Miss Maybelline's Beauty Secrets taught to me as a child

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.

Nana's little protegee

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.

1953, Nana, my dad, my sister, Donna, Me and my Mom

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. 

Ziegfeld Follies Star, Mary Eaton, featured in 1924 Maybelline ad

Mary Eaton, featured in beautiful Photoplay Magazine, February 1924.

Mary Eaton made her Broadway debut in 1917 with Adele and Fred Astaire in Over the Top. After that, she appeared in three editions of the Ziegfeld Follies

Mary did have a somewhat successful career. Her most notable films were both in 1929, including Glorifying the American Girl and Cocoanuts with The Marx Brothers. 

Another star who's career ended by 1930 and died sadly in 1948.

Mabel Williams, 'Secrets from the Harem,' from Photoplay Magazine...1915, inspired the birth of Maybelline

After accidently burning her brows and lashes in 1915, Mabel Williams  found a trick in Photoplay magazine, called "Secret of the Harem."  It allowed her to get the desired fuller darker lash look by using simple house hold products. Vaseline & soot or coal dust, was mixed into a black gel and then applied to the lashes with a fine brush. It was this simple trick that inspired her brother, Tom Lyle Williams, to formulate and name his new beauty product, Maybelline, in honor of his sister who gave him the idea.

                                           Elsie Ferguson

Jean Harlow

                                     Phyllis Haver

                                    Gloria Swanson

Greta Garbo

Joan Crawford

 Hedy Lamarr

Throughout the decades, Tom Lyle Williams, continued to contract these beautiful Hollywood Stars as the faces of Maybelline, while he kept his personal life and family, private from the public eye.

 Being in the right place at the right time was partly the secret of Maybelline coming into the world.  That and the fact the world of women were starving for something to allow them to enhance their natural beauty.  I know that if I didn't have my Maybelline, I would have always been the plainest of Jane's for sure.  My daughter once remarked that without makeup, my face looked like a blank slate.  With make up I can transform into a completely different persona.  So thank goodness my auntie Mabel, had the accident that caused her to need to invent something quick to save her face and to save all of our faces.

Read more these beautiful Photoplay Stars who represented Maybelline, in my book, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.


Be sure to visit my Hilarious 1964 High School Blog called Saffrons Rule at http://saffronsrule.com/