The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It, aims to change that. It could only be written by someone with insider knowledge. Sharrie Williams is the great-niece of Tom Lyle Williams, the charming and creative, yet remarkably secretive man who founded Maybelline along with his tight knit family, including his brothers and sisters -Noel, Preston, Mabel and Eva - catapulting a little mail order business in 1915 into the most successful and famous eye cosmetic company in the world. By digging through family documents, her own memories and the memories of the few remaining people intimately familiar with the founders of Maybelline, Sharrie slipped beneath the public facade of the company to reveal the amazing personalities at its heart. This is an exciting and thoughtful book, part memoir, part history, part family saga, that reveals the triumphs and tragedies behind the beautiful public face of Maybelline.
Chet and Mabel (Willliams) Hewes, and Ches and Eva (Williams) Haines, Hollywood, 1938.
Tom Lyle Williams with Mabel, Chet, Ches and Eva at The Villa Valentino - Hollywood, 1938.
Catalina California 1938 - left to right, My father Bill, great uncle, Tom Lyle, my Grandmother Evelyn and my auntie Eva, auntie Mabel and uncle Chet.
Read more about the founding of The Maybelline Company from 1915 to 1968 and beyond in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. Buy a signed copy from Sharrie Williams
Hollywood Super Stars clamored to be featured in Maybelline color advertisements during the 1940s
During World War ll, Maybelline's market share skyrocketed, because so many women worked in air craft plants and refused to cut back on their cosmetics. When the war ended Tom Lyle's thirty-year-old invention benefited mightily from the Postwar Boom when mascara and eye-shadow came out in matching colors - with new hues added every Spring and Fall - imitating the practice of fashion designers. The increase in sales were dramatic and though in 1940 only one in four American women wore eye make-up, by 1949 this figure increased to three out of four, with Maybelline accounting for 45,000 units out of 51,000 eye products sold that year.
Merle Oberon Known for her sultry good looks Merle Oberon played Cathy Linton in Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier in 1939. The 1940's proved to be a very busy decade where she appeared in no less than 15 movies.
Tom Lyle contracted major motion picture stars to appear in Maybelline's advertisements. War-movies showcased them as the ideal Amercan image and young girls around the world purchased Maybelline at their local dime stores.
Rita Hayworth Merle Oberon, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford and Hedy Lamarr (click to see) were some of the GI's favorite pin-up girls. They were top box office queens during the war years and their image represented money in the bank for Maybelline.
Betty Grable
Tom Lyle contracted Betty Grable for her sex appeal, moxy and girl next door image.She appealed to young wannabees who saved their grocery money to buy hope in a little red box. Maybelline turned simple shop girl's into sex symbols - inspiring soldier boys to get back home. In fact a G.I.'s morale was often dependent on pictures of their girls with"Those Maybelline Eyes." Tom Lyle spent more on his beautiful movie stars as cover-girls than any other cosmetic company in history and it paid off in the 1940's beyond his wildest dreams.
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford became the official face of Maybelline in 1945 after she won an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce." Be sure to watch HBO's new version of "Mildred Pierce" with Kate Winslet airing Sunday March 27th. This mini-series depicts the era, clothes and background painted in The Maybelline Story. I'm sure if you watch the series and read the book at the same time you'll see The Maybelline Story come alive.
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress. Though known primarily for her extraordinary beauty and her celebrity in a film career as a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age. She had a seductive look in her eye that appealed to Tom Lyle, because she targeted a certain audience of women who sought her sex appeal.
Maybelline was synonymous with fashion, style and indisputable Hollywood glamor. Here are a few of Tom Lyle's favorite movie queens of the silver screen during the 1940's.
Dorothy Lamour starred in the "Road to..." movie series with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the 1940s and 1950s. The movies were enormously popular during the 1940s, and they regularly placed among the top moneymaking films each year
The Unique Beauty of Gene Tierney - Excerpted from Michael Atkinson's essay, Dec 1994 Movieline magazine. "Among faces, Gene Tierney's is a tournament rose, an Opaline study in serene, sexualized perfection, a mad musky Egyptian daydream of cat thoughts."
