Maybelline’s founder wanted to be known as the "King of Advertising" not the man who invented mascara

The man who would become a cosmetics giant, Tom Lyle Williams, was a private figure who hid from the public because when he launched the Maybelline Co., mascara was deemed the “province of whores and homosexuals.” To protect his family from scandal, and to stay out of view from the scrutiny of the press, Tom Lyle ran his empire from a distance, cloistered behind the gates of his Hollywood Hills Rudolph Valentino Villa.  He contracted movie stars to represent him in all forms of media.  From the earliest days of silent film he sought Photoplay stars, Viola Dana, Phyllis Haver, and Clara Bow.

Throughout the 1930’s “Golden Age of Hollywood,” he splashed magazines with glamour, using Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and Merle Oberon to represent the ideal Maybelline image.  During the World War ll era, he turned to pin up girls like Bettie Grable, Elyse Knox, Hedy Lamaar, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner, to inspire the boys fighting for our Country and keep Maybelline ingredients flowing.  By the 1950’s, the girl next door, represented by Debby Reynolds and Grace Kelly, appealed to the emerging young mothers and housewives. 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 woman who would appeal 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 sponsor for 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.  

Short history of Maybelline Founder Tom Lyle Williams and the Maybelline Company

The Maybelline Story" written by Sharrie Williams is a historical narrative of Maybelline, one of the most iconic beauty brands in the world. The book explores the brand's humble beginnings and its rise to become one of the most well-known and successful makeup companies in the world.

The book covers the life of the founder, Tom Lyle Williams, and his journey to creating Maybelline, as well as the innovations, challenges, and triumphs the brand went through. Additionally, the book tells the story of how Maybelline became a trailblazer for the beauty industry and its impact on the society and culture.

In the 1920s, the cosmetic industry experienced significant growth as women's fashion and social norms were changing. The 1920s were known as the "Roaring Twenties" and were a time of great social and cultural change, particularly for women. During this decade, women began to wear shorter skirts, bob their hair, and apply makeup to their faces as a way of expressing their newfound freedom and individuality.

Maybelline was founded by my great uncle, Tom Lyle Williams in 1915. The brand originally sold a mascara product called "Maybelline Cake Mascara," which was a combination of petroleum jelly and coal dust. The mascara was applied with a brush, and Tom Lyle, named the product after his sister Mabel. Maybelline was one of the first companies to market makeup specifically to women, and it advertised its products as a way for women to enhance their natural beauty. 

In the 1930s, Tom Lyle continued to expand the company's product line and increase its visibility. He added new items  and advertised heavily in magazines. The company continued to be one of the first companies that marketed makeup specifically to women.

Maybelline was a successful brand in the 1930s, thanks to its innovative marketing techniques, and the continued popularity of its mascaras and other makeup products.

In the 1940s, Maybelline continued to grow in popularity as a makeup brand, thanks in part to its innovative marketing strategies. Tom Lyle continued to advertise heavily in magazines, and also expanded the company's product line.

During World War II, many consumer goods were hard to come by, and this affected Maybelline as well. Tom Lyle had to get creative with his supply chain and he did so by rationing and repackaging the available products.

During this time the company was also affected by the war effort, some of their staff went to fight in the war, this affected the productivity and the ability to advertise and market the products as heavily as before. Despite these difficulties, Maybelline managed to maintain its position as a popular makeup brand.

After the war, with the economy recovering and a return to normalcy, Maybelline resumed its growth and by the end of the 1940s, it was one of the leading makeup brands in the United States.

In the 1950s, Maybelline continued to be a popular and successful makeup brand as Tom Lyle, continued to expand its product offerings and improve its advertising and marketing strategies. The company added more shades and options to the existing products and by the late 50s he began to target specific audiences like African American customers.

Maybelline also began to invest more in television advertising, as the medium gained popularity in the 1950s. The company sponsored TV shows and created commercials that featured models and actresses wearing Maybelline products. This helped to increase the brand's visibility and reach a wider audience.

Overall, the 1950s were a period of continued growth and success for Maybelline, thanks to its effective advertising and marketing strategies, and its expanding product line.

In 1968, Tom Lyle, sold  Maybelline to Plough Inc. and was no longer actively involved in its operations.

