Audrey Hepburn's Maybelline Eyes in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Maybelline introduced Fluid Eye Liner in 1961

The tools in every woman's makeup bag now included the most sophisticated products Maybelline had ever created, including, Magic Mascara with it's own self contained Sprial Brush, Self-Sharpener Eyebrow Pencil, Iridescent Eye Shadow (in a tube like lipstick,) and now Fluid Eye Liner.

Check out Audrey Hepburn's Maybelline Eyes, in Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961.  See how the makeup artist used Eye Liner, Shadow, Pencil and Mascara to create the New Look of the 60's. 

Read more about Maybelline's tremendous success in the 1960's, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

 Purchase a signed copy from maybellinestore.com

Maybelline's Teenage Diva in the 1960's.

Maybelline ad's in the 1960's, were seen more in fashion magazines, than movie magazines, and a new target market emerged as teenage Boomer's discovered  glamour and their own style.

Maybelline's new eye shadow stick was a big hit in 1960 and came in 5 iridescent, jewel-tone shades for $1.  When I turned 13 in 1960 my mother and Nana gave me a makeup bag for my Birthday,  filled with all the Maybelline products seen in this ad.  Of course I didn't wear it to school, but I felt very grown up knowing I had my own makeup and a pair of low heal, high heals, ready to go, if the time ever came when I might need them. 

Sharrie Williams at 13, with a  little Maybelline on my lashes.

When I was a teenager, being a Fashion Diva was the key to finding the perfect guy and having a perfect life.  So did it happen?  Yes and no.   But you'll have to read The Maybelline Story to find out. 

Stay tuned for more 60's lore all this week.  Tell your Fashion Diva friends to check out The Maybelline Blog if they love VINTAGE! 

Tom Lyle Williams Villa Valentino and his Estate at 900 Airole Way, Bel Air, California

Tom Lyle's family meant the world to him and visited often at the Villa Valentino in the Hollywood Hills, (until it was taken for the Hollywood freeway,)  than at his new modern glass and steel estate in Bel Air, California.

 My Grandmother,  Evelyn, Great uncle,Tom Lyle and my parents, Bill and Pauline Williams at the Villa Valentino, 1942.

Aspiration overlooking the pool in the 1930's.                                                    

Tom Lyle's sister Eva with her husband Ches Haines, and their kids, June, Marilyn and Bob, 1947.

Tom Lyle in the director's chair at the Villa, with his sisters Mabel Williams Hewes and Eva Williams Haines and their husbands Chet Hewes and Ches Haines, 1938.

Noel James and Frances Williams, at Tom Lyle's new home in Bel Air, 1950.

Tom Lyle's brother Noel James Williams and Sparky at Tom Lyle's new estate, 1950.

Here I am at 4 years old holding on for dear life in 1951..

My parents Bill and Pauline with Noel Allen on the lounge chair, at the Bel Air estate, 1954.

Tom Lyle's niece, Annette Williams Corbett, standing with him at the gate of 900 Airole Way in 1961.  At that time the estate was valued at $250,000.  In 2005 it was sold for $19,500,000.  After his death in 1976, the 8,256 sq foot estate was sold to  Polish-French film director, producer, writer and actor Roman Polanski.

Tom Lyle with Sparky getting the mail at the door of the Bel Air estate, 1960.

Jean, Chuck and Nancy Williams with Annette Williams Corbett, her daughter Ann Louise, Tom Lyle and Annette's husband George Corbett, 1961.

My cousin's Ann Louise, Princie, her dog, with Nancy and Chuck Williams at the Bel Air estate, 1961.

Cousin Chuck, Nancy and Ann Louise in Bel Air, with the statue Aspiration moved from the Villa to Bel Air in 1949.

Ann Louise, Chuck and Nancy in Tom Lyle's Ultra Chinese Modern den.


As I head into the 1960's I wanted to recap the years before the Maybelline Company sold in 1967.  Stay tuned for fascinating vintage 60 ads and more family pictures to come this week. 

Maybelline Story will be performed as a One Woman Show!

Sharrie Williams performs a One Woman Show for The Beverly Hills  Women's Club!

Tickets are open to the public. Men are welcome of course.  If you would like to meet Sharrie and see her tell the Maybelline Story with power point pictures of her family and vintage Maybelline Ads, watch for information to be posted on this blog.  It should be a fun time and a great way to meet interesting people.

Maybelline Story makes it's way across the Country, as it tours America.

                     From the cornfields of Nebraska,

                    To Bikram Yoga Studios in Dallas,

                To the beaches,  in Southern California,

        Everyone is Buzzing about The Maybelline Story.

Runner up in New York's Best Beach Read contest, and honorable mention in The Hollywood Festival. 

Maybelline says goodbye to the 1950's.

In 1959, Maybelline introduced Magic Mascara, with it's revolutionary new Spiral Brush, saying goodbye forever to the little red box. The end of the decade marked the beginning of the Boomer Generation, reaching their teenage years, and Maybelline jumped into the youth market with this new exciting product.

Even with all the excitement going on within the Maybelline Company - sponsoring the Miss America Contest, Princess Grace and Prince Rainier lll, wedding in Monaco  The Perry Como Show and introducing exciting new products - Tom Lyle, Unk Ile to us, always found time to spend with his family, both on the West Coast and Chicago.  His generosity and humble spirit made him the ideal Godfather to the entire family and he taught us all to be grateful for the simple yet fun lives we had in the 1950s and to look forward to an even brighter future to come.    


My four year old sister Billee Rae Williams, with Unk Ile, (Tom Lyle,) and her Barbie Doll, Christmas, 1959.

My father, Bill Williams on the right, saying goodbye to friends, New Years, 1959.