Lana Turner was discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen.
Nothing has changed in 100 years Girls still want to stand out
Maybelline in the middle of Times Square, with eyes that stop traffic!
Read it all in The Maybellie Story and the Spirited family Dynasty Behind It.
100 years of Maybelline Ads show how little has changed in beauty...The products may change, but their goals are pretty much the same.CHERYL WISCHHOVERFashionista.com This year, Maybelline marks a century in the beauty business. To celebrate the milestone, we asked the company to share some of its vintage product pictures, ad images and commercials with us. They were both entertaining and enlightening. What's most surprising here is that while trends and looks superficially change, nothing has really changed fundamentally in beauty. Women still want lush lashes and brows and perfect skin 100 years later, though the way advertisers have marketed those products to women has changed quite a bit, as you'll see below.
1915-1920s
Photo: Maybelline
According to the company, Maybelline got its start with a lash and brow product. In 1915, a young woman named Mabel Williams mixed coal dust with Vaseline and used it to beef up her lashes after singing them off in an accident. Her brother Tom Lyle Williams took the idea and ran with it, producing a product — sans coal — commercially. He called it Lash-Brow-Ine and the product became popular via mail order. He called his new company Maybelline (Mabel + Vaseline) and a brand was born. Apparently women have always wanted Cara Delevingne brows! Also interesting: the company's claim that the products are "pure and harmless." Safe cosmetics, always desirable.
1930s
Photo: Amazon.com
By the 1930s, "eye lash darkener," as it was called, was officially a thing, and Maybelline sold it in cake form with a separate brush. There was a scare surrounding a lash dye at the time called Lash Lure (not made by Maybelline), which blinded some women, so the company was very careful to say that no dyes were used and that the products were "safe."
In the '30s, brow pencils and eye shadow also came into vogue. This was also the birth of the makeup tutorial's earliest ancestor. The brand produced ads of Betty Grable demonstrating a three-step application process, which ran in popular magazines. The company also notes that in the '30s, the time of the Great Depression, women couldn't afford a new dress, but they could certainly afford a new eye shadow. Sound familiar? (Ahem, hi, 2008.)
1940S-1950s
Ad from 1950. Photo: Maybelline
In the 1940s and 1950s, Maybelline introduced iridescent eye shadow sticks and liquid liner. In 1959, the company launched its first "automatic" mascara (after Helena Rubenstein got one to market first), featuring a spiral brush in the tube, called Magic Mascara. During this era, Maybelline began distributing overseas.
1960s
A Maybelline ad from 1960. Photo: Maybelline
By this point, and as you can see from the above image, Maybelline was king (queen?) when it came to eye makeup. Then in 1971, the company cemented its hold on women's lashes for good by launching the now-iconic pink and green Great Lash Mascara. In the late '60s, the company was sold to Schering-Plough.
1970S
Here, decades before Tinder, Maybelline supports a lady's right to play the field. Photo: Maybelline
In 1974, the company launched its first lip products, which included products like Kissing Sticks, Kissing Koolers, and Kissing Potion. Kissing: very big in the '70s.
1980S
Lynda Carter, aka Wonder Women, in a 1984 ad. Photo: Maybelline
The brand started offering a full complement of products, including lipstick and foundation. Lynda Carter featured prominently in many ads during this decade, ushering in the era of the actress as spokesmodel.
1990S
In 1990, Maybelline changed hands again, this time to investment firm Wasserstein Perella and Co. One of the most famous ad slogans of all time was also introduced during this decade: "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline." (Admit it. You just sang the jingle in your head.) Christy Turlington featured prominently in commercials during the '90s. L'Oreal acquired the brand in 1996 and still owns it. Over the last 20 years, the brand has signed buzzy models like Jourdan Dunn, Gigi Hadid, Adriana Lima, Freja Beha Erichsen, Jessica White, Charlotte Free and Shu Pei Qin, and sponsored global fashion week
Cheers, Maybelline. Here's to 100 more years, and please don't discontinue Baby Lips.