Plough Inc. continued to advertise heavily on television and invest in new product developments. The company came out with new mascara, eyeliner, and lipsticks, as well as new shades of eyeshadows and other items, in order to keep up with changing fashion and beauty trends.

The company also continued to expand internationally in the 1970s. Maybelline products were exported to even more countries, which helped to increase the brand's visibility and reach a wider audience.

Maybelline had also grown into a big corporation by then and was purchased by a large pharmaceutical company called Schering-Plough. This gave the company a deeper financial pockets and resources to invest in further growth and expansion.

Overall, the 1970s were a period of continued growth and success for Maybelline, as the brand continued to be one of the most popular and well-known makeup brands in the world, despite the founder, Tom Lyle Williams stepping down and no longer being involved in the company 

1980s, Tom Lyle Williams, the founder of Maybelline, had passed away and was no longer involved with the company. By that time Maybelline had been a publicly traded company and was owned by different corporation and was operated by a new management team.

Throughout the decade, Maybelline continued to be a popular and successful brand. The company continued to advertise heavily on television and invested in new product developments. The company came out with new mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks, as well as new shades of eye shadows and other items, in order to keep up with changing fashion and beauty trends.

In the 1980s, Maybelline also expanded its product line to include a wider range of makeup products, including foundation, concealer, and powder, which helped the company appeal to an even wider range of customers.

The Maybelline Story expands on the personal stories of the people behind the Maybelline Brand. It reads like a Novel, but, alas is an exciting true Story.

Struggle being Gay in Hollywood during the last 100 years

Gay Life in in Hollywood 1920s through 2022.

Sharrie Williams, Author of the Maybelline Story.

During the 1920s, also known as the "Roaring Twenties," there was a significant cultural shift in the United States and many other parts of the world. This was a time of great social and political change, and the gay community was no exception.

While homosexuality was still stigmatized and criminalized in many places during the 1920s, there were also some significant developments for the gay community. In particular, the 1920s saw the emergence of a visible and organized gay subculture in major cities such as New York, Paris, and Berlin.

In the United States, the 1920s marked the beginning of the "Harlem Renaissance," a period of great artistic and cultural flowering among African Americans in Harlem, New York. This was also a time of increased visibility and acceptance for the gay community in Harlem, as many LGBTQ+ people found a sense of belonging and support within the Harlem Renaissance's artistic and intellectual circles.

Despite this increased visibility and acceptance, however, homosexuality was still largely taboo and criminalized during the 1920s. Many LGBTQ+ people lived their lives in secret, and those who were open about their sexual orientation or gender identity often faced discrimination and persecution.

Overall, the 1920s were a time of great change and cultural upheaval for the LGBTQ+ community, with both challenges and opportunities.

Gay life in 1930s Hollywood 

Tom Lyle Williams Christmas of 1967. Shortly after selling the Maybelline Co. To Plough Inc.

Life for gay people in 1930s Hollywood was likely very difficult, as homosexuality was not widely accepted or understood at the time. Many gay people in Hollywood during this period likely had to keep their sexual orientation hidden in order to protect their careers and personal lives. There were no openly gay celebrities in Hollywood during the 1930s, and it was common for gay people in the entertainment industry to be closeted for fear of being ostracized or discriminated against. This often meant leading a double life, as many gay people in Hollywood during this time were forced to marry people of the opposite sex in order to maintain the appearance of conformity.

Hollywood in the 1940s was a difficult place for gay men and women. The film industry was extremely homophobic, and many people in the industry remained in the closet for fear of being ostracized or losing their careers. It was a time when homosexuality was heavily stigmatized and discriminated against, and there was a great deal of fear and misunderstanding about it. Many gay people in Hollywood lived secret lives and kept their sexuality hidden from the public. It was not uncommon for studios to insist that actors and actresses hide their homosexuality or face blacklisting. Despite the difficulties, there were a few openly gay people in Hollywood during this time, including actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Alla Nazimova, and actor William Haines.

