Maybelline founder Tom Lyle Williams

Showing posts with label Clark Gable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clark Gable. Show all posts

Loretta Young, Maybelline's Hollywood Madonna, a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom was a woman of substance.


Nobody loves old Hollywood movies and Movie Stars more than I do.  Not just because so many of them endorsed Maybelline ad's between 1915-1967, but because my mother's father Andrew Mac Donald was a Motion Picture Pioneer in Hollywood from 1915 to 1967.  I grew up surrounded by Maybelline history from my great uncle Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Company and stories from my grandfather Andy who worked at MGM and knew most every Star at the studio.


 My grandfather's story is lightly glazed over in my book, The Maybelline Story, because it's so extensive it needs to be a book itself, but you do get a brief picture of what his life was like during the Golden Age of MGM.  That being said, you can understand why I was so fixated on wanting to be a Star myself, or at least a Maybelline Model.


I asked my grandfather about Clark Gable, who I adored as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.  I was shocked when he said  "Gable was a very bad man," but wouldn't elaborate on the subject.  I never knew what he meant until this book about Loretta Young, came.  My grandfather disapproved of  Gable for abandoning Loretta Young when she was pregnant with their child, during the making of Call of the Wild in 1935.  He rejected their daughter all his life.


This story is clearly spelled out in Loretta Young's book, Hollywood Madonna, and though it makes me sad, I also realize how the Hollywood Star System worked at MGM and how any scandal could destroy a Stars career.  Gable and Young put their careers over their daughter and ruined her childhood.




Loretta Young's Daughter talks about her mother and father during the making of Call of the Wild.





Maybelline and Loretta Young represent classic beauty in the 1950s. 




Maybelline as well represented fashion and glamour with serenity and grace, always ahead of it's time.



Click below to view Lorretta Young as televisions best dressed most elegant woman in the industry. 






Like Loretta Young, Tom Lyle Williams was blessed with classic features and demended perfection in himself and his Maybelline Company.



  Want to meet Tom Lyle Williams and the Williams Family, be sure to purchase The Maybelline Story and brace yourself for quite a ride. 



THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW TRANSFORMED WOMEN'S ROLES.



Loretta Young hosted and starred in the well-received half hour anthology series The Loretta Young Show. It ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to appear dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns. Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time
The Loretta Young Show, put women front stage and center, and created a vehicle for Maybelline to reach a larger target market in the 1950's.


The Loretta Young Show ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to come through a door dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns.


The Lorette Young, TV series, worked through the image of the glamorous Hollywood star, and would forever remain a phenomenon of 1950s television, the period in which the Hollywood studio system that had created larger-than-life stars came to a close.


Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time.


In 1988, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the
entertainment industry.






Maybelline capitalized on Loretta Young's fashionable image. with a series of ads that illustrated her persona.. and affirmed postwar ideas, that true happiness, was possible, within the domestic/heterosexual sphere of the middle-class home.

Loretta Young, Maybelline's Hollywood Madonna


I guess nobody loves old Hollywood movies and Movie Stars more than I do. Not just because so many of them endorsed Maybelline ad's between 1920-1960, but because my mother's father Andrew Mac Donald was a Motion Picture Pioneer in Hollywood from 1915 to 1967.  I grew up surrounded by Maybelline history from my great uncle Tom Lyle Williams, founder of the Maybelline Company and stories from my grandfather Andy who knew most every Star that worked for MGM.


 My grandfather's story is lightly glazed over in my book, The Maybelline Story, because it's so extensive it needs to be a book itself, but you do get a brief picture of what his life was like during the Golden Age of MGM.  That being said, you can understand why I was so fixated on wanting to be a Star myself, or at least a Maybelline Model.


I used to ask my grandfather questions about the different stars at MGM and once inquired about Clark Gable, who I adored as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.  I was shocked when he said  "Gable was a very bad man," but wouldn't elaborate on the subject.  I never knew what he meant until this book about Loretta Young, came out last year.  I now realize my grandfather disrespected Gable for abandoning Loretta Young after she got pregnant with their child, during the making of Call of the Wild in 1935 and rejecting their daughter all his life.  This story is clearly spelled out in Loretta Young's book, Hollywood Madonna, and though it makes me sad, I also realize how the Hollywood Star System worked at MGM and how any scandal could destroy a Stars career.  Gable and Young put their careers over their daughter and ruined her childhood.




Loretta Young's Daughter talks about her mother and father during the making of Call of the Wild.

Here is a post I did on Maybelline's model Loretta Young.




THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW TRANSFORMED WOMEN'S ROLES.

The Loretta Young Show, put women front stage and center, and created a vehicle for Maybelline to reach a larger target market in the 1950's.
The Loretta Young Show ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to come through a door dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns.
Maybelline capitalized on Loretta Young's fashionable image.... with a series of ads that illustrated her persona..... and affirmed postwar ideas, that true happiness, was possible, within the domestic/heterosexual
sphere of the middle-class home.

The Lorette Young, TV series, worked through the image of the glamorous Hollywood star, and would forever remain a phenomenon of 1950s television, the period in which the Hollywood studio system that had created larger-than-life stars came to a close.

Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years,the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time.
In 1988, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the
entertainment industry.



Young was married to actor Grant Withers from 1930 to 1931. After that she was involved in affairs with Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable and in 1935 had Gable's child, a daughter.




View video of "The Loretta Young Show" US TV series (1953--61.)


Read all about Maybelline's influence on Women's culture in the 1950s, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

MULTI MILLION DOLLAR CAR...Clark Gable and Carole Lombard fell in love in his '35 Duesenberg.


