Maybelline founder Tom Lyle Williams

Christmas in the 50's. Some of my favorite pictures



Sharrie and Donna Williams, 1949


Sharrie and Donna, 1952,


 
Tom Lyle Williams with Billee, Christmas, 1959.
 
Donna, Sharrie and Billee Williams, 1959.

 

Bill Williams with his uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, 1959.

 
Tom Lyle and Bill Williams, with Billee in the background, 1959



Tom Lyle with googley eye glasses, 1959.


my baby brother Preston 1960



Read about the founding of the Maybelline Company in 1915 to it's sale in 1967 in my book The Maybelline Story. You will meet it's founder and owner, Tom Lyle Williams, and his family.  I think you will enjoy reading about the family behind the name that became an American Institution. 

Powerful Custom Automobiles made Maybelline Founder King of the road








Tom Lyle Williams at the Villa Valentino,  standing next to his 1940 Packard Victoria.
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HIs 1934 Dietrich Packard, leader of the pack.



My grandmother, Evelyn Williams, (Nana,) with my dad, Bill Williams and Tom Lyle with his life-partner, Emery Shaver, sitting on the running board in 1934





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His 1926 Gold Bug Speedster Kissel
 1926 Kissel,
Here is a picture of Tom Lyle's sister, Mabel Williams.....Maybelline's namesake.....with her new husband, Chet Hewes, on their wedding day, in 1926. The Newlywed's are posing next to Tom Lyle's new yellow 1926 Kissel.  Tom Lyle,  eventually, gave this car to his partner Emery Shaver, who in turn, gave it to Tom Lyle Jr. in 1932, when TL Jr, was a student and captain of the football team, at Duke University. 


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His 1916 Paige Detroit,"the most beautiful car in America."

Tom Lyle Williams, 1915

Tom Lyle bought his first car in the Fall of 1916, customised the wheels and fish tailed the back end.


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His custom 1923 Packard Sport
 Touring Car






Tom Lyle Williams on the left, his partner Emery Shaver sitting on the ground. Emery's sister Elizibeth, his brother Bud, TL's  sister Eva, (in black,) and her husband  Ches Haines.


Tom Lyle's brother Noel J. is on the far right, while their sister, Eva, is the second lady on the left.


Read more about Tom Lyle Williams, Maybelline and the Williams family in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Top 5 Cars that are Perfect for Modification

My Brother Preston with the 1969 Porsche 911E
Here is one of the special cars my father owned.  It had been modified for street use, because the motor was made for a race car owned by his cousin Bill Stroh.  Below I've posted an article about 5 cars that can me modified to add horsepower. Thought you'd enjoy the ride.            

http://www.maybellinebook.com/2011/11/william-preston-williams-lll-remembers.html  Read more

All of the pistons and rings were forged by hand out of aluminum, as well as many other parts to be extra light weight, everything about this motor was designed for ultimate performance and many races. this was no ordinary car" 

When my father bought the car it had to be tuned down a bit, to make it safe for the road.  The car had a specialized breaking system to support the high speeds.  The suspension was modified as well all to make it fast and safe.  Best of all it looked original. 



Top 5 Cars that are Perfect for Modification


Not so long ago, 0-60 times in the sub 6-second region were surely the domain of supercars that came with a hyper-costly price tag. These days, you can get a sub $30k sedan that will do that. It’s likely this kind of performance is not quite enough for you though, so we’ve put together a list that comprises the 10 best everyday automobiles that are easy to modify and by doing so, they can be metamorphosed into dream cars.


These cars are popular and they are popular for very good reason. They’re all solid performers and they witness a huge amount of aftermarket support, too. And there’s another good thing – even if speed isn’t so much your thing, there are tons of dress-up items in the shops for them as well.



 Image result for Dodge Caliber SRT4

5. Dodge’s Caliber SRT-4

It may not be quite the heart flutterer that its predecessor was, but with its bargain-basement cost and its 300 horsepower, turbocharged engine, it’s certainly a worthy contender on this list.This represents a Gen-Y muscle car, and comes with an obscenely powerful engine, a budget chassis, and a 0-60 time which only a rocket from an RPG can match. Modification: The Caliber SRT-4 most certainly could use a limited slip differential. The 300 horsepower engine whacks all its power to the front wheels, and these front wheels fully determine in which direction the car will go.



 Image result for Subaru WRX

4. Subaru WRX

There’s really nothing not to like about a turbocharged sedan that’s rally-bred and comes with a 0-60 time that’s sub 6-seconds. Yet, the car has room for five.

Although. when it first hit the scene back in 2000, the face was not at all attractive, but very rapidly it became established as the rally driver’s go-to-ride, which of course appeals to the lads who love to go fast. Modification: The 2009 version of the WRX has 41 horsepower more than its otherwise identical predecessor. With the older ’08 model, a first step is to tune the ROM, together with the turbo-back exhaust. Those with the newer and slightly more powerful WRX, might wish to stiffen the chassis with a solid set of coilovers.

 Image result for Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart

3. Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart

The Lancer Evolution, Mitsubishis’ latest offering, is bigger in power, size, capability, refinement, and also on price. It would be nice to save on a bit of cash and get the Evo IX MR, but the problem is the honing damage can be rather frightening. Thus, it’s wise to plump with the latest Lancer Ralliart.

It’s got the same drivetrain as the Evo X minus a differential, same engine, minus 54 horsepower, and it’s got paddle-shift dual clutch transmission, but here, it’s minus the S-Sport mode. On the racetrack, the Evo X would greatly outperform the Ralliart, but on the street, both vehicles feel very alike.