Conditions for gay people in Hollywood did not improve significantly in the 1950s. Homophobia and discrimination were still widespread, and many gay people in the film industry continued to hide their sexuality for fear of losing their careers. In the 1950s, the Hollywood blacklist was in effect, and many people in the film industry were accused of being communists or having communist sympathies. This blacklist also targeted gay people, and many were blacklisted or forced to leave the industry because of their sexuality. Despite the challenges, there were a few openly gay people in Hollywood during this time, including actors Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift, and director James Whale.

 The 1960s were a time of significant social and cultural change, and this included greater acceptance of homosexuality. However, gay people in the United States still faced a great deal of discrimination and legal challenges. Homosexuality was classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973, and many states had laws that criminalized homosexuality. In Hollywood, gay people were still largely closeted, and there was a great deal of fear and stigma surrounding homosexuality in the film industry. Despite these challenges, the 1960s were also a time of growing visibility and activism for the gay rights movement. The Stonewall riots in 1969, in which gay people fought back against police harassment at a gay bar in New York City, are widely considered to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.

The 1970s were a time of significant social and cultural change, and this was especially true in Hollywood. While the film industry has always been home to a diverse range of people, the 1970s saw the emergence of a visible and influential gay community in Hollywood.

During this time, many gay actors, writers, and other industry professionals were able to be more open about their sexual orientation than ever before. This was due in part to the increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in mainstream society, as well as to the efforts of gay rights activists who worked to promote visibility and acceptance.

However, it was still a difficult time for many LGBTQ+ people in Hollywood and beyond. Homosexuality was only fully legalized in the United States in 2003, and many gay people faced discrimination, marginalization, and even violence.

Despite these challenges, the gay community in Hollywood played a vital role in shaping the cultural landscape of the 1970s and beyond. Through their work in film, television, and other media, they helped to bring LGBTQ+ issues to the forefront of public consciousness and worked to create a more inclusive and accepting society.

The 1980s were a time of significant change for the gay community in Hollywood and beyond. While the 1970s had seen the emergence of a visible and influential gay community in the film industry, the 1980s saw the continuation of this trend and the growth of a more vocal and activist gay community.

During this time, many gay actors, writers, and other industry professionals were able to be more open about their sexual orientation than ever before, and there were a number of high-profile individuals who came out publicly during this decade. This increased visibility helped to promote greater understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, and many gay rights organizations were founded or gained greater prominence during this time.

However, the 1980s were also a time of significant challenges for the gay community. The HIV/AIDS crisis, which began in the 1970s, continued to have a devastating impact on the gay community, and many people lost their lives to the disease. In addition, LGBTQ+ people continued to face discrimination, marginalization, and violence, and there were several instances of violent attacks against gay individuals during this decade.

Despite these challenges, the gay community in Hollywood continued to thrive and make a significant impact on the cultural landscape of the 1980s. Through their work in film, television, and other media, they helped to bring LGBTQ+ issues to the forefront of public consciousness and worked to create a more inclusive and accepting society.

The 1990s were a time of significant change for the gay community in Hollywood and beyond. While the 1980s had seen the continuation of the trend of increased visibility and activism among LGBTQ+ people, the 1990s saw the further growth of a more vocal and politically active gay community.

During this time, many gay actors, writers, and other industry professionals were able to be more open about their sexual orientation than ever before, and there were a number of high-profile individuals who came out publicly during this decade. This increased visibility helped to promote greater understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, and many gay rights organizations continued to work towards equality and acceptance.

In addition, the 1990s saw a number of significant legal and political victories for the gay community. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which had prohibited openly gay individuals from serving in the military, was repealed in 2011, and the Defense of Marriage Act, which had defined marriage as between a man and a woman, was struck down in 2015.

Despite these victories, the gay community in Hollywood and beyond continued to face significant challenges. The HIV/AIDS crisis, which had had a devastating impact on the community in the 1980s, continued to be a major issue, and LGBTQ+ people continued to face discrimination and violence.

Overall, the 1990s were a time of significant progress for the gay community in Hollywood and beyond, as they worked towards greater acceptance and equality

The 2000s were a time of significant progress for the gay community in Hollywood and beyond. While the 1990s had seen the growth of a more vocal and politically active gay community, the 2000s saw the continuation of this trend and the further advancement of LGBTQ+ rights.

