Actress Alice Faye and Maybelline's Tom Lyle Williams, mistaken for Jean Harlow and Howard Hughes in the 1930's

                    Times Square 1938, during the filming of 
                             "Alexander's Ragtime Band" 

Alice Faye

Tom Lyle Williams

My aunt Verona said she remembered once running into Tom Lyle and Alice Faye at a posh restaurant in 1938, right after the filming of “Alexanders Ragtime Band.” She said Tom Lyle and Alice Faye made a devastatingly handsome couple, he so tall dark and handsome, and she so petite, blond and glamorous.  “For a second,” she said, “I thought it was Howard Hughes and Jean Harlow.”

Howard Hughes

Jean Harlow

Harlow had already died, of course, but Alice Faye, was a blond bombshell that did have a Harlow aura. Verona went on to tell me that at that time Maybelline had a giant neon sign in Times Square and believed it was Alice who insisted that particular view of Times Square be shot and used in the film.  Verona was sick I didn’t tell Alice who my uncle was, and she knew Tom Lyle would  be very disappointed as well.



Excerpt taken from my book, The Maybelline Story.

Be sure to check out my new blog, Saffrons Rule at http://saffronsrule.com/

HEDY LAMARR, a plan for mixing beauty with brains, in 1938.

Mabel's husband, Chet Hewes, protects the Maybelline company from being split up in an antitrust suit.

Vogue cover, July 1938.  Beauty and brains, now in the fast lane.

Fashion, style and glamour - An American Institution.. and a new platform for Beauty and Brains.

1938 Vogue Magazine article, featuring Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman in the world. 

Maybelline model and Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr helped develop the technology that would someday, make cellphones, Wi-Fi and GPS possible.

Chet and Mabel Hewes wth Ches and Eva Haines, California, 1938.

Chet and Mabel flew to California with Ches and Eva to visit Tom Lyle at the Villa Valentino in 1938.  It was a pleasure trip, with some very important business to discuss.  "What to do about an IRS suit, looming over the Maybelline Co."  The issue, was the amount of money being paid to family members who were also executives at the company.

Tom Lyle, Mabel and Chet, with Ches and Eva at the Villa Valentino, 1938.

In 1938, following a number of years of success with the US economy, a recession hit, causing unemployment to rise back up to 19%.  While the average wage was $1,730, Maybelline executives, were pulling in over $16,000 a year.  So, before Tom Lyle, Chet Hewes and Noel Williams headed to Washington DC to face an IRS audit. 

Tom Lyle, Eva Haines, Chet and Mabel  Hewes and Ches Haines in Palm Springs California.

Tom Lyle, and the executives at the Maybelline company were audited that year and after several appeals, the IRS won, and Maybelline was forced to pay back taxes.  This information was finally documented in a lost file of Noel J. Williams.  Check August posts for blogs regarding Noel's lost file.

 Besides Maybelline,  here are some other big names making news in 1938.

Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.



Du Pont announces a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".



Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
 

Horse Racing: Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral by four lengths in their famous match race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.



Adolf Hitler is Time magazine's "Man of the Year", as the most influential person of the year.


Read the whole story in:

 The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

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