The Ralliart is a super car at a super price, and an intelligent Ralliart owner can happily invest in the lighter Evo X parts to make their alterations. Modification: It’s a very balanced car, is the Lancer Ralliart, and perhaps it’s unwise to carry out any modification that may impact this balance. However, tuners such as GST and AMS are enjoying horsepower gains of over 30 horsepower with nothing other than a ROM tune. Thus, it’s sensible to begin there.


 



2. Volkswagen GTi

Still one of the very best, it’s the original hot hatch. The sport-tuned Golf has experienced an extremely loyal following for the past number of decades, and the auto’s popularity is as strong now as it ever was. The GTi in North America is not quite the newest, but it still has the 200 horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged four.  Modification: The current GTi, just like its predecessors, responds particularly positively to an ECU tune. It’s a simplistic and cheap modification, while the dynamo charts demonstrate that the upgrade provides huge horsepower as well as torque gains through the rev band.

 

1. Honda Civic Si

With the new Civic Si’s 197 horsepower, 2.0-liter engine, it’s the most energetic Civic to have been sold in the U.S. Further, it comes with one of the top 6-speed manual transmissions around, a very nicely balanced chassis, and an LSD option. Modification: It’s going to be a costly business to get any more power out of the naturally-aspirated K20.
So, get rid of the stock headlights and instead swap them for HID Kits and LED headlights from someplace like XenonHIDs.com. Next, get some stickier tires and you’ll very likely love the look and the performance.

Happy Birthday to my Sister, Billee Bee, 60 is the new 30


Be sure to visit Billee Bee's Video-Blog, Meandering with Billee. She documented her 59th year.


 Billee Bee actually looks closer to 30 than 60.


 No real fur for Billee Bee.  She's an animal rights advocate




Billee and Al Jarreau....McCallum Concert...backstage!  1st 60th Birthday Week-end celebration!

Visit Billee Bee's Meandering with Billee Video Blog


Maybelline's Success Story a lost thread in America's Fabric.



Wonder Company of the 20th Century.



was spending $200,000 a year in advertising, with Maybelline ads appearing in forty popular magazines as well as Sunday newspaper supplements and specialized journals such as Theater and Photoplay. Between 1915 and 1929, he’d spent over a million dollars to advertise Maybelline. His little eye beautifier now had wide distribution in the United States and Canada.  Everywhere you went, close-up photos of eyes darkened with Maybelline projected a provocative--but no longer sinful--eroticism.


Tom Lyle Williams in 1929, from an article in a trade magazine.
In fact Tom Lyle had just launched his 1929 “Springtime is Maybelline Time!” campaign, featuring an idealized lovely young miss looking up adoringly at her man through starry eyes. The offers to vendors pitched display cartons, each holding a half-dozen eye makeup containers, and urged druggists to try product placement by the soda fountain, “forcing extra sales.” Tom Lyle felt that the ad would assure continued prosperity for the company, meaning he could afford to leave Maybelline in the hands of his brother Noel while he and Emery headed out to California for a few days.

On October 29, 1929, a news flash announced that the Dow industrial average had fallen almost twenty-three percent, and the stock market had lost a total of sixteen billion dollars in value in a month. Sixteen billion dollars.

Tom Lyle knew the stock market crash would be devastating for the country in general, and would certainly ruin many companies. Although Maybelline, as a family-owned business, was not directly affected by the Wall Street disaster, there was no question that the aftermath would be devastating. Who would choose to buy eye cosmetics over food for the family?


The prosperity and opulence of the Roaring Twenties were gone, disappearing along with the vamps who had loaded up with Maybelline’s seventy-five-cent product. In order to keep his company alive in the years to come, Tom Lyle knew he would have to find ways to keep his product in the public eye, yet at a price women could afford. The flashy, flapper look was quickly devolving to a more demure look fit for austere times.


Despite the national situation, he felt good about the future. In fact, when Noel showed him a story in The Wall Street Journal about a brand-new skyscraper being constructed over the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York--the Empire State Building, the tallest structure in the world--Tom Lyle took it as a sign that the bad economy would be only a temporary dip in the road.


He was rarely so wrong. When Emery suggested an ad tie-in to the Empire State Building--Things Are Looking Up, featuring young women with gorgeous eyes gazing up at a new skyscraper--Tom Lyle backed it enthusiastically...until it became clear that for most of the country, things were looking very much down. They abandoned the new ad campaign as the market continued to decline, wages plummeted, and credit dried up. When industrial production also collapsed, many businesses went with it.


But not Maybelline. Although innovative and widespread advertising was responsible for a lot of the company's success over the years, it was not the whole story. So was constant innovation in the lab, and that spring, thanks to the introduction of an improved waterproof eye makeup, total sales rose to $750,000--at a time when most businesses were struggling simply to keep their wallowing businesses afloat.


Read more about Maybelline's success during the worst economic downturn in American history and it's secret to becoming the most successful cosmetic company in the world in

The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Happy Birthday to my Maybelline Cousin, Chuck Williams - BB1 - A Guy with a Passion for Fashion when it comes to Classic Cars

 



Charles Allen Williams, aka Chuck - BB1..... with two of the cars from his personal collection. Chuck, like his great-uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, carries on the tradition of collecting EYE CATCHING Automobiles.

Chuck's great uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, with his 1934 Packard.  Tom Lyle worked for several years to save enough money to buy his first car in 1917. The Paige, called the most beautiful car in the world, ignited Tom Lyle's passion for custom cars.

 


 

1917 Paige Model 6-51 information


100 Years of Maybelline,  1915 - 2015.....


The Maybelline Story Embraces Vintage Fashion, Make up, Hair, Maybelline Ads, Classic Cars, as well as drama, intrigue History and Real Americana. 



Read about Tom Lyle and his love for beautiful automobiles in the Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.