HEDY LAMARR - PAUL HESSE - MAYBELLINE .

If you wanted glamour and sex appeal, Paul Hesse was the Hollywood Photographer to see.  

Cary Grant and Paul Hesse at a photo shoot.

By the late 1930’s, Hesse had become known as one of the best commercial photographers in New York, and  traveled to Hollywood several times a year to shoot photos of movie stars for Photoplay and for national advertising campaigns for companies like Maybelline.  

This photo of Hedy Lamarr was taken by Paul Hesse.  TO MAYBELLINE.....THE EYE MAKE-UP I FIND AS TRULY FLATTERING.....signed Hedy Lamarr.  Maybelline paid to have a Star's autographed picture placed on the back cover of movie magazines like Photoplay..... suitable for framing. 

Hedy Lamarr, 1950.

Photoplay was a movie fan magazine that was founded in 1911 and reached its peak of popularity in the 1920s and 1930s as fans became increasingly interested in the private lives of celebrities. 

Hedy Lamarr by Paul Hesse.

Photoplay was known for its artwork portraits of film stars on the cover, but once color photography was perfected around 1937, photographs of the stars were used on the covers instead.

                          Old Movies Nostalgia.

A Paul Hesse photo shoot, creating a wholesome image of Hedy Lamarr during World War ll.

Hedy Lamarr the girl next door.

Hesse used color film to create eye popping photos that would sell magazines, Brands and products.

He used lighting, clothes, hair and makeup to create a Hedy Lamar who  looks like she's from Kansas..... except sexy and glamorous even in an apron

Photoplay carried advertisements for makeup, hair, skin products, and fashions. It also contained movie reviews, personal stories about big name stars such as Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Hedy Lamarr, Merle Oberon, Betty Garble and several vivid color photographs of other movies stars as well.

In this Photoplay article, Hedy Lamarr discusses the value of wearing comfortable shoes in the 1940's..... just like we could expect Paris Hilton discussing shoes she loved today in PEOPLE MAGAZINE, on EXTRA or FASHION POLICE.

Hedy Lamarr may have been a Paul Hesse - Maybelline model, as well as one the most beautiful women in Hollywood, but she was also a Scientist who patented this Secret Communication System in the 1940's a forerunner for electronic communication today.

Read all about it in Hedy Lamarr's new book, Hedy's Folly, by Richard Rhodes.

I have one Hedy Lamarr mini-makeup bag left.  See PayPal box on the right side of this page.

Hedy Lamarr Video

Hedy Lamarr, Extase/Ecstasy by Gustav Machaty, 1933.

ECSTASY - Scandalous 1933 Hedy Lamarr Debut  Click highlighted.

Hedy Lamarr and Bob Cummings on the Love That Bob TV Show.  Cummings character is said to be taken directly from Paul Hesse.

Continued tomorrow with Paul Hesse, Maybelline 

and Joan Crawford.

Glamour during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Maybelline was synonymous with Hollywood Glamour in the 1930s.

Before and After Maybelline ad, with Paulette Goddard.

Carole Lombard, one of Tom Lyle's favorites.

Betty Grable, Maybelline Star.

Paulette Goddard, a personal friend of T L Williams.

Gloria Swanson, a Maybelline model from the 1920s.

Jean Harlow, another Maybelline model, Tom Llye, helped groom.

Marion Valle' brought fashion and Maybelline together.

Maybelline box, in the 1930s.

Black and white Maybelline ads, appeared in all the Hollywood gossip magazines.

Typical Maybelline ad found in Photoplay.

Tom Lyle Williams, with his son Tom Lyle Jr in 1934.

Read all about the Golden Age of Hollywood in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. 

Old Hollywood's sexy, power-couple, Viola Dana and Lefty Flynn, featured in The Maybelline Story..

Viola Dana was one the the first beautiful Photoplay stars to appear in a Maybelline ad.  She endorsed Lash-Brow-Ine as well as Maybelline in 1920.


Maurice "Lefty" Flynn and Viola Dana, during the height of the Silent Film era, between 1925 - 1929.

Maybelline model and Silent Film actress, Viola Dana with her husband, actor, Lefty Flynn.

Maybelline model, Viola Dana appeared in film magazines throughout the 1920's.

 Maurice Flynn became "Lefty" Flynn because he kicked the ball with his left foot, while attending Yale University  in 1910. He was expelled from Yale in 1913 after he marrying Irene Leary, a chorus girl.  They divorced 11 days later.  "Lefty,"  kept his wild-man reputation and made 40 films between 1919 and 1927. 

