movies pumped out teenage movies so fast that every talent scout from every Motion Picture Studio in Hollywood had their eye's open for the next big thing.

L

Schwab Drugstore, 1949


Lana Turner a 16 year old student at Hollywood High was discovered while having a soda at Schwab's drugstore and soon become Hollywood's most gorgeous "sweater girl," in the late 30's. 

-- Lana Turner in They Won't Forget, the film that launched her career and labeled her "The Sweater Girl"

 Click on tribute to Lana Turner.



I don't think any young girl was more influenced by Maybelline ads in Hollywood glamour magazines than Norma Jean Baker, (Marilyn Monroe,) in Post WW ll

Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Yank Magazine, 1945.

1946 Maybelline ad appealing to the average girl
after WW ll.

In 1975 the film Goodbye Norma Jean was filmed at my father's home in Palm Springs.  Many of my friends and family were extras, wearing costumes from the 1940's.  See below for a few pictures of my sister Donna Jean Williams, during the filming with her friend, Gerry Marks.

Donna Jean Williams in our dad, Bill Williams, Model-T truck, taking a break from filming Goodbye Norma Jean.

Gerry Marks in the background, with the Model-T truck loaded with supplies for a shot in the film.

Inside my fathers living room where a party scene was being shot. Gerry Marks, with one of the cast, and my sister Donna Jean Williams dressed 40's style posing for background shots.

Marilyn Monroe - Photograph​s - At Tobey Beach by Andre DeDienes (1949)

How Norma Jean Baker became Marilyn Monroe
Monroe became one of Blue Book's most successful models; she appeared on dozens of magazine covers. Her successful modeling career brought her to the attention of Ben Lyon, a 20th Century Fox executive, who arranged a screen test for her. Lyon was impressed and commented, "It's Jean Harlow all over again."[22] She was offered a standard six-month contract with a starting salary of $125 per week. Lyon did not like the name Norma Jeane and chose "Carole Lind" as a stage name, after Carole Lombard and Jenny Lind, but he soon decided it was not an appropriate choice. Monroe was invited to spend the weekend with Lyon and his wife Bebe Daniels at their home. It was there that they decided to find her a new name. Following her idol Jean Harlow, she decided to choose her mother's maiden name of Monroe. Several variations such as Norma Jeane Monroe and Norma Monroe were tried and initially "Jeane Monroe" was chosen. Eventually, Lyon decided Jeane and variants were too common, and he decided on a more alliterative sounding name. He suggested "Marilyn", commenting that she reminded him of Marilyn Miller. Monroe was initially hesitant because Marilyn was the contraction of the name Mary Lynn, a name she did not like.[citation needed] Lyon, however, felt that the name "Marilyn Monroe" was sexy, had a "nice flow", and would be "lucky" due to the double "M"[23] and thus Norma Jeane Baker took the name Marilyn Monroe.