MAD MEN'S Don Draper sends the 1960's out with a bang... Maybelline changed hands in 1967

While Sterling Cooper and Partners continue adding clients

Don Draper is one hot mess. Sleeping until noon, eating Ritz crackers for breakfast and living with his new roommate... a gigantic cockroach  

Don Draper is still trying to pretend he’s not an unemployed alcoholic.

Last Season of Mad Men will decide Don Drapers fate.

Here is what I was doing during 1964 as a teenager living in Southern California... trying to break into Hollywood.

Went to the TV Premiere of Marlo Thomas’ “That Girl” and loved it!!!

by saffronsrule

August 25, 1964. Tuesday. Went to a TV Premiere.

The rabbit got out so we called the SPCA. They said they found one so we went to get it, but it wasn’t ours. It was next door the whole time. Pearl got sick so we didn’t go to the beach. Nana came over and let us use her car. My sister Donna, her friend Teri Thompson and I went to Toes. It was ugly and cold. Tonight Pearl, Donna and her friend Linda Kline and I went to a TV Premiere. It was really good! We got to rate the show. It’s called “That Girl.” After, we drove around Hollywood and went to Pandora’s Box. We saw the Marauders playing there. I was so sad because it wasn’t Byron’s band the Marauders. We went to the Purple Onion, but couldn’t get so finally went to Woodies and got Hot Fudge Sundaes. Also, Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins was released today.

Marlo Thomas “That Girl”  became my all time favorite TV Show as a Teenager.  I wanted to be just like her in every way and I never missed a show. I loved her clothes, shoes, make up and hair.

Pandora’s Box The Club was a very cool club that let teenager’s in.  It was actually more of a Coffee House and a Hollywood hot spot in 1964.

Woody’s SmorgasBurger was the best burger joint ever and you could make up your own burgers and your own Sundae’s with the works.  My family had been going there since I was a little kid in Grammar School.

I still hadn’t given up hope of snagging Byron Ferguson, the drummer in the Marauders… from Westchester High School.  But this wasn’t his band.

Ultra Lash was launched in 1964, featuring a Black Girl  endorsing the new product.

Tom Lyle Williams, founder of The Maybelline Company
1915-1967,

click on Maybelline sells to Plough Inc. December, 1967

Check out my hilarious 1964 High School, Saffrons Rule Blog at  http://saffronsrule.com/

Maybelline founder, Tom Lyle Williams regrets not bringing in the next generation to protect the Company, like Estee' Lauder did with her family

Alan A. Ragland
 and Sharrie Willilams

Excerpted from a letter from Alan A. Ragland, (Rags Ragland's son.)  Alan also wrote the preface for The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. Copyrighted 2010, Bettie Youngs Books.


The Maybelline Company was acquired by Plough, Inc. effective 2/28/68.  Negotiations were currently going on with American Cyanamid, Revlon, and Kimberly Clark.  Rags Ragland, The Marketing genius Tom Lyle hired in in 1933, had owned Plough stock and was the unique influence in recommending Plough as a suitor to the Maybelline Co.  Ragland's reasoning was that he knew that Plough was in a solid enough position to buy the Maybelline and also due to the leverage factor, he knew that Plough would be a preferred candidate.  Plough was in a far superior leveraged condition in that the company had much fewer shares outstanding.


During the 11th hour of negotiations, Ragland suggested to Tom Lyle's son Tom Jr., that Maybelline include Plough in the bidding:  Tom's initial reaction was "Rags, they do not have the money"... Ragland's response was, "Yes, they do Tom. I know their circumstances, as I have been a stockholder for years and know they are cash heavy."  Tom called Abe Plough and the next day Abe Plough and Lanny Smith flew up with their executive staff in their private jet from Memphis to talk to Maybelline in Chicago ... post haste!


Plough was quickly and shrewdly chosen as the suitor:  They offered a minimum of  $100M  and there was a period of grace, whereupon the stock would float, then a specific day, which was 2/28/68 that the Plough stock price would be "pegged" for the official exchange.  On 2/28/68 the price of Plough had rallied so dramatically that the effectual buyout of the Maybelline company was now $132.3M!  Yes, it was leverage that caused this!  Demand plus fewer shares caused a stock breakout, which is a scenario seen on Wall Street each day.


