Showing posts with label The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.. Show all posts

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My name is Sharrie Williams, I am the author of The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. My Great uncle Tom Lyle Williams founded The Maybelline Company in 1915 and owned and operated it until 1968 when he sold it to Plough Inc.

I have written a never-before-told story that spans a 100 years and introduces a 19 year old boy who pulled himself up from poverty to become something he never dreamed possible.

The origins of the Maybelline Co. are simple: My great uncle Tom Lyle Williams, witnessed his sister Mabel, applying a mixture of burnt cork and Vaseline to her eyebrows and eyelashes and out of that discovery, formulated a product called Maybelline, named in honor of his sister Mabel, who gave him the idea.

Stay tuned tomorrow when Harris A. Neil Jr continues his "Chicago's Maybelline" with personal letters never before seen..

Marketing guru saw expansion potential for Maybelline in 1930s

Buy a signed copy of The Maybelline Story

Order your copy from PAYPAL NOW

Maybelline's best kept secret was Rags Ragland Sr.

Let me introduce myself. I am Alan 'Rags' Ragland the youngest and closest son to the 'Rags', who you undoubtedly will be coming to know in THE MAYBELLINE STORY. Rags was the marketing guru who saw the expansion potential of this lonely little company at the corner of Ridge and Clark in Chicago.

I am so delighted that Sharrie Williams and Bettie Youngs have brought this silent story to you. This has been a dream of Sharrie’s and I started talking to her about the inner workings of Maybelline an estimated eighteen years ago. I am probably the last inside person left, that is able to reflect this fascinating and unbelievable success story. Dad/Rags, was the only top executive outside of the Williams family. Most of the reflections are from him and my exposure to these remarkable people. Hence, hopefully, this will be another perspective of the scenario that is helpful in filling in the total picture of The Maybelline Story.

(I will be doing another book giveaway in December) I'm giving away a copy of The Maybelline Story and a Vintage Maybelline Mini-Make-Up Bag this month!!!

Enter to win a Vintage Maybelline Mini-Make-Up Bag and a signed copy of The Maybelline Story book on my Maybelline Book Facebook page! Just 'like' this post and leave a comment about why you want to win! One winner will be randomly selected.

Ends 10/20/2012. Check out the list of Movie Stars that can be on the front and back of the Mini-Make-Up-Bag.
http://www.maybellinebook.com/p/make-up-bags.html

A SNEAK PEEK INSIDE THE MAYBELLINE STORY.

Click here.....
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0984308113/ref=sr_1_1?p=random&ie=UTF8&qid=1340912133

The Maybelline Story and the Spirited

Family Dynasty Behind It.

WHO SAY'S THE MAYBELLINE STORY IS JUST FOR WOMEN?

REAL MEN LOVE THE MAYBELLINE STORY, ASK MY COUSIN BB1.

Magazine - 1934

Much given to hyperbole and superlative is the U. S. cosmetics industry. High priests of the beauty business seldom fail to inject into any serious discussion of their industry the magic phrase: "Two Billion Dollars." Last week at a divisional meeting of the American Cosmeticians' Association in Chicago, Thomas Lyle Williams, President of Maybelline Co., was happy to report that the beauty business was running 15% to 20% ahead of last year. That, said Beautician Williams, would mean a $500,000,000 increase in volume for 1934, a grand total for the Industry of "$2,000,000,000."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,929686,00.html#ixzz1xWuRFnmd

On the hunt for TL Williams 1934 Packard Dietrich Vee Windshield,.

Tom Lyle Williams loved his family, the Maybelline Company and his Packards.

Tom Lyle with his brother Preston, his sister in law, Evelyn and his nephew Bill Williams top left. Below he poses with his son Tom Lyle Jr. Right, Tom Lyle with his 1934 Packard Dietrich Vee Windshield, one of only 4 made.

I recieved this letter about Tom Lyle's 1934 Vee Windshield Dietrich Packard and thought it might be interesting to my Car-Guy readers. I

Dear Sharrie,

My name is Matthew Kilkenny, a Packard auto historian, and I'm currently writing a book about Custom Packards from the early 1930s including Dietrich custom bodied Packards. Tom Lyle had superb taste in cars as his car is only one of about four ever built in 1934. The goal of my book, because these cars are so rare and beautiful, is to as best I can document the history of each car including the original owner. Like a Monet or Rembrandt, people a generation or a century from now will want to know the history of these rolling scullptures. I'm trying to document the stories of each of these rare cars such as Tom Lyle's in a definitive book before the stories get lost. The stories are starting to get lost because people that owned rare Dietrich Packards early in their life for example are dying off.

We owe it to future generations to document these beautiful cars as best as possible. I saw the pictures of the car on your website and I have actually been trying to find more info on this car! I have a photo of Tom Lyle taking the keys to this car from a Packard Salesman. As part of my documentation and figuring out for example, which of the four cars existing today belonged to Tom, I need the "VIN" numbers off of the car. In Tom's archives does he have any sales invoices, registration documents, fireewall plate or other pictures of this car bill of sale who he sold it to and when? This will allow me to figure out which of these cars was Tom's.

As you know it takes so much work to track down leads and do research for a book, but I have moments like this where I personally, or through help of another, get pointed to things such as this and you feel like you make progress! My Dad owns a 1934 Dietrich Conv Sedan similar to Tom's and we have written an article on Dietrichs for the world famous Pebble Beach concours program. I have attached this article. Tom Lyle is in company of Al Jolson and Gene Sarazen, the famous golfer, who also owned rare Vee Windshield Dietrich Packards.

Best Regards,

Matt Kilkenny

Stay tuned tomorrow for update on Tom Lyle Williams 1940 Packard Victoria, one of two ever made and found at last.

