Lisa Kudrow's new show Web Therapy, Maybe she's born with it, Maybe it's Maybelline.

Maybelline in the 1940's appealed to every woman because it made a difference!!!

Cute before Maybelline.  Adorable with a touch of glamour after.  No wonder Maybelline was an accessory in every girls purse in the 1940's and still is today almost 75 years later.

Lisa Kudrow from the TV show, FRIENDS.

Excuse me, but does the model in the  Maybelline ad, resemble Lisa Kudrow

Click and check out Lisa Kudrow's new show
Web Therepy!!  http://www.lstudio.com/web-therapy/

Thank you for following my Vintage Maybelline Docu-Blog, the most extensive documentary blog on the Internet. 

Rita Hayworth, Maybelline's sexiest model, ever.

During the filming of GILDA, Rita Hayworth appeared in this Maybelline ad.  She was such a big hit that her dress, her glove, her pose became an icon

She was the leading lady to the world's leading men - She danced with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly - acted with Tracy, Grant, Cagney and Cooper - she was married to Orson Welles and Aly Khan.

 Rita Hayworth was America's favorite pin-up girl - she was the folly, grandeur, romance and beauty of Hollywood in it's prime - when it dazzled not only America, but the entire world. She was the incomparable Rita Hayworth.

Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Godess - by John Kobal - 1983 Biography of America's Fave Pin-Up Girl.

4 used copies available on Amazon.

Rita Hayworth, magazine covers, with Frank Sinatra singing "I've Got You Under My Skin."

Two days left to bid on Hedy Lamarr, vintage makeup bag.  Ebay

Gerald Ford's, 1961 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine, part of Bill Williams collection.

Bill Williams moved to Old Las Palmas in Palm Springs, in 1972 and bought Silent Film Star Marie Dressler's, two acre estate so he could store his car collection.  One of my fathers most fun classic cars was this 1961 Limo, once owned by President Gerald Ford.

Bill Williams, Casa de Guillermo was a showplace in the 1970's and was featured on the cover of the Palm Springs, official Map-Brochure.  It was a flamboyant location, used for movies, TV shows and fundraising.  

By 1980, after Bill married Gloria, the gates of Casa de Guillermo, were closed to the public and became strictly a family compound.

Besides Maybelline heir, Bill Williams, Hollywood celebrities and former Presidents including, Kirk Douglas and Bob Hope, former President Gerald Ford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Elvis Presley, made Palm Springs their home. 

Want to know the who's who, of Hollywood Stars, how owned Palm Springs Estates?   click here - http://www.palmspringscelebrityhomesforsale.com/

Bill may not have been a Movie Star, or even a celebrity, but he sure lived like one.  He bought Gerald Ford's, 1961 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine in 1978, for it's history, luxurious interior, and the little holes on the hood, where he could place little American Flags, for special events. 

 It wasn't unusual for Bill and Gloria to cruise down Gerald Ford Drive, with their Dobermans in the back seat.   

Bill Williams, Father of the Bride, in 1998, waiting for his daughter, Billee and her bridesmaids, to to get in the car.

Guests arriving from the airport, for Billee's and Steve Killer's rehearsal dinner.

Chuck Williams aka, BB1 and Sharrie, on the right, yelling for Billee to hurry up, or she'll be late for her own wedding.

Chuck in the driver's seat, next to me, on the way to the reception in Newport Beach.

 Steve and Billee Killer on the way to their reception.

 Bill with his driver's hat on, picking up his cousins, at the Balboa Bay Club, in Newport Beach, and transporting them to Laguna Beach,  for Billee and Steve's rehearsal dinner.

Thank you for following The Maybelline Vintage Docu-Blog and reading The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

1940 Packard Victoria by Bohman & Schwartz, ready for it's close up!

Tom Lyle Williams 1940 convertible, Packard Victoria, ready to come out of the Vault

Tom Lyle's 16 year old nephew, Dick Williams in the driver's seat of his uncle's 1940 Packard Victoria. The extra long, 20 foot, bumper to bumper body, made it one of a kind. Picture shot at The Villa Valentino, 1947.