In 1973 Schering, the 2nd largest pharmaceutical company in the world and Plough merged.  Each of the stockholder's received 1.32 shares of Schering for every share of of Plough that they had owned.



Excerpt from a letter written by Tom Lyle to Rags Ragland in Dec. of 1967 when Maybelline was sold to Plough Inc. explaining why Tom Lyle sold the company and his sadness in not preparing the younger generation of the family to carry on after him.

I will be posting the letters from Harris A. Neil next week so stay tuned for more priceless Maybelline History.

Maybelline's generous gift to all it's employees received absolutely no notice or media attention.

7. THE GIFT

 By Harris A. Neil Jr.

Tom Lyle Williams at his
 home in Bel Air California,
  May, 1968 click to enlarge

On a Saturday in late May, 1968 all eligible Maybelline employees received a letter by registered mail with an announcement—and a check. The announcement was in a letter signed by T. L., and routed through the First National Bank of Chicago, Trust Department.  “It outlined an employee gift that T. L. had put together, whereby each employee would receive a gift of $1000 tax free for each year of employment, from date of hire to December 31, 1967.”

The first year was not in the count, possibly to consider the recent influx of new people in the Plough era. So the count began one year after a person’s date of hire and ended on January 31, 1967.  In further detail, the announcement explained that, under current IRS Regulations, there was a limit of $3000 allowed to both parties tax free, so the total gift, if large enough, would be divided into annual installments of $3000 each. The first check, as large as $3000, was included with the announcement as the first or total payment, depending on eligibility.

That Monday morning the joy was everywhere, people cried and hugged each other, and it was hard to get any work done. Over a short time the word got out to the Plough group as they visited Chicago, and their reaction was one of “sour grapes.” They already expressed views that we were overpaid as a group, and now this! That didn't dampen our collective joy; it was something they’d just have to get over.

It’s hard to relate the impact of this gift across the Maybelline work group. The amount, $1000 for each year of service, applied to every employ without regard to pay level or position with the company. Thus, you could say that it helped the lower-placed person more than a more advanced supervisor or manager. Also, there was no upper eligibility as to time of employment, so a more veteran employee was in for a larger share. In the extreme, I believe this

meant that the longest-serving employee came in for around $33,000, in equal payments of $3000 annually with a final finishing payment to cover all eligible time.

How much was this gift worth, in total? I have no idea, except that it ran into many thousands of dollars. Despite the magnitude of T. L.’s generosity, the gift got absolutely no notice. It escaped media attention, which was very much T. L.’s nature, and the way he would want it.

Almost more than the monetary value of the gift, it gave every person receiving it a big morale boost right when they needed it. Soon enough, the company would be moved physically, first to Memphis then to North Little Rock, Arkansas. To my knowledge, only two people from the “Old Maybelline” group made it to North Little Rock. It was over.  

Stay tuned tomorrow as Harris A. Niel Jr. continues...

The Millionaires next door, with Maybelline money.

After 53 years of building the Maybelline Company, Tom Lyle sells to Plough Inc. and divides the profits among his family. 

Tom Lyle in the middle with his niece Marilyn (Williams-Haines), her husband John Gary and three of their 6 kids, Bobby, Lori and Cindy in Bel Air, 1968.

We all received an unexpected check in the mail that   changed our lives overnight.  It was like winning the lottery.  We were now millionaires and though

 Tom Lyle asked that the money be preserved

 for future generations in safe investments, the race

 was on to create extravagant lifestyles.  We were rich

 in a time when money was worth something and luxuries could be bought at uninflated prices.  So the estates, cars, yachts, jewelry, clothes, that would be untouchable at today's prices were attainable

 45 years ago.                   

The fun of it was, there was no competition or

jealousy within the families, because we were all equally wealthy and and able to do most anything we wanted. 

If you're curious to know what we did, you'll have to read The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Buy a signed copy at http://www.maybellinestory.com/.