My dad, William P. Williams, perfectly preserved 1977 Clenet # series 1, 13 out of 250, has a new home. It was bought by EVERGREEN HISTORIC AUTOMOBILES and shipped back to their museum in Lebanon, Missouri. It can now be viewed along with the most beautiful cars in the world.
Owned since 1977 by original owner Bill Williams and his family, the car had very low miles and has been kept under wraps since Bill died in 2006. The car will be back in it's glory as thousands of car lovers visit the museum.
If you want to see more pictures or see more posts I've written on my dad's Clenet, scroll down to Archives as look under Clenet.
Here my dad with his car in 2002, four years before his death. He often drove the car down Coast Highway in Newport Beach with the top down, radio playing, enjoying the good life into his 80's. He and his car will be sorely missed. But, I'm happy people can see this special car.
EVERGREEN HISTORIC AUTOMOBILES
“Where rare and unusual automobiles are the norm.”
The majority of these automobiles were convertibles and, in fact, Evergreen Historic Automobiles contains a high percentage (over 90%) of open and/or convertible cars. Open cars have proven over the years to be the most rapidly appreciating body style in the collector car industry. It has been said, “When the top goes down, the price goes up.” Maybelline Heir from The Motorcar Society on Vimeo. Alan Clenet from The Motorcar Society on Vimeo.
Irene Rich was a glamorous actress who played Will Rogers' nagging wife in 1930s films and read radio's World War II-era "Dear John" letters.
She was a San Francisco real estate agent before she got her first movie job as an extra in Mary Pickford's "Stella Maris" in 1918.
Soon, she had graduated to starring roles in silent melodramas, usually portraying mature women of the world, and in short films with Rogers.
By the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was playing Will Rogers' wife in talkies, including "They Had to See Paris," "So This is London" and "Down to Earth."
From 1933 to 1945, she was a popular radio star, reading "Dear John" letters to introduce and close Sunday-night episodes on the Welch's Grape Juice program.
The term "Dear John" became soldiers' slang for mail from a lover breaking off a romance.
Later, Rich appeared in 21 Warner Bros. movies—including "Lady Windermere's Fan" in 1925, "Craig's Wife" in 1928 and "The Champ" in 1931. She also performed in several Broadway shows.
NCIS’ Season 12 Cast: Brian Dietzen Talks To Real Medical Examiner, ‘Try To Be As True To Life As Possible’ [VIDEO] Maybelline's namesake, Mabel Williams, great grandson, Brian Dietzen, plays Jimmy Palmer on NCIS
The video, which is below shows Dr. Cina stating, "They know what they're doing. The respect they show the patient is apparent. We treat our people like patients as well."
"I think the detail for the anatomy is very good. I think the special effects are actually quite good," the real medical examiner added.
"They really stay with ancillary role of the medical examiner or forensic pathologist. They're not central to solving a crime. That's not our role. We bring out medical fact," Dr. Cina explained of how NCIS carries out what a medical examiner does in real life.
"We try to be as true to life as possible," Dietzen said of the series, adding, "But within the reality of we have to tell the story in 42 minutes or less. That's our biggest cheat probably. The amount of time it takes to do what you guys do, which might take weeks."
Dietzen also commented on how his character and Dr. Mallard "have a life outside of the victims".
"You have to have fun, you have to joke, you have to talk about the game last night, you have to talk about your girlfriend or your wife, talk about real life," he shared.
"In our show that really translates to a lot of funny stuff," Dietzen added.
The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It, aims to change that. It could only be written by someone with insider knowledge. Sharrie Williams is the great-niece of Tom Lyle Williams, the charming and creative, yet remarkably secretive man who founded Maybelline along with his tight knit family, including his brothers and sisters -Noel, Preston, Mabel and Eva - catapulting a little mail order business in 1915 into the most successful and famous eye cosmetic company in the world. 
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