Tom Lyle's Packard Victoria, built by Bohman & Schwartz, is now part of Bill Snyder's collection, in Southern California.  My cousin Chuck Williams, aka, BB1, and I met up with Bill's son, Steve Snyder of VAULTCARS, at Barrett Jackson Classic Car Auction, this week and discussed making a documentary on this very rare automobile. I will post it sometime in March, so stay tuned for stories and facts that have been in the Vault for 60 years.

Golden Globes 2012: 'Midnight in Paris' Wins Best Screenplay

The 1920's come alive in the most charming way in Midnight in Paris!! 

One night, Gil gets drunk and wanders the streets of Paris. At midnight, an antique car pulls up, and the passengers—dressed in 1920s clothing—urge Gil to join them. They go to a bar, where Gil comes to realize that he has been transported to the 1920s, an era he idolizes. He encounters Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who take him to meet Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway agrees to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein, and Gil goes to fetch his manuscript from his hotel. However, as soon as he leaves the bar, he finds he has returned to 2010.

Veteran actor-turned-director Woody Allen successfully took home the Best Screenplay award for his work in "Midnight in Paris".

Midnight in Paris and The Artist get my vote for the most original and charming movies on the big screen.  Mildred Pierce and Boardwalk Empire  for vintage, TV dramas.

MGM - Louis B. Mayer - Maybelline - in the 1930s.

Louis B. Mayer, the Godfather of The Hollywood Star System, created Super Stars out of starlets. But not without the help of Tom Lyle Williams and Maybelline.

The star system was the method of creating, promoting and exploiting movie stars in Classical Hollywood cinema.

MGM was one of the most powerful and most prestigious of all the major motion picture studios.

Studios would select promising young actresses and glamorise and create personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds.

Louis B. Mayer, the most powerful , highest paid man in Hollywood, created the Hollywood myth, "that anything is possible, regardless of class or money."  He didn't want real life scandals to tarnish that dream, and diminish his audiences. 

The star system put an emphasis on the image rather than the acting. Women were expected to behave like ladies, and were never to leave the house without makeup and stylish clothes.

Part of creating the ideal image of emerging stars, was to promote them in Maybelline ads,

Jean Harlow on the cover of Picture Play, would also appear in a Maybelline ad inside the magazine.

Tom Lyle Williams kept his private life hidden from public scrutiny, to protect Maybelline's image.  However, he was as big, if not bigger, than any Hollywood Studio head and like Louis B. Mayer,  created Super Stars, by  grooming and promoting them in Maybelline advertisements.  

Jean Harlow, illustrated in a Maybelline ad, appeared in all the popular gossip, Hollywood movie magazines, in the early 1930s.

TO BE CONTINUED:

The whole exciting saga unfolds in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Hedy Lamarr's new book, Hedy's Folly!!!

Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes.

What other book brings together 1920s Paris, player pianos, Nazi weaponry, and digital wireless into one satisfying whole? In its juxtaposition of Hollywood glamour with the reality of a brutal war,

One of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood was also being a talented inventor.  Richard Rhodes describes Hedy Lamarr’s partnering with George Antheil to invent a fundamental new wireless technology.

As one of Maybelline's most stunning models in the early 1940's, and the most popular post on my blog, I am thrilled Richard Rhodes has released Hedy Lamarr's story, one year after The Maybelline Story was puplished.  You can never get enough inside information on Old Hollywood as far as I'm concerned. 

Both Hedy's folly and The Maybelline Story are available at Amazon.  

Also if you love Old Hollywood be sure to check out,  Damn You, Scarlett O'Hara: The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.

NEW YORK - The 2011 Beach Book Festival has named “Damn You, Scarlett O’Hara: The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier” as the grand prize winner of its annual competition honoring the summer’s hottest reads.  

RUNNER-UP: The Maybelline Story – Sharrie Williams with Bettie Youngs, under BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The Gatsby lifestyle during the 1970s.

 "Can't repeat the past?... Why of course you can!" 