Often as the lead actor, and sometimes as a sports hero or daring adventurer, "Lefty's" athletic appearance and abilities made him one of Hollywood's first "Hunks."



Read more about sexy Viola Dana and "Lefty" Flynn in The Maybelline Story, and how Preston Williams, played into the mix. 

Maybelline models on vintage Photoplay magazines.

                                                                Elsie Ferguson




Jean Harlow

                                    Phyllis Haver

                                Marilyn Monroe


Read more about whyTom Lyle chose beautiful Photoplay actresses to represent Maybelline, in The Maybelline Story.

Maybelline Targets the Flapper in the 1920's with film star Phyllis Haver.

       Why did Tom Lyle choose Phyllis Haver as a
                            Maybelline Model?

Phyllis Haver was one of the magic names during the Silent Film era and an original Mack Sennett bathing beauty.

The Sennett Bathing Beauties were pin-up girls for the doughboys during the First World War...... Phyllis Haver, starred in a series of top films and was known as the Nation's blond-darling during the teens and twenties of the twentieth century.  

"Her hair is a curly mass of golden corn silk. Her eyes are cerulean blue. Her teeth are perfect pearls. Her coloring is a Fort Valley Peach Festival," described a magazine writer of Haver. Other descriptions were, "Phyllis Haver's smile is coquettish and charming," "5' 6", 125 Ibs.," "picture of health," "skin like satin," and "her smile like peaches and cream  in her heyday.

Haver appeared on the covers of  Photoplay, Screenland. Motion Picture. Pathe Sun. Picture Play. and The Police Gazette.   She graced the cover of the sheet music, Singapore Lil, theme song for the Pathe motion picture production. Sal of Singapore, in which she starred. She, also, adorned calendars, matchbook covers, and postcards.

 I think you can see why Tom Lyle wanted Phyllis Haver as a Maybelline Model!  He wanted to target the Flappers in the 1920's and Phyllis Haver was had sex appeal.  

The Balloonatic (1923)  Catch a glimpse of Phyllis Haver with Buster Keaton in The Ballonaic, Click below.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheBalloonatic

She stared in Chicago a 1927 comedy-drama silent film produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Frank Urson.

Phyllis Haver was in the ranks of Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, Delores Del Rio, Norma Talmadge, Conrad Nagel, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Norma Sheerer and Lon Chaney.

In 1924 She played on Broadway in Laurence Stallings and Maxwell Anderson's gritty WWI comedy-drama What Price Glory?  Haver played Shanghai Mabel.

She appeared in Up in Mabel's Room released in 1926, If there was ever a star with the kind of sex appeal Maybelline wanted to exude during the Roaring 20's Haver had it!

Stay tuned next week for more Maybelline Models, including "Sex Symbol" Jean Harlow and "It Girl" Clara Bow.

Silent Film Star Mildred Davis was Maybelline Model in 1922.

            Who's captivating Eyes grace the cover of
                           The Maybelline Story?http://www.maybellinebook.com/2014/03/mildred-davis-lovely-leading-lady-in.html

Mildred Davis.

After Maybelline's initial advertisement ran in the classifieds of popular magazines in the late 1910's with Mabel Williams illustrated image, Tom Lyle began looking for a film star to represent Maybelline.  In the early 1920's he contracted beautiful Photoplay stars because of the wide audience they brought into theatres all over the country.   One of the most popular actresses of the day was beautiful silent film star Mildred Davis or Mid as Tom Lyle liked to call her.  She was a tiny 5 foot, perky-ingenue with monster-big flashing eyes that captivated the audience and drew them in.

Mildred Davis married Harold Lloyd in 1922.  Harold Lloyd was a comedian in the ranks of Charlie Chaplin and he'd been looking for a leading lady to replace Bebe Daniels. He cast Davis in his comedy short  From Hand to Mouth in 1919.  It would be the first of fifteen films they would star in together.

Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis.

Soon after "From Hand To Mouth," was released Tom Lyle contacted Mildred to discuss her being the next face of Maybelline. Mildred Davis appealed to sweet young ladies who were just beginning to look in the mirror and compare themselves with the beautiful faces on screen.  Mildred Davis with her huge made-up larger than life eyes on screen an off silently encouraged young ladies to pick up a Photoplay movie magazine and order their first little red box of Maybelline.  Once they tried Maybelline with it's tiny black brush and cake of mascara they were hooked and word of mouth spread from one sweet young lady to the next.

Mildred Davis in early 1920 ad.

