1920's dance craze, sprang from Harlem.

 1920s dances seen in Silent Films, had interesting roots and helped Maybelline become an overnight sensation in the rebellious, Jazz Age. 

In 1923 when the Broadway show "Runnin' Wild," featured a tune called The Charleston.....

 a phenomenon was born. 

While the Charleston as a dance probably came from the "star" or challenge dances, that were all part of the African-American dance called Juba, the particular sequence of steps which appeared in Runnin' Wild, were probably newly devised for popular appeal.

The Charleston was the dance that captured the spirit of the 1920s. It was danced with wild abandon by a new generation of independen​t young flappers and Jazzbo's.

Tango sprang from the poor and the disadvantaged, in Argentina tenement blocks and on street corners, to become...

 The Dance of Love.

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Tango Scene.

  Rudolph Valentino dancing tango.  Silent movie; sixth best grossing silent film of all time; turned Rudolph Valentino into a super star and gave him the image of the 'Latin Lover'

Harlem's increasing popularity as an entertainment district, as well as a vibrant creative center for African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s eventually saw both the creation and popularizing of Lindy Hop.

Born in the late 1920's, the Lindy Hop is the Grandfathe​r of swing dances. But it wasn't until after the opening of the Savoy Ballroom that Lindy Hop got its name and a home. At the Savoy  the Lindy Hop got hotter and hotter.

Upper and middle class white audiences were exposed to Harlem's working class entertainment, at first through white audiences attending black venues and shows in Harlem, but later through traveling shows, popular music and cinema and prompting a mainstream thirst for "black" cultural forms, like the Lindy Hop. 

My grandmother, Evelyn Boecher Williams  on the right, with her sister, Verona Boecher Stroh, are pictured here at a Halloween party in their family's ballroom, in Chicago, around, 1920. 

Nana, went on to dance with the Ballets Russes, and like so many girls in her generation.... rebelling from the straight-laced ways of Old World thinking..... hoped to become an actress/dancer, in Hollywood Silent Films.  But she met and fell in love with my grandfather, William Preston Williams and gave up her dream, to be a wife and mother.  However, she kept up her love of dancing, all her life and even taught me the Charleston and the Tango, when I was 15. 

With the wild abandon..... Jazz Age dances..... brought into 1920's culture.... epitomized in film.... it was only natural for young women to gravitate towards Maybelline.  Here is a Jazz Age Maybelline ad, that appealed to the girl ready, to Jazz it up, for a night of dancing, movie going, or just ridding in cars with boys.


My cousin, Linda Hughes, (Mabel Williams granddaughter and Maybelline's namesake,) and I, have loved working together all week, creating the

Vintage Maybelline Silent Film and Concert Series, to celebrate, THE ARTIST, winning the Oscar, for BEST PICTURE...  


We have one more day to go before it all comes to an end, so stay tuned. 

Next week the Blog will head towards Tom Lyle Williams, classic, 1940 Packard Victoria.  We hope you have enjoyed the ride so far.

Maybelline Mascaraed Eyes in 1917? Not for the "Faint Of Heart!"

One word summed up Preston Williams and that word was Evelyn!  What was it about that woman that kept him fascinated for so many years?

Evelyn and Bunny Boecher, 1912

My grandmother wasn't just another pretty face looking for a meal ticket according to her.  Oh no!  She was not only beautiful, she was talented, tenacious and disciplined as well as a little cunning, competitive and ruthless truth be known.  Fine qualities for a man, but in 1917 not quite what most men wanted in a wife.  Evelyn cut her teeth on excelling and winning.  She constantly sought the attention of her strict German parents and old-world musical and dance teachers who called her a prodigy.

  My grandmother studied the violin from age 4 to 16 and was accepted into  Chicago's Musical College at an early age --- however she hated the idea of spending the rest of her life with an instrument glued to her left shoulder.  She adored Ballet and also studied with the finest teachers.  When it came time to decide her future she begged her parents to allow her to focus on ballet and they agreed only if she and her sister Verona, a talented pianist, and her little sister Bunny a gifted trumpet player, continued to entertain with their little trio at parties in the family ballroom on the third story of their Chicago brownstone.  

Oct 27, 1917 Fred, Evelyn and her sister Verona and Charlie Stroh

Verona and Charlie, with Fred and the fabulous Evelyn, 1917

 All three girls of course agreed but when Evelyn was accepted into The Ballets Russes in 1917, at age 16 she was finally allowed to put down her violin and tour across the country with one of the most influential theatre companies of the 20th century.  Evelyn's natural talent, grace and beauty set her apart from most young women in her generation and she lived in a glamours world of ground-breaking artists, contemporary choreographers, composers and dancers.  She learned to interpret Classical, Neo-Classical, Romantic, Neo-Romantic, Avant-Garde, Expressionist, Abstract, and Orientalist styles of dance while also finishing her high school diploma with a tutor on the road with her.  

I'm sure that when Preston Williams saw Evelyn Boecher with her sister Bunny, walking down the street at the 1922 Memorial Day Parade, he must have said to himself,  Wow what a Woman! 

And don't forget since Evelyn was used to wearing stage makeup she was quite comfortable with her eyes heavily made up with Maybelline while most young girls were still a bit faint of heart being seen in public with heavily mascaraed lashes.   

Evelyn and Preston with my dad, William Preston Williams Jr., 1925

Read more about the fascinating love affair between Evelyn and Preston Williams, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind it.

Caution, don't read before going to bed!  you won't be able to stop turning the pages and may loose sleep!