 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

Noel A. Williams, sitting in his brother Dicks, Excalibur. This picture was taken at Dick and Ann's estate in Boca Raton, Florida in the late 1970s.

Noel A.Williams, during the shooting of, Goodbye Norma Jean, in 1975.  Picture was taken at his cousin Bill Williams estate, Casa de Guillermo, in Palm Springs California.

Noel A. and Jean Williams, in their 1975 Rolls, with Mickey Mouse in the back seat.

Noel A. with his Rolls Royce, a gift to himself for his 50th Birthday.

For the Williams boys, a longing to relive the golden years of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, played out, by creating individual identities, that included luxury automobiles, beautiful estates and the freedom to do what ever they dammed well pleased, during the 1970s.    

Gatsbyesque Wedding at Bernard Maybeck estate, in 1976

Bernard Maybeck estate creates the perfect setting for a nostalgic Great Gatsby Wedding. 

Built in 1915 for the Ambassador of England, Noel A. and Jean Williams bought the Maybeck estate in 1968, and gave the Wedding of the year for their daughter Nancy in 1976.  Here is a picture of Nancy's brother,
 Chuck Williams, aka, BB1, with Sloop John B, in 1971.

Chuck, Williams, Sloop John B, and Nancy Williams, 1971, in one of the many gardens surrounding the Bernard Maybeck estate.

The most romantic, garden Wedding of 1976.

Chuck, ushers his mother, Jean Williams down the isle.

The Bride, Nancy Williams now Mrs. Paul Clark.

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Clark on the dance floor.

Nancy's uncle, Bill Williams with Nancy Williams Clark,  

Bill Williams, future wife, Gloria Rosan, 

John Williams-Huber and Bill Williams.

Maybeck made generous use of exposed beams, unpainted finish, huge fireplaces and clerestory windows. Above all else he loved redwood; 

he had also a strong feeling for concrete. Using his materials with great craftsmanship, at the same time he took full advantage of technology.

                          

Maybeck believed, as did his internationally famous contemporary, Frank Lloyd Wright, that the home should blend in with the natural landscape that surrounds it.

Throughout Maybeck's life his great wish was to be understood by the man in the street and to give him a sense of delight.

Bernard Maybeck, like so many entrepreneur's, of the early 20th century, were simple men with enormous creativity and larger than life vision. 
 
A few come to mind, including:  

Tom Lyle Williams - Maybelline,
Erte - design and fashion,
Flo Ziegfeld - Follies 
F.Scott Fitzgerald novels,
especially, The Great Gatsby.
 
Read more about the family that brought you Maybelline, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind it.

Erte' - Ziegfield Follies, Maybelline in the 1920's.

 "Through these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world."

 The Ziegfeld Follies were famous for many beautiful chorus girls commonly known as Ziegfeld girls.  Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies, were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris....

Erte costumes and sets were featured in the

Ziegfeld Follies of 1923,

 Erté's theatrical innovations were countless, including "living curtains" (showgirls with plumes and pearls, festooned by embroidered trains.

The Ziegfeld girls paraded up and down flights of stairs semi-nude, as anything from birds to battleships. 

These beauties, of similar size, decked out in Erté designs, gained many young male admirers and they became objects of popular adoration.

 Ziegfeld Girls,  including Paulette Goddard,  Barbara Stanwyck and Louise Brooks became Maybelline models and were featured in future ads throughout the 1930's and 1940's. 

Though beautiful Phyllis Haver was rejected by Ziegfeld after auditioning in 1915, Tom Lyle immediately saw her appeal and featured her in several Maybelline ads during the 1920s.

 Tom Lyle Williams, Entrepreneur, King of Advertising, President of the Maybelline Co.



Flo Ziegfield, The Ziegfeld Follies,

 "Glorifying the American Girl."

             Erté - elegant fashion designs - art deco -


Erte, Flo Ziegfeld and TL Williams, were synonomous with fashion, style and glamour during the 1920's and  were instrumental in spotlighting  beauty, throughout the 1930's - But only Maybelline has remained a Global brand, into the  21st Century.

                                    Ziegfeld Follies Girls, 1907 -1931.