Mark Harmon's Mother "Elyse Knox," Maybelline model, most popular word search on my blog.

Maybelline Pin Up Girl, Elyse Knox, 1944.

Maybelline ushers in The Pin Up Girl, The Bomb Shell and The Girl Next Door during World War 11 - creating an American Ideal for beauty, style and fashion.  Elyse Knox was one of Maybelline's World War 11 models contracted for her sexy yet innocent face during the 1940's.  Knox was a B-movie starlet in the Hollywood System playing secondary roles until she landed a role with Lon Chaney Jr. in The Mummy's Tomb; one of the series of Mummy horror films made by Universal Studios. 

Knox became well known after Maybelline placed her full page glossy autographed picture on the back of magazines after appearing as herself in Universal Studios 1944 production of "Follow the Boys."  One of the World War 11 morale-booster films made for both the soldiers serving overseas as well as civilians at home.

Knox was also a Pin Up Girl during the War, appearing in such magazines as YANK, a weekly put out by the United States Military.  Ads like this combined with Maybelline ads on the back of movie magazines, created a desire in all Service Men to return to the arms of their sweet All American girls - with those Maybelline eyes .

In Late 1944 Knox was signed by Monogram Pictures to portray Anne Howe, the love interest of fictional boxer Joe Palooka in Joe Palooka, Champ.  Based on the very popular comic strip.  The instant success of the May 1946 film led to  Knox appearing in another five Joe Palooka productions.  She retired from film making in 1946 after appearing in the musical There's a Girl in My Heart but continued doing Print ads like the one above for Maybelline while appearing on the Bing Crosby radio show where she met foot star Tom Harmon.  She married fashion photographer Paul Hesse one of Maybelline's official photographers, divorced and married Tom Harmon in 1944.

The couple had three children, Kristin, who married Ricky Nelson and had Tracy, twins Gunnar and Lars, and a son Sam who modeled and acted in film and TV (TJ Hooker.) And Kelly..... and Mark Harmon of NCIS.

Mabelline ad in 1942 War Time

Maybelline Ad 1942

Experpt from The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Copyright, Bettie Youngs Books, 2010.

Noel phoned Tom Lyle. “We’ve got a production problem, T. L. The President issued a warning to the beauty industry that rationing of certain raw products would begin soon, especially petroleum jelly!” This was still Maybelline’s key ingredient.

“That’s all we need,” Tom Lyle said. “We’ve got to do something fast or we’ll sink along with the enemy battleships.”

Tom Lyle, Emory, and Arnold brainstormed. As in World War I, businesses tailored their ads to fit the war effort. Emory noticed a trucking ad that said, They’ll Never Bomb Us Out! . . . Trucks will always get through!  

“We need to get that kind of spirit into our ads,” he said, “creating a strong demand that will get through to Washington. Remember how well Patriotism Through Beauty worked in 1916?”

Arnold said, “The boys have got the inside of their Quonset huts covered with pinups—including most of our girls. They may say they’re fighting for flag, mom, and apple pie, but their wallpaper tells the truth.”

Tom Lyle agreed. “If we could just ask some of the military brass to consider how many of the girls in the pinups might be wearing make-up, and whether their pinup appeal would be as powerful if they were not wearing cosmetics.”

“That should get their attention,” Emory agreed.

Tom Lyle called Noel the next day and told him to buy up as much petroleum jelly as he could before the rationing went into effect. The first wartime ad to appear showed a housewife writing a letter to her husband at the front.  Naturally, her eyes were perfectly Maybellined, and the slogan read, They’re doing They’re doing their bit by keeping their femininity. That’s one of the reasons we are fighting. Another ad showed an elegant young woman as lovely as a pinup girl with an admiring military officer adoring her as he helped her with her white stole. The caption read, Just as he dreamed her eyes would be, reminding women to be as lovely as the pinups by using Maybelline. One ad simply said War, Women, and Maybelline.

In spring of 1942, the Pentagon warned the White House that the war should not create a glamour shortage. A memo to Roosevelt advised that such a loss of beauty  “might lower national morale.” Suddenly petroleum flowed like water into Maybelline’s vats. Tom Lyle’s campaign had virtually saved the entire cosmetic industry for the duration.