Sharrie Williams Grandmother..... Maybelline Heiress, Evelyn F. Williams, 1968
By Holly D. - This review is from: The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It
I was only casually acquainted with the glamorous woman at the center of this saga. I was 22 years old in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and she was a brilliant but oddly vulnerable creature on the outer boundaries of my life then. This book answers so many questions I have had about her for many years. I am so glad it exists, and even more glad that it was written in a dynamic and thrilling style. The man who may be partially responsible for her death has been aptly described by the author. This book captures the legend that surrounded the woman and her family, and it is a great page-turner.
More importantly, the shining character of the remarkable Tom Lyle Williams guides this book. Anyone interested in the fashion world and the power of artifice will absolutely relish each and every chapter, to the very tumultuous end of the story.
The man who would become a cosmetics giant, Tom Lyle Williams,was a private man.....When TL launched the Maybelline Co. in 1915, mascara was deemed the “province of whores and homosexuals.”
He protected his Company and his family, by staying out of view from the public and an every intrusive press. In the 1930's, Tom Lyle ran his empire from a distance, cloistered behind the gates of his Hollywood Villa Valentino and contracted Movie Stars to represent him in the media.
From the earliest days of silent film, he sought Photoplay stars, like Viola Dana, Phyllis Haver, and Clara Bow. Throughout the 1930’s “Golden Age of Hollywood,” TL splashed magazines with glitz and glamour, using Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and Merle Oberon. World War ll brought in the Pin-up girls, including, Bettie Grable, Elyse Knox, Hedy Lamaar, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner.
The 1950’s, ushered in the Girl Next Door... represented by Debby Reynolds and Grace Kelly. When Maybelline appeared on Television in the early 1950’s, Tom Lyle decided to appeal to a more universal image and rather than promote film stars created the cool, exotic, sophisticated image..... Appealing to foreign as well as domestic markets.
Joan Crawford – had her teeth pulled and replaced to have a more beautiful
smile and became Maybelline’s spokesperson for years.
Merle Oberon – was in an accident that disfigured the skin on her face, yet in films she looked flawless because of pancake make up.
Betty Grable - took over for the leading song and dance actress Alice Faye and became a big star in musicals as well As one of Maybelline’s top models.
Debby Reynolds - was to be Maybelline’s leading model in the 1950’s until Tom Lyle decided to change his ad campaign from the all American Girl to a more international exotic sophisticate in his TV commercials and print magazines.
Maybelline was the sole sponsorfor the Grace Kelly, Prince Rainier lll, wedding in Monaco appeal to a more universal image and rather than promote film stars created the cool, exotic, sophisticated woman who would appeal to foreign as well as domestic markets. Be sure to visit my new blog SAFFRONS RULE at http://saffronsrule.com/2013/08/19/today-i-was-in-a-good-mood-and-felt-real-popular/
In the 1940's, all the great bands played the Hollywood Palladium, including Freddie Martin, Phil Harris, Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Bob Crosby, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Kay Kyser, Les Brown, Artie Shaw, Wood Herman, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, Alice Faye, the Andrew Sisters and Gene Krupa.
During WW2 the Palladium hosted a radio broadcast. Betty Grable and other Stars would greet servicemen and ask for their favorite song to be played, while kids listened on their car radio's, while cruising Sunset Blvd.
Betty Grable without makeup, in a before and after Maybelline ad, 1940, made girls aware of what a difference Maybelline made in their sex appeal.
A big Star like Grable, brought thousands of girls into the dime stores to purchase Maybelline.... before going dancing at the Palladium that night.
Maybelline print ad's like this were placed in all the movie magazines during WW ll.
Hedy Lamarr like many other big Stars, were featured in Maybelline ads in the 1940s.
Servicemen, were regulars at the Palladium during the War and Maybelline helped sell War Bonds with ads like this placed in movie magazines.
The Hollywood Palladium opened with vocalist Frank Sinatra playing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
A few weeks later, they recorded an album at the Palladium.
The Palladium that night must have seemed like a dreamy refuge in a world that was growing darker
by the day."
Yet the excitement must have blown the top off the Ballroom..... with six bars serving liquor and two more serving soft drinks and a $1 cover charge and a $3 charge for dinner.
Dorothy Lamour was there to snip the ribbon, spangled with orchids, and as Jack Benny, Judy Garland and Lana Turner looked on, hundreds of couples danced the jitterbug.
During WW ll, radio shows originated from the Palladium to raise funds to aid war sufferers in Britain. Celebrities guest included; Ronald Coleman, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, Myrna Loy and Charles Boyer.
Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra,
"I'll Never Smile Again," 1940.
Read more about the Palladium during WW ll, and all the big Stars that were featured in Maybelline ads, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.
America sinks deeper into hopelessness, during the 1930's, yet, Maybelline expands as the demand for beautiful eyes, continues to grow.
Top picture, Billy, Preston and Evelyn, with Tom Lyle. Bottom picture, Tom Lyle and his son Tom Jr. Right, Tom Lyle, President and sole owner of The Maybelline Company, with his 1934 Packard.
Tom Lyle, brilliantly used top actresses, to advertise Maybelline in film magazines, during the golden age of the 1930's.
One of Maybelline's most popular stars, Betty Grable, highlights the joys of beautifully made-up eyes. Grable was part of the Hollywood Star System Tom Lyle helped create. Read more about Tom Lyle Williams, sensational advertising techniques, that helped make some of the biggest Hollywood stars, and Maybelline, a household word, in......
The Maybelline Story. Get a signed copy today at www.maybellinestory.com.
By Holly - This review is from: The Maybelline Story: ...and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It (Paperback)
I was only casually acquainted with the glamorous woman at the center of this saga. I was 22 years old in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and she was a brilliant but oddly vulnerable creature on the outer boundaries of my life then. This book answers so many questions I have had about her for many years. I am so glad it exists, and even more glad that it was written in a dynamic and thrilling style. The man who may be partially responsible for her death has been aptly described by the author. This book captures the legend that surrounded the woman and her family, and it is a great page-turner.
More importantly, the shining character of the remarkable Tom Lyle Williams guides this book. Anyone interested in the fashion world and the power of artifice will absolutely relish each and every chapter, to the very tumultuous end of the story. Thank you for following the Maybelline Blog!!!
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.
Queen Victoria set the standard for women at the turn of the Century. The Gibson Girl with hair piled high on her head, a squeaky clean face and a pinch of the cheek for color, was the image set in advertising. Virtue replaced makeup - while remaining a long suffering childlike woman - was promoted in early silent films. In other words it was a tough audience when Lash-Brow-Ine was introduced in 1915, and Maybelline in 1916. How did it make it?
Noel Williams future wife second on left, Frances Allen Williams, 1910.
This was the audience Lash-Brow-Ine faced in 1915.
Lash-Brow-Ine became Maybelline in 1916
Tom Lyle Williams with his father TJ and his sister Mabel, name-sake for Maybelline, 1916.
First Lash-Brow-Ine ad in 1915.
First Maybelline ad in 1916.
First box of Maybelline 1916.
Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline advertised in Photoplay magazine here seen with Mary Pickford the ultimate childlike woman in 1915.
It was advertising that made Maybelline the most popular eye beautifier in the world, and it was Tom Lyle Williams who was the King of Advertising from 1915 to 1968 when Maybelline sold to Plough Inc., and left the Williams family after 53 years. Today Maybelline New York is owned by the French company L'Oreal. Read all about it in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.
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 Amechein 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.
Thank You to the 105 countries following The Maybelline Blog!