Clark Gable was the original owner of this beautiful 1935 Duesenberg JN with custom coachwork by Bohman and Schwartz.


Gable, Lombard and a '35 Duesenberg

By JERRY GARRETT / The New York Times

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/auto-news/gable-lombard-and-a-35-duesenberg-647560/#ixzz24UpTV4Hb 




Clark Gables 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe  by Gooding & Company was up for auction last weekend in Pebble Beach, California at the Concours d' Elegance.  Bidding went as high as $6.4 million but that wasn't high enough to meet the seller's predetermined "reserve" price, so this Duesenberg didn't sell.
The glamours Duesenberg played a part in Gable's famous relationship with Carole Lombard. The two met at a party after which they went for a long drive...and the rest is Hollywood history.



Of course all this talk about Hollywood glamour makes me think about my great uncle Tom Lyle Williams and his 1940 Packard Victoria, coachwork by Bohman and Schwartz.. Here it is today in this video.
Maybelline Founder Tom Lyle Williams, standing next to his 1940 Packard Victoria at his Villa Valentino in the Hollywood HIlls. 

Tom Lyle Williams, Packard Victoria restored by Steve Snyder's father, Bill Snyder, owner of the car today.
http://vimeo.com/29981530   Speaking of classic romantic cars, check out this video of my father Bill Williams Clenet Series 1, number 13.....which placed second in the Neo-Classic category.  The 5th annual Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance, was held February 17 – 26, 2012, at The Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort in Rancho Mirage, California. Hailed by Der Spiegel magazine as one of the "Top Ten Classic Car Shows in the World."   
Want to know more about Tom Lyle Williams 1940 Packard Victoria or his nephew Bill Williams 1977 Clenet made by Clenet Coachworks in Santa Barbara, or anything about Chuck Williams-BB1, Steve Snyder Donna Williams or me, Sharrie Williams, just click on our names.

THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW TRANSFORMED WOMEN'S ROLES.

The Loretta Young Show, put women front stage and center, and created a vehicle for Maybelline to reach a larger target market in the 1950's.

The Loretta Young Show ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to come through a door dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns.
Maybelline capitalized on Loretta Young's fashionable image.... with a series of ads that illustrated her persona..... and affirmed postwar ideas, that true happiness, was possible, within the domestic/heterosexual
sphere of the middle-class home.

The Lorette Young, TV series, worked through the image of the glamorous Hollywood star, and would forever remain a phenomenon of 1950s television, the period in which the Hollywood studio system that had created larger-than-life stars came to a close.

Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time.

In 1988, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the
entertainment industry.



Young was married to actor Grant Withers from 1930 to 1931. After that she was involved in affairs with Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable and in 1935 had Gable's child, a daughter.


View video of "The Loretta Young Show" US TV series (1953--61.)


Read all about Maybelline's influence on Women's culture in the 1950s, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.


Chicago's, Elaborate Movie Palaces,

 In Chicago, during the 1920s, Silent Films were no longer a little Nickelodeon business... 



They were big business.... that required magnificent movie houses.... to display, larger than life Hollywood extravaganzas.




In late August of 1925 the Uptown Theatre opened its doors to the people of Chicago under a marquee that proclaimed, “one of the great art buildings of the world—an acre of seats!”



The Palace Theatre opened on October 4, 1926 and featured a splendor previously unseen in Chicago - a breathtaking vision inspired by the palaces of Fontainebleau and Versailles.



As one of the first motion picture palaces whose décor was inspired by the Far East, Chicago's Oriental Theatre opened to much fanfare on May 8, 1926. 



The grandeur of The Chicago Theatre left its visitors breathless....and was called "the Wonder Theatre of the World" when it opened on October 26, 1921.



Norma Talmadge, in "The Sign on the Door." was the first film viewed at The Chicago Theatre, by over 400 guests, who paid 25 cents until 1 p.m., 35 cents in the afternoon and 50 cents after 6 p.m.



But, the little theatre, most people remember..... opened in 1914.....

when, Biograph Theatre premiered D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, and continued on as a grand movie theater through the Depression, two world wars, and into the 50's and 60's.
and on the evening of July 22, 1934, gangster, John Dillinger, steped out of the Biograph theatre, where he and two girlfriends had watched, Manhattan Melodrama starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy.



  They no sooner reached the sidewalk, when several shots killed the most prolific bank robber in modern American history and the general public's favorite, Public Enemy No. 1...... John Dillinger.



Pictured here, looking like Bonnie and Clyde's gang,
 in Chicago, around 1923, are Tom Lyle Williams on the left with his partner, Emery Shaver seated on the
 ground with his dog. Tom Lyle's sister Eva and her Fiancee Chester Haines, are on the far right. 
(not sure who the other two people are.)



Tom Lyle Williams, a simple country boy, from Morganfield Kentucky, moved to
Chicago to start a mail order buisness and unexpectidely entrupeneured, 
The Maybelline Company.   



In 1913, when he watched Silent Films at the Nickelodium... 


where he worked for $6.50 a week, it was a big deal. 



 But now, living in Chicago, where movie theatres looked like Palaces - gangsters were
 celebrities and Big City Life, was really BIG!
There was no going back to the farm!


Frank Sinatra - Chicago.

Sharrie Williams and her cousin,
 Linda Hughes, will continue,

 Silent Film and Concert Series week,

tomorrow, with Vintage Maybelline,
 Movie Stars from the 1920s.

Stay tuned, as Sharrie Williams and her cousin,
Chuck Williams aka, BB1,  finally see theirgreat-uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, 1940 Packard Victoria, next weekend.