Hollywood Gay life in the 21 Century 

During this time, many gay actors, writers, and other industry professionals were able to be more open about their sexual orientation than ever before, and there were a number of high-profile individuals who came out publicly during this decade. This increased visibility helped to promote greater understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, and many gay rights organizations continued to work towards equality and acceptance.

In addition, the 2000s saw a number of significant legal and political victories for the gay community. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which had prohibited openly gay individuals from serving in the military, was repealed in 2011, and the Defense of Marriage Act, which had defined marriage as between a man and a woman, was struck down in 2015. These and other victories helped to create a more inclusive and equal society for LGBTQ+ people.

Despite these victories, the gay community in Hollywood and beyond continued to face challenges. LGBTQ+ people continued to experience discrimination and violence, and the HIV/AIDS crisis remained a significant issue.

Overall, the 2000s were a time of significant progress for the gay community in Hollywood and beyond, as they worked towards greater acceptance and equality.

Made in Chicago Museum, features "The Maybelline Story "

 

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MADE INCHICAGOMUSEUM

Maybelline Company, est. 1915

Museum Artifact: Maybelline Mascara, c. 1940s

Made By: Maybelline Co. Distr., 5900 N. Ridge Ave., Chicago, IL [Edgewater]

When the company now known as Maybelline New York marked its 100th anniversary in 2015, the celebration was—much like that patently unnecessary name change—almost suspiciously disconnected from the real history of a business born, built, and largely defined in Chicago.

A promotional blitz that could have served as the long overdue “coming out” party for Maybelline’s pioneering but little-known founder, Thomas Lyle Williams (1896-1976), was instead reduced to a few vague bits of corporate trivia.

“Did you know Maybel [sic] was a real person?” a writer for Fashion Week Daily reported after attending a supermodel-laden centenary gala in NYC that spring. At the same event, Maybelline’s head of marketing, Anne Marie Nelson-Bogle, regaled the audience with a three-sentence version of the corporate origin story: “Mabel was preparing dinner and had an unfortunate cooking mishap,” she said. “She singed her brows and eyelashes! So she mixed up a little coal dust and Vaseline and applied it to her lashes and brows and the first-ever mascara and brow enhancer was born.”

Mabel was, indeed, a real person—a working class Chicago girl a few years shy of women’s suffrage. And while she may or may not have actually needed the motivation of a cooking accident to start painting her face, her experiments with make-up—inside a small family home in 1915—would inspire her 19 year-old brother, Tom Lyle Williams, to build a cosmetics empire. . . . in Chicago.

[A 1945 Maybelline ad, featuring actress Lois Collier, promoting the same small box of mascara from our museum collection. While Maybelline sold its mascara in metal vanities as early as the 1930s, our cardboard alternative was likely a product of rationing during WWII.]

History of Maybelline, Part I: Kid Mogul

“Beautiful eyelashes and eyebrows make beautiful eyes; beautiful eyes make a beautiful face.” —advertisement for Tom Lyle Williams’ first product, Lash-Brow-Ine, c. 1918

The quote above, while not exactly poetic or electrifying ad copy, was actually a somewhat revolutionary sales pitch for its day. Eyes, of course, had been the universally agreed-upon centerpieces of aesthetic beauty for eons, but in Maybelline’s worldview, the natural shape of your eyes or the color of your iris was all quite secondary to the window dressing around them. Good make-up, Tom Lyle Williams argued, was as good as “being born with it,” as the slogan would go many decades later.

[Left: Mabel Williams, the girl who started it all. Center and Right: Early advertisements for Tom Lyle Williams’ first mail order product, Lash-Brow-Ine, which he sold under the banner of “Maybell Laboratories,” a play on his sister’s name]

There have been a few different tellings over the years as to how a teenage Tom Lyle became immersed in the world of women’s make-up. Like the vast majority of gay men during his era, he lived a closeted life [Williams was married to a woman and had a child by the age of 16, before beginning what would be a life-long relationship with a man named Emery Shaver in the 1920s], so the fact that he enjoyed applying make-up to his own face—in the style of silent film stars—wasn’t exactly promoted as part of the corporate narrative. All versions of the story, though, do feature Tom getting a crash course in DIY cosmetics from his aforementioned sister Mabel—watching her apply her Vaseline / coal dust / ash concoction to her brows and eyelashes to “help them grow.”

