Chica Chica Boom Chic! Excerpt from The Maybelline Story featuring Fox Star, Betty Grable

Betty Grable featured in 20th Century Fox Pictures, Down Argentine Way.

“LEARN BETTY’S SECRET FOR BEAUTIFUL EYES,”

the ad said. Arnold had thoroughly retouched the before and after photos—producing illustration more than photography—to convey a smooth and beautiful complexion. The tiny before shot revealed a pretty girl with pale brows and lashes, while the after showed a lushly made-up young beauty. Tiny print mentioned that Betty Grable was featured in the film Down Argentine Way. This way, Tom Lyle reasoned, even if the movie tanked, the ad would still work since it didn't play up the film’s title. In the ad, Betty was quoted as saying, “It’s easy to have lovely alluring eyes…The magic secret is Maybelline eye make-up.” Emery’s copy gave step by step application instructions, ending with: “Then, the joyful climax…when you form your brows in graceful, classic lines with Maybelline smooth-marking Eyebrow Pencil.”

Tom Lyle wasn't the only one taking a risk on the film; so was Daryl Zanuck. Twentieth Century Fox studios had been counting on Alice Faye’s box office power to help solve their financial woes. Would a goofy, light-hearted romp set in Argentina appeal to Americans in a year when dramatic films like The Philadelphia Story and The Grapes of Wrath would take most of the credits? A few westerns had done well, and Ginger and Fred were still dancing. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour had starred in the popular Road to Singapore—which had nothing to do with Singapore and was oblivious to Japanese imperialism in the Pacific.

 Fox wanted something fresh, and if they couldn’t cavort in Europe or the Pacific, they’d take their fun and games elsewhere. South America seemed like a pretty safe bet. With that lively Brazilian music, movie-goers could transport themselves to a place where war didn’t exist.

The gamble paid off. In October of 1940, FDR relieved everyone by saying, “I have said this before, and I’ll say it again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”  The film opened that same month, and the public adored Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda in her outrageous costumes. Revelers everywhere, like Evelyn’s crowd at the Biltmore, learned to samba to tunes like “Bambu Bambu.” The age of Carmen Miranda movies and music had begun. Chica Chica Boom Chic!

At the same time, teens and young women in their twenties identified with Grable’s saucy blond beauty and lively spirit. In droves and busloads they crowded into dime stores to buy Maybelline. Tom Lyle immediately parlayed his new bombshell into another full-page color ad. Alice Faye had worked out her contract differences with Zanuck and signed along with Betty Grable to do Tin Pan Alley, another light-hearted musical, but Alice didn’t want to do business with friends, including Tom Lyle. Arnold got around this by developing an ambiguous photo-illustration that resembled both Alice and Betty. The caption read, “Adorable with Maybelline,” and audiences weren’t sure if the model was Faye or Grable--which was exactly what Tom Lyle wanted.

ANITA LOUISE ADLER, Maybelline's Scarlett O'Hara.

Anita Louise, may not have won the part of Scarlett O'Hara, but she was most assuredly, one of Maybelline's most stunning models in 1938.

Maybelline ad, featuring Anita Louise, who  stared in opulent costume dramas such as Madame DuBarry (1934), A Midsummer’s Night Dream (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), and Marie Antionette (1938). She was selected to do a screen test for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind in 1938, but of course, the role went to Vivien Leigh.

Anita Louise was described as one of cinema's most fashionable and stylish women.  She and her husband Buddy Adler, were known for their parties, attended by Hollywood's elite.  

Gorgeous Anita Louise with her striking husband, Buddy Adler on their Wedding Day, 1940.

At the time Anita was cast for the role of the loving and caring mother Nell McLaughlin in My Friend Flicka, she had been married to Buddy Adler—a top executive with 20th Century-Fox.

From Here to Eternity winners: director Fred Zinnemann, supporting actress Donna Reed, producer Buddy Adler and screenwriter Daniel Taradash.

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Maybelline model and actress Marjorie Woodworth - 1941

Marjorie Woodworth, a true California Girl, born in 1923, captured the teen-market at 15, when she played a Baton Twirler in Alexander's Ragtime Band, (staring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche in 1938.)  Woodworth was discovered and being groomed by 20Th Century Fox to be the next Blond Bombshell much like Jean Harlow, Bettie Grable and Alice Faye. 

Like so many young starlets Tom Lyle contracted to do full page, glossy color print ads for Maybelline, Woodworth aspired to be a Super Star but never made it to the top. However she did become a favorite GI Pin Up Girl during World War 11 and drove the youth-market into dime stores  where they purchased truck loads of Maybelline.

Woodworth played a featured role in the Musical Comedy, Broadway Limited is a 1941, (directed by Gordon Douglas, starring Victor McLaglen, Dennis O'Keefe, Patsy Kelly, and Zasu Pitts.)  She was known as the All American Co-Ed, and cast in the 1941 film All American Co-Ed.

The Girl Next Door, Pin Up Girl, Blond Bomb Shell and the next Jean Harlow - Woodworth created the perfect image for Maybelline during the early 1940's when teenage age girls gained spending power and developed their own identity.  The average high school girl with an extra dime for a 10 cent box of Maybelline might easily change herself into a glamorous Star with a few strokes of a little black brush. 

18 year old Marjorie Woodworth lead the parade as teenage girls came of age during the WAR YEARS. 

Pick up your copy of The Maybelline Story and see how my mother, Pauline Mac Donald, Bill Williams girl friend was transformed into his favorite high school sex symbol, Marjorie Woodworth, with a little Maybelline on her eyes when she was 15.

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