Maybelline nearly collapsed when petroleum was rationed during World War ll.

The two most important items a Soldier waited for during WW11..... letters from home and a carton of cigarettes.

My dad carried this picture of my mother, the All American California Girl, in his wallet during the War.   

My dad's uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, helped the War effort by selling War Bonds using the Maybelline Logo.  "To the girl with a soldier overseas...How much do you really want him back."  

Here is a beautiful Maybelline ad during WW11, "Just as he dreamed her eyes would be."  When petroleum was rationed during the War, Maybelline was ordered to stop making their products.  Tom Lyle went to the Pentagon and told them that if women couldn't get their Maybelline, it would affect Moral.  With that, the petroleum vats remained full and Maybelline's products expanded around the world.

Bill and Pauline Williams on their Honeymoon,  in Big Bear California right  before he was shipped overseas in 1945.

My mother was a new bride when my dad shipped overseas. She moved in with her parents while he was gone and wrote to him every single day.  It was those kind of letters from their Sweethearts, that kept American Servicemen's moral up.  It was what they were fighting for. It was what they wanted to get home to.

When the war ended my dad returned home in 1946 and I  was born in 1947.  This was a typical story for most returning Soldiers and American middle class families and it was the beginning of the Baby Boom.

Maybelline set the stage for my family saga to play out on.  Read my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It and meet the family who gave the world beautiful eyes.

Be sure to drop over to my Hilarious Saffron Rules Blog and see what life for me was like in 1964. http://saffronsrule.com/

Maybelline expands with population during 1950s.

Maybelline Grows as the average middle class family expands in the 1950s.

Noel Allen with his children Chuck and Nancy in California.

An American dream, 1957 - Two or three kids, a home in the suburbs, two cars in the garage and a dad who works in a corporate job.  Except this isn't just any typical family, this is my cousin Chuck, BB1, the car guy with his dad Noel Allen and sister Nancy. 

Eva and Ches Haines family, 1955 in Deerfield, Illinois.

From left to right,  Tom Lyle's sister Eva's family - Jackie, Bob, Dick Westhouse, Marilyn, John Gary, June, & Eva.  Front row, Marilyn and Dick's sons, David Lyle, Richard Gerald and  June's daughter Kathy.



While Maybelline commercials were being shown on all the popular 50's shows on TV, The Maybelline families on the West Coast and Chicago were living normal middle class lives, never realizing that someday Maybelline would change our lives forever.

read more about how the selling of Maybelline in 1967 changed our lives, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Maybelline launches it's brand on television in the 1950's.

Maybelline had it's Biggest year by the end of 1949 and profits continued to rise in the 1950's, when Tom Lyle launched Maybelline's  "Before and After" advertisements on television...  Baby Boomers would become the largest generation in history and ultimately  the most powerful spending machine in the world. 



Maybelline - 1949 - "Before and After."