Presuming that plenty of other girls must be doing something similar in front of their vanity mirrors, Tom Lyle [pictured] found himself a chemistry set and tried adapting his sister’s formula into a more stable brand of commercial cosmetic. We could say that he “invented” modern mascara right there, but it took a while, along with some significant help from the labs of Parke, Davis & Co., an established pharmaceutical maker. Eventually, the result was Lash-Brow-Ine, a product name that intentionally played on the popularity of the Vaseline brand, much as Maybelline would a few years later.

Tom Lyle established a small office for his new venture, “Maybell Laboratories,” at 4008 Indiana Avenue, near the Williams home at 4053 S. Prairie Avenue in Bronzeville. From there, he promoted Lash-Brow-Ine as an exclusive mail-order product, relying on a tiny ad budget to grab space in newspapers. He had a bigger obstacle than cash in the early going, however. You see, back in the 1910s, there were really only two kinds of women that society generally associated with eyelash enhancement.

“That was left to the theater and the women outside the pale of good society,” Williams delicately specified during a rare interview in 1934. “Up to comparatively recent times very few women used rouges, lipsticks, eye beautifiers and other quite obvious improvers of facial appearance. Here the real job began, because my capital was very small, and while my product was good, I was faced with the job of selling women on the idea that it was perfectly moral to use eye beautifiers.

“My job was to make women more conscious of their eyes and the possibilities of making them more alluring; to break down prejudice, and of course, to sell my product.”

[Silent film star Gloria Swanson was one of several actresses to appear in Lash-Brow-Ine advertisements, connecting the product to the glamour of the cinema]

The easiest avenue for making that sale, and the one that had likely inspired Mabel Williams in the first place, was the wonderful new world of moving pictures, where eyelash definition was an essential for every young star (male or female) of the silver screen. As such, Tom Williams was eventually able to recruit up-and-coming film actresses like Ethel Clayton, Viola Dana, and Gloria Swanson to appear in his ads, which were becoming ubiquitous in movie industry magazines.

“You too can have luxuriant eyebrows and long sweeping lashes by applying Lash-Brow-Ine nightly,” read a 1915 ad in Motion Picture Classic. “Thousands of society women and actresses have used this harmless and guaranteed preparation to add charm to their eyes and beauty to the face.”

Maybelline’s modern celebrity-centric marketing strategy clearly dates back to its inception, and it’s in that department where Tom Lyle Williams’ talents were best on display—first as an ambitious teenager, and later as the president and pilot of the Maybelline brand for the entirety of its 50 years in Chicago.

By any measure, Williams probably ought to be one of the revered American businessmen of the 20th century—not just for his innovations and industriousness in the world of cosmetics, but for what he likely had to endure as a gay man, in a committed partnership, having to keep his personal life in the shadows to sustain his business. It’s a fascinating and potentially inspirational story, and yet, compared to the competitors who put their own names on their products—i.e., Coco Chanel, Estee Lauder, Max Factor, etc.—Williams’ legacy has continued to languish in obscurity.

II. All in the Family

Fortunately, there is at least one in-depth resource out there covering the tale of Tom Lyle and the entire Williams clan of Chicago. Written by Tom’s own great-niece, Sharrie Williams (with Bettie Youngs), The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It was published in 2010. The book is far more than a simple company history, as Sharrie’s account of the family-owned business—particularly its half century of independence in Chicago—reads more like a Hollywood noir or a romance novel; rife with intrigue, in-fighting, dashing gents and fast-talking dames.

The author, Ms. Williams, was kind enough to share her insights with the Made-In-Chicago Museum, and we started by asking her about the role of Chicago itself as a character in this colorful drama.

“Maybelline would never have exploded as it did if Tom Lyle were in another city,” she says. “After World War I, women got the vote, motion pictures were the rage, and the Jazz Age began. All of this excitement was centered in the heart of Chicago.”

Sharrie also notes that Chicago’s reputation as the heartbeat of American industry was the thing that had landed Tom Lyle there in the first place.

“Tom left the family farm in Morganfield, Kentucky, and relocated to Chicago because there was opportunity,” she says, “industry, brilliant minds, exciting people, and jobs to be had.”