New Years at our house in California,1959,
 ushering in 1960.

Thank you for following the Maybelline Blog through the decades of the 20th Century in America.  I hope this has been fun as well as educational, as you traveled with a family who created a company that influenced so many women for over 95 years. This is my way of giving back to the world for everything that has been given to me.

If you want to take a real joy ride through the ups and downs of American life with the Williams family be sure to purchase a signed copy of The Maybelline Story from my site, Barnes and Noble or amazon.com.

Maybelline expands with population during 1950s.

Maybelline Grows as the average middle class family expands in the 1950s.

Noel Allen with his children Chuck and Nancy in California.

An American dream, 1957 - Two or three kids, a home in the suburbs, two cars in the garage and a dad who works in a corporate job.  Except this isn't just any typical family, this is my cousin Chuck, BB1, the car guy with his dad Noel Allen and sister Nancy. 

Eva and Ches Haines family, 1955 in Deerfield, Illinois.

From left to right,  Tom Lyle's sister Eva's family - Jackie, Bob, Dick Westhouse, Marilyn, John Gary, June, & Eva.  Front row, Marilyn and Dick's sons, David Lyle, Richard Gerald and  June's daughter Kathy.



While Maybelline commercials were being shown on all the popular 50's shows on TV, The Maybelline families on the West Coast and Chicago were living normal middle class lives, never realizing that someday Maybelline would change our lives forever.

read more about how the selling of Maybelline in 1967 changed our lives, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Maybelline introduced Eye Cream in 1955.

Maybelline introduced an Eye Cream in 1955, but at the time women were not aware of how important it was to protect  the skin around the eye from wrinkling.  It was discontinued the next year.

Pauline Williams, 1955.

My mother, however started using Maybelline eye cream when I was 8 years old and by the time I was 15, I too was hooked on eye cream - long after Maybelline eye cream was not available.  In fact, interestingly enough, I started using Estee Lauder, Eye Zone, 30 years ago and to my great disappointment, it has just been discontinued.  So, I've switched to la prairie, SWITZERLAND, and I have to say, it's amazing.  If you don't use eye cream it's never to early to start.  Remember, beautiful eyes are your most important feature.

Read more about Maybelline and the family behind the name, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Tell your friends as well,  Thank you for following my blog, 

Sharrie Williams

Maybelline targeted the average housewife in the 1950's.

Maybelline in the 1950's may have represented fashion, glamour and style, but it's target market was the average middle class lady shopping with her kids in the local drugstore.

Ladies, no mater what age or what era, wanted to

 be pretty and pretty meant having those Maybelline eyes. 

A typical young middle class American family out for    

dinner.  It just happens to be my dad, Donna, my mom with her new Italian hair cut and me in 1954.                 

In the 1950's every housewife had their favorite drugstore, in fact it was so important, that the travel guide New Horizons by Pan American Airways, listed  "American drugstores under world's capitals.  Maybelline became a household name and an American institution, because of housewives spending so much at the drugstore to look Vogue. 

Maybelline and Loretta Young represent classic beauty in the 1950s.

Loretta Young, a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamor and stardom was a woman of substance.

Loretta Young hosted and starred in the well-received half hour anthology series The Loretta Young Show. It ran from 1953 to 1961. Her trademark was to appear dramatically at the beginning in various high fashion evening gowns. Her program ran in prime time on NBC for eight years, the longest-running prime-time network program hosted by a woman up to that time.

Maybelline as well represented fashion and glamour with serenity and grace, always ahead of it's time.

Click below to view Lorretta Young as televisions best dressed most elegant woman in the industry.

Like Loretta Young, Tom Lyle Williams was blessed with classic features and demended perfection in himself and his Maybelline Company.

Thank You for following the Maybelline Blog.  66 countries have looked in to view the American way of life in the 20th Century.  Want to meet Tom Lyle and the Williams Family, be sure to purchase The Maybelline Story and brace yourself for quite a ride. 

FROM MALI WEST AFRICA COMES THE TAMA BAG and Wrap Skirt.

Tama Walley is back in the U.S.A. from Mali Africa and her African Print Wrap Skirt and bag are the perfect combo for Summer 2012!                

Tama-Bag, made with reversible

Mali, West African fabric.

100% cotton, washable, reversible Tama-Bag inside out.

 Tama's reversible African print mini wrap skirt.

Book and Bag, $50.
Book, Bag and Skirt, $80.

Check in everyday to see when it will be available at the Maybelline Story Store. http://www.maybellinestory.com/.

CHRISTIAN DIOR AND MAYBELLINE - 1950's.

 In the post-war 1950's, high style and
fashion returned with the help of Christian Dior, while Maybelline continued to  personify "beautiful eyes." 

the New Look of Maybelline, 1952.

Christian Dior was Responsible for dramatically changing the style of the 1950s.  Dior created the” new look” which used lots of fabric and exaggerated the hourglass shape of the female figure. The new look was in direct contrast to the frugal and plain styles during the war, but women and the fashion industry embraced the move back to glamour.

New Look became revolutionary and strongly popular, influencing fashion and other designers for many years to come. Prominent Hollywood figures and the European upper-class became instant clients. Paris, which had fallen from its position as the capital of the fashion world after WWII, regained its esteemed position due in part to the attention it gained form Dior's New Look.

Maybelline represented high fashion since the 1930s, but when Dior became the mark of excellence, Tom Lyle introduced one of television's most beloved and fashionable stars of the 1950s. 

Maybelline Eyes, 1950's style.

Including Loretta Young who starred in The Loretta Show in the 1950's.  He was a major influence on what the middle class housewife considered high fashion.