Maybelline's, Yankee Doodle Dandy!!!

Yankee Doodle Dandy Star,
Joan Leslie, with James Cagney.

Joan Leslie, appeared as James Cagney's wife, in
Yankee Doodle Dandy!!!!

James Cagney and Joan Leslie, in
Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is one of Hollywood's greatest, grandest and slickest musicals. The nostalgic, shamelessly-patriotic, entertaining film also supported the war effort as it paid tribute in its mostly fictional story to a popular Irish/American entertainer and the grand American gentleman of the theatre in the early 20th century.

click video to see a trailer of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

James Cagney, spent several weeks touring the US, entertaining troops with vaudeville routines and scenes from Yankee Doodle Dandy.

James Cagney with Joan Leslie, Loby Card.

In September 1942, he was elected president of

the Screen Actors Guild.

Joan Leslie has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.

Joan Leslie video.

Maybelline cousins gather in Santa Barbara to view the missing file.

Maybelline Cousins gather to view the missing file of their Grandfather, Noel James Williams Co-Founder and Vice President of the Maybelline Company from 1915-1951.

The Coral Casino - View from the Williams Cabana.

Here I am on the left with my cousins Chuck, Jim and Nancy at the Coral Casino in Montecito sitting in the cabana they've occupied for 40 years.

I arrived in Santa Barbara after doing the Dare to Dream radio show with host Deborah Dachinger in Burbank to meet with my cousins and comb through their grandfathers lost file. Emotions ran high as part of the Williams clan gathered for the momentous occasion. The file is tucked safe within Cousin Chucks famous Beach Boy room and tomorrow he will guide us through the bevy of paperwork compiled over 80 years ago during the Great Depression.

More of the Noel James Williams family left to right. Ann Louise Williams-Corbet-Carneros, Julee Williams-Huber, Christine Williams-Huber-Goodie, Sharrie Williams, Nancy Williams-Fesler.

Cousin Chuck Williams, aka BB1, will do the honors tomorrow and reveal the never before seen information in the missing file to the rest of the family. Stay tuned for some fun fun fun details from the 1930's. You will be shocked at the cost of things then and now. Hold on to your hat!!!

Also don't forget to pick up a signed copy of The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind it from this site and please leave a comment below. Thanks for following the Maybelline Blog.

Maybelline might have been called Evaline

People have asked me why I didn't put more pictures in my book so they could see the different family members as they went from children to old age. Well I was only allowed 13 pictures and it was a hard choice as you can imagine. So I'm doing a picture-bio of the main characters - starting with Tom Lyle's youngest sister Eva. Here she is with her brother Preston, my grandfather, on their Morganfield Farm in in 1908, dressed for church I bet. Don't you love the big bow in her hair and the posing? Eva and Preston were very close playmates all their lives and she once told me how they loved to roam the woods around the old homestead, exploring and seeking adventure. When young Preston got in trouble and their father Sheriff TJ locked him in jail to teach him a lesson, it was Eva who snuck in dime novels to keep him busy while he learned his big lesson.

When the family moved off the farm and into their first little warehouse/office in Chicago -with an apartment upstairs - they all helped Tom Lyle get his little Maybelline company off the ground. Fifteen year old Eva's job was to be the "go-for" girl. When anyone needed something it was Eva who ran down the block to get it.

She once told me how when the family wanted a milk shake she gladly took a quarter for 5 drinks and ran down the street to the soda fountain, where she quickly drank her shake before slowly making her way back home so the shakes wouldn't spill. Sometimes the walk home took so long she got thirsty and sipped a little from each siplings drink. By the time she returned, you can just hear the flack she got from her brothers and sister, however Eva was a spitfire with a sharp wit and had a darn good reason for sipping those drinks I'm sure.

I love this picture of my grandfather Preston and auntie E, as my dad called her. She and Preston remained devoted even when my grandmother was at her wits end with his endless trouble making. When my grandmother kicked him out of the house Eva gladly welcomed him into hers and there was nothing I mean nothing she wouldn't do for her darling brother.

Look at those beautiful Maybelline eyes with a twinkle like no others. This picture was taken in 1924 for her sweetheart Ches Haines whom she married Oct 11th of that year. Auntie E once told me that it could have easily been her who concocted the ingredients that gave her brother Tom Lyle the idea for Maybelline. She was serious when she said it made her a little jealous that her sister Mabel got the credit, but then laughed at the idea of Maybelline being called Evaline. Not quite the impact Tom Lyle was going for I'm sure.

Here is my glamorous Auntie E at her daughter June's wedding in the late 1940's. She seemed to get more gorgeous the older she got and that quick wit made her a star in the family. Don't you just love that feather in her hat?

Uncle Ches the father of the bride, on the left next to June and her new husband John Gary.

Here is a picture of Eva with her daughter Marilyn, (Ditty) taken in 1966 at Tom Lyle's estate in Bel Air California. Eva is 65 in this picture, a beautiful, elegant lady with all the style and glamour of anyone of Maybelline's models. Tom Lyle is sitting on the floor with Miss Snoop E. Williams and Sparkie. He once told me chuckling, that the E in Snoop's name stood for his sister Eva. I wonder what he meant?

Eva is a colorful character in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. I think you will fall in love with her just like I did. She was one of a kind.

Maybelline Story, Connie Martinson television interview with Sharrie Williams

Upcoming guests on Connie Martinson Talks Books appearing on LA Cityview channel 35, 3pm PST and 11:30pm PST Monday-Friday and 3PM PST Saturday. NY WNYE cable channel 25 Monday 7:30pm EST

Watch Sharrie's interview with Connie Martinson either on her website, Connie Martinson Talks Books, or on YouTube.

Part one and two, 15 minutes each.

The Maybelline Story Blog