Eager as Tom was to claim his own piece of that pie, however, he still relied heavily on his family to get Maybell Labs off the ground, and that dynamic would carry forward for many years to come.

“The Williams were a tight knit clan,” Sharrie says, speaking from personal experience. “Family loyalty was what Tom Lyle stood for.”

[The Williams family in 1916, from left: Tom’s brother Preston, sister Eva, Tom himself, the marvelous Ms. Mabel, brother Noel, and parents Susan and Thomas J. Williams]

During the Chicago era, which stretched all the way into the late 1960s, Tom Lyle would keep Maybelline a family-owned business, operating for decades out of a central office in the Edgewater neighborhood—briefly at 4750 N. Sheridan, then the permanent location at 5900 N. Ridge Avenue. He worked at different points over the years with his siblings Noel, Preston, Mabel and Eva, along with his sisters’ husbands (the similarly named Chester Hewes and Ches Haines) and eventually his own son Tom Lyle Williams Jr., who was born back in Kentucky before Tom Sr. had figured some things out. Maybelline’s advertising man, incidentally, was Emery Shaver, Tom’s life partner. The company’s other marketing guru, Rags Ragland (hired in 1933), was the only non-family member to become an executive.

“Everyone worked together,” says Sharrie Williams, “first out of their kitchen, where they poured the original Lash-Brow-Ine into little tins at the table and carried bags of mail in wheel barrels from the train station. Later, as the Maybelline Company expanded, employees were hired. Tom Lyle’s partner, Emery Shaver, worked with him in Hollywood on Maybelline advertising, contracting the biggest Stars of the era. Tom and Emery became bi-coastal, traveling from California to Chicago, keeping an apartment on Sheridan Road. Noel J. Williams ran the Company as Vice President.”

Sharrie Williams has admitted that not every member of her family was pleased when her book was published. While some appreciated the effort to shed light on Tom Lyle—a truly admired and beloved person within the family—others questioned the decision to share details of his personal life. Up to that point, he’d somehow remained an absolute mystery man to the outside world, to the point where Maybelline’s own Wikipedia page used to identify its founder as a “New York chemist”—wrong on both counts.

Now, thanks to Sharrie, Tom Lyle Williams’ true business savvy—as well as his potentially noteworthy place in the LGBT community’s often hidden history—are far better understood. During a time when being open about his sexuality would have spelled the end of his career, T.L. Williams found ways to survive and endure while staying true to himself.

[Tom Lyle Williams with his partner of 50 years, Emery Shaver]

“During the 1920s, in Chicago, Tom Lyle and Emery blended into the Chicago culture,” Sharrie Williams explains. “It was a flamboyant time for young people—music, theater, movie palaces, parties, and private clubs. They didn’t stand out driving Tom Lyle’s custom-made Packards, wearing full length llama skin coats, and enhancing their features with a little Maybelline eyebrow pencil and a touch of mascara on their lashes. However, once the Great Depression hit during the 1930s, they began to stand out. They blended in far better in Hollywood. So Tom Lyle bought Rudolph Valentino’s home in the Hollywood Hills, where they cloistered themselves behind the gates to protect the Maybelline name and the family from unwanted scrutiny.”

“Gays in the 1930s were not allowed to have any influence on women,” Sharrie adds, noting that the government had actual programs in place to crackdown on homosexual elements in the cosmetics industry. “It was a witch burning. The Government tried to break up the Maybelline Company by calling it a monopoly. Tom Lyle never was allowed to use his face on his products, like Max Factor or Charles Revson. Instead, he used the biggest Stars in Hollywood to represent Maybelline. Tom Lyle never let anything stop him and he never gave up believing in himself and his company. A positive thinker, he would say. ‘It’s easy to be happy when things are going your way, the true test of character is staying positive during the hard times.’” [picture below: Tom Lyle Williams in 1934]

III. The “M” on Ridge Avenue

Maybelline faced no shortage of bumps in the road during its first few decades, but they generally zigged successfully when others zagged, using innovative strategies in both product development and promotions. During the Depression, the company added eyeshadow, pencil, and an eyelash grower to its growing line of cosmetics, along with the miniature style of mascara boxes like the one in our museum collection.