Click here to see Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis' most famous silent film  video.

http://www.videosurf.com/video/swinging-safety-last-1744008   Swinging Safety Last.

If you watched the video of Mildred Davis you saw what Tom Lyle saw when he sat in that theatre in 1922 and gazed up into those eyes on the silver screen.  He knew what he wanted and he wanted Mildred Davis "the girl next door" to  represent Maybelline.

Read more about Mildred Davis and Tom Lyle in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

3rd,Beauty Secret from the Harem!

When Nana was a young girl, in 1915, she like most young ladies of her time, read a movie magazine called Photoplay, that revealed Beauty Secrets of the Harem, so to speak.  The secrets were homemade beauty tricks passed on from one generation to the next and were built upon as the ages unfolded. Nana and her sisters,Verona and Bunny learned the tricks, to make themselves as glamorous and alluring as the silent screen stars.

I was indoctrinated into the Harem when at 5 years old, when Nana  made my eyes up and paraded me around my great uncle Tom Lyle's living room for applause.  From that time on, Nana became my mentor and I her little protege. 


One of her delicious little secrets for depuffing your eyes "after a late night romp with Valentino" she'd wink, was TEA BAGS. 


Yes, just plain old black tea bags.  But there was more.  First you place two tea bags in a half cup of boiling water for about 30 seconds, just to get the tea moving.  Next, you  gently squeeze out the excess water and place them on a small plate.  Now stick them in the freezer until they are ice cold.  Lay down for half hour if possible but at least 15 minutes and meditate on how gorgeous you are going to look with your Maybelline eyes tonight.  Let me know what you think, I bet you will be begging for more of Nana's fabulous Secrets of the Harem. 


Read more about my life as Nana's little protege, click onto Amazon right now and buy The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. 

What's in a Maybelline slogan?

Look at these eyes, what do you see.  Captivates and takes your breath away.  That's what Maybelline was all about.

Viola Dana - Beautiful Photoplay Star, 1925.  Read all about her in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Order now on Amazon.

Today when you think of Maybelline, you think of Maybelline New York's catchy slogan, "Maybe She's Born With It?  Maybe It's Maybelline?"   But over the last 95 years there have been many other wonderful slogans, with beautiful stars from stage and screen.  Here are a few: 

      
In 1917, The slogan "Maybelline, Darkens and Beautifies Eyelashes and Brows Instantly," splashed onto the pages of movie magazines for the first time with lovely Mildred Davis as Maybelline's fetching face of the decade. 

       
During the 1920's, the slogan, "Eyes That Charm" seduced women to mail order Maybelline, after being captivated by vampish silent  screen star Viola Dana.

      
In the 1930’s Maybelline ads went from black and white to beautifully colored art deco illustrations of glamorous women, inspired by actress Natalie Moorhead. They read:
-"It's Easy now to have Bewitching Eyes!" 
- "Alluring eyes may be instantly yours by the magic of Maybelline. 
- "Only genuine Maybelline can give you truly alluring eyes." 
- "Your eyes should be your most alluring feature."     

Another ad in the 30’s read "Old as ancient Egypt New as modern Paris," and had an illustration of Cleopatra on one half of the page and a modern 1930’s beauty on the other.

      
By the 1940’s Maybelline’s slogan became "Isn't She, or Isn't She," with before and after photography and, the most famous slogan for several decades,  "Quality Yet Sensibly Priced."  These ads featured full page colored, glossy photographs of Pin up girls like Betty Grable, Rita Haworth, Hedy Lamaar and Elyse Knox, bombshells of the WW11 era. 
       
By the 1950’s, TV slogans became more international and reached a new type of woman, the independent modern woman.  The catch word became "Exotic," and the new slogan became "Achieve the new Exotic eye make up with Maybelline."  Tom Lyle was the first to do "before and after" ads using the slogans:  
- "What a difference Maybelline makes." 
- "Be Fashion-wise accent your eyes with Maybelline." -Maybelline was now about fashion, being smart and accenting your beautiful eyes. "Preferred By Smart Women The World Over"
      
In 1964, Emery Shaver, the genius wordsmith who fashioned every Maybelline slogan from 1915 to 1964, died from a massive heart attack.  His last slogan for Tom Lyle's prized, Ultra Lash launched that year was, "Maybelline the most prized eye cosmetics in the world".  And never forget his famous,  "A woman's most prized possession is a man's imagination."  So, I guess the answer to "What's in a slogan?" was and still is today,  SEX APPEAL!

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