“It was a smaller version of the original 75-cent box of mascara,” Sharrie Williams says. “The new Depression size sold for 10 cents.”

[First introduced in the ’30s, the version of Maybelline brown mascara in our museum collection likely dates from around 1945. Unlike modern mascara brushes, this design was more like a miniature toothrbrush, which probably wasn’t ideal for precision.]

“Tom Lyle took Maybelline out of the classifieds and put it into dime stores,” Sharrie ads, “so the average American girl could have easy access and it was affordable. He found that women would rather spend their dimes on his cosmetics than buy food for the table. It’s still that way today. During economic downturns, cosmetic sales go up while other products go down. Women have to have their beautiful eyes no matter what.”

[1934 Maybelline ad featuring the “Before & After” effect and Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval]

Among the other cosmetic industry standards that Maybelline helped launch:
♦ Before & After advertisements showcasing glamorous transformations
♦ First cosmetics company to do radio advertising
♦ “Carded Merchandising,” developed by the marketing genius Rags Ragland, showcased the little red Maybelline boxes in an upright display rather than stacked in a pile on the counter
♦ Film Star Faces – From the flappers of the silent film era to the likes of Joan Crawford and Betty Grable in the 1940s, Maybelline was all Hollywood from the get-go
♦ Using the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to communicate “trust, purity and perfection”

Persisting through the Depression and World War II, Maybelline was the international name in brow and lash cosmetics, fending off dozens of imitators. Tom Lyle Williams, now in semi-retirement, was spending the majority of his time in L.A. by the 1950s. Nonetheless, the company headquarters remained in Chicago at 5900 N. Ridge Ave., where constant expansion increased the workforce from just 30 in 1953 to likely at least twice that figure by the 1960s.

All these decades later, that building still has the familiar Maybelline “M” carved above the doorway; well preserved, but almost entirely unnoticed by the average passerby. It’s understandable, I suppose. In most other respects, the old complex is a pretty nondescript three-story affair—but its inner workings back in the ’50s and ’60s are still quite vivid to Sharrie Williams, who used to visit the family business in her youth.

“It was a handsome building, but nothing unusual,” she says. “Entering at the company entrance at 5900 North Ridge Avenue, there was a main-floor foyer with a terrazzo floor and paneled walls. A semi-circular stair with curved brass rail rose out of sight to a second-floor office and reception area. Behind the receptionist window was a general office area where about a dozen people worked. Opposite the receptionist was a door leading to a group of four executive offices.

“Back to the lower-level foyer, another door led to the main-floor operating areas. First, the Traffic and Shipping Departments were in adjoining spaces, convenient to a “dumb-waiter” device that dropped orders from the general office above to the lower area. Further into the plant, the ‘Assembly Room’ came along, where maybe 50 ladies at individual work desks assembled thousands of packages of Maybelline products by hand daily. The room was set up with a supervisor’s desk in front, with assemblers in rows across the room, similar to a school classroom or study hall. Hazel Peterson, the supervisor, stopped any chit-chat if it got anywhere near disruptive.”

[Maybelline’s former Ridge Avenue offices, circa 1932 (above) and 2017 (below)]

“In addition to the Assembly Room, machine packaging was beginning to emerge. There were two smaller rooms, former retail store spaces, that were set up to produce this new packaging. One room packaged the medium-sized cake and cream mascaras and pencils onto gold cards, putting them first into blisters or ‘bubbles,’ then stapling them to the card.

“The second store-front room contained a machine that sealed products in blisters to cards by a dielectric sealing process. Several newer products went to market from this room, including the ‘Brush ‘N Comb,’ automatic self-sharpening pencil and refill, and the brand new liquid ‘Magic Mascara’ and refill. The latter was proving to be a smash hit in the marketplace, and we were still running behind to keep pace with demand when I started.”

Sharrie also remembers just one docking station for all shipping and receiving by truck, and one freight elevator, which led to a warehouse and storage area.

“And that was the Maybelline footprint,” she says, “part of three levels of the building. Also, there was a line of active retail store space along the Clark Street frontage. A Rexall drug store occupied the point of the building, wrapping around to the Ridge Avenue frontage. Also, in no order, there was a barber shop, a short-order restaurant, an ice cream store, a hardware store, and finally a currency exchange.

“Elsewhere, there were several dozen apartments on the upper two floors of the building. Many of the residents were also Maybelline employees, so they only had to go downstairs to go to work!”

Even for the employees who didn’t enjoy that level of convenience, Maybelline seemed to provide a positive and supportive working environment. Dale N. Meyer, who worked for the company in the 1950s along with his mother and future mother-in-law, shared these memories with the Made In Chicago Museum:

“I started in the stockroom after high school. There were only three of us in that area. Everyone who worked there loved the company because Tom, Ches, Rags and everyone in management were fantastic. I left after one year to go into the Navy but came back two years later for a short time. When the company was sold, they gave all the workers, including my mother, who had left one year prior, a generous amount for every year they had worked for the company. Can’t say enough about that family!”

Maybelline was still based in Edgewater as late as the mid 1960s, and was still doing well financially. But the death of Tom Lyle’s partner Emery Shaver in 1964 set the wheels in motion for a bittersweet farewell.

IV. Broken Promises

“Tom Lyle [pictured] was now 70, and was not well,” says Sharrie Williams. “The loss of his partner was devastating. He began looking for a buyer.”

In 1967, Plough Inc. dropped a $136 million bid in cash and stock (about a billion dollars in today’s money), and just like that, the Williams family surrendered its control of the company they’d built.

“Tom Lyle had incorporated Maybelline in 1954,” Sharrie says, “but the stock was only divided among the family and the employees who had been loyal to Maybelline since the beginning. Even the stock boy received one million dollars. A large portion was given to The Goodwill and CARE.”

Initially, any glum feelings around Maybelline’s sale were eased by promises from Abe Plough that the company would remain in Chicago. It was only when that promise went swiftly out the window that the elderly Tom Lyle came to regret things.

“He regretted that he hadn’t groomed the younger generation to take over the company,” says Sharrie Williams [pictured below]. “He was heartbroken. . . The employees that were promised that their jobs would remain in Chicago were given letters of dismissal. It was painful for Tom Lyle to see his baby now being run without him at the helm.”

Plough initially relocated the business to his own home turf in Memphis, and manufacturing was set up several years later in Little Rock, Arkansas, where much of it still remains.

Today’s version of Maybelline is owned by L’Oreal and based, of course, in New York [Brooklyn, to be specific]. Long since severed from any connection to the Williams family, the company pays little homage to its early history, whether its an anniversary year or just an “About” page on their website. Every facet of its marketing and operation, however, still owes a debt to those slightly more humble beginnings.

“You can take the company out of Chicago, but you can’t take Chicago out of its roots,” Sharrie Williams says. “You can’t take the history out of the name.”

We certainly encourage you to check out Sharrie Williams’ book The Maybelline Story and her related, regularly updated website at http://www.maybellinebook.com/

[1950s Maybelline TV advertisement]

[A pair of early Lash-Brow-Ine ads starring Gloria Swanson]

[1940 ad starring Betty Grable, who kind of resembles Jennifer Lawrence in this one]

[Above and below: Maybelline ads from the Sunday Comics section of newspapers in 1940 didn’t exactly scream “women’s lib.” The storylines of “Sis Takes a Hand” and “From Office to Altar” both use Maybelline products as a bridge to help women snare a husband; the end-all-be-all motivator for the mid-century single lady.]

Sources:

The Maybelline Story, by Sharrie Williams w/ Bettie Youngs

“Newspaper Advertising Does Pay” – The Times (Munster, IN), Jan 4, 1934

“Maybelline New York Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary” – Fashion Week Daily, May 15, 2015

 

Archived Reader Comments:

“I remembered that the company moved to Alsip before it went South. And it was a cousin of mine that owned the ice cream store on the Clark side of the building.  She was really mad when they forced her out in the 50s for expansion. I also remember the huge “M”s painted on every storefront window on both Clark & Ridge in the same style as the stone one over the entrance.” —Becca, 2019

“What a fabulous story! I remember using the Ultra-Brow back when, and my mother used the little red plastic box. Never knew the history of it, and am pleasantly surprised. Hope to see the display sometime. ” —CPL, 2018

Posted by Andrew Clayman