Maybelline founder Tom Lyle Williams

Maybelline welcomes Mabel's husband, Chet Hewes, into the family business.

Tom Lyle's brother-in-law, Chet Hewes, joins the Maybelline Company and becomes part of the Executive staff by 1934.
Vogue, in 1934, continues to be the leader in style, glamour and  fashion.  Notice how Mabel has a similar hat on, in the picture below. 
Maybelline remaines the undisputed leader, in Eye fashion, the world over in 1934, with a new modern, line of products. 



Seven years after their Wedding, Mable and Chet establish their family, with three beautiful children, Shirley, Tommy and Baby, Joyce Mae. 

Shirley says, "Tom Lyle asked my father, to come to work at Maybelline for years because he was a hard worker and had advertising experience, but he was loyal to Montgomery Wards.  In about 1932 or 1933 a new management team fired all the top-level staff, including my father, so he finally agreed to join the family business."


Because of a nighmare lawsuit with FDA over the Lash Lure cosmetic co in 1933, Tom Lyle, had Chet Hewes, open The DeLuxe Mascara company.  Read all about it in Cosmetics and Skin. By James Bennett.



Other exciting events that took place in 1934.




Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is released.  It becomes the first film to win all 5 of the major Academy AwardsBest Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. Gable and Colbert receive their only Oscars for this film
The 1934 Chicago World's Fair.  Tom Lyle found a custom, 1934 Packard Victoria and bought it on the spot.
Tom Lyle with his new 1934, Packard Victoria.

- Prohibition was repealled the year before, (1933,) after 13 years of chaos, created by it's wrath.

                       1934 Events:


- John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and their gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa.

- Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kill 2 young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.
- John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin.
- Dust Bowl: A strong 2-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl
 - New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- The Hays Office censorship code for motion pictures goes into full effect in the United States
 - Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
- Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.
- Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio.
- A running gun battle between FBI agents and bank robber Baby Face Nelson results in the death of one FBI agent and the mortal wounding of special agent Samuel P. Cowley, who was still able to mortally wound Nelson.

Read more about what was going in America and the Maybelline Company in the 1930's, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Signed copies available at www.maybellinestory.com

Maybelline Family welcomes a baby girl in 1927.

Mabel and Chet's bundle of Joy!!!


Here's what was going on in Vogue Magazine, 1927.



                                                            
                    and this is what a Maybelline ad looked like.


Mabel and Chet with their first Baby, Shirley Anne Hewes,
But, the best part of 1927 was the birth of Mabel and Chet's, first baby girl, Shirley Anne.  She entered the world when big changes were taking place in America, including, Charles Lindbergh, solo non-stop flight to Paris -The Film industry going from Silent Films, to Talkies - and her uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, driving to California, for the first time and considering, making Hollywood his home. 

But, the most exciting change would happen, when her daddy finally accepted Tom Lyle's offer, to work for the Maybelline Co.  Until then, However, Baby Shirley, would just have to settle for being the apple of her daddy's eye and her mother's little darling.



May 20May 21Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, from New York City to Paris in his single-seat, single-engine monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis


The Premier of the Silent Film, Wings, was held at the Criterion Theater, in New York City, on August 12, 1927.


October 6 – The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson, opened in the United States and become a huge success, although it would be a while before silent films were completely gone.

Read more about Chet and Mabel, and Chet's contribution to The Maybelline Company in,
The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.




Mabel and Chet, a match made in Heaven.

Yes, for Mabel Willimas and Chester Hewes, 1926 was a time to CELEBRATE!!!

Vogue, Christmas 1926



Mabel and Chet in front of Tom Lyle's, new 1926 Kissel.

Chester, "Chet" and Mabel on their Wedding Day, August 17, 1926, three day's before her 34th Birthday.  Chet, continued to work in advertising at Montgomery Ward, for the next 7 years, though Tom Lyle, continually asked him to quit and come work for Maybelline.  Mabel remained an old fashioned girl, even at the height of Prohibition and the Women's Movement, insisting her husband do the voting while she build a family.

A week later on August 23, the sudden death of Hollywood  sex symbol Rudolph Valentino at the age of  31 years old caused mass grief and hysteria around the world.  Tom Lyle eventually moved to Hollywood, bought The Valentino Villa, and contracted Stars to appear in Maybelline advertisements for the next 40 years.


The family saga, unfolds in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Get your signed copies, in time for Christmas, at  www.maybellinestory.com.



A new image of the the American woman in 1924..... brought to you by Maybelline.



    1924 Vogue cover, with a beautifully made-up face.


Illustration of "IT GIRL"  Clara Bow.

MGM, formed in 1924, becoming the dominant studio during Hollywood's Golden Age and influencing images of girls around the world. 


Maybelline's Illustration of Vamp, Louise Brooks
.

Tom Lyle Williams, contributed to the Hollywood Star System by featuring Stars in Maybelline ads, in movie and fashion magazines, newspapers and radio shows.


Mabel with her brother-in-law, Chester Arthur Haines, at his wedding to her sister Eva, in 1924.  


Mabel may have put  the "M" in Maybelline, but, she had no interest in being just another "It Girl," or "Vamp."  She was a traditional, 32 year old, Southern Lady, waiting for her man to come along.  

Unbeknownst to her, Chester Randolph Hewes, was living in Chicago and working at Montgomery Wards, in the automotive, advertising department.

At the time Chester, was involved with an English girl he'd met in England, while in the Navy, during
WW l.  He had said goodbye to her and her family after his stint was over and headed back to the US, got a job and was busy working.  When all of a sudden, Connie, her mother and several grown brothers showed up on his doorstep.

He told her he did not want to marry her, but being a gentleman, arranged for an apartment for the family and  jobs for her brothers.  After awhile she realized Chester, just wasn't that into her, so, packed up her family and sadly, headed back to England.

Mabel met Chester, through his sister Bonnie when he came to pick up Bonnie at a bridal shower given at the home of Chester's then girlfriend.  Mabel was also a guest and after Chester met her, he told a friend, Mabel was the girl he was going to marry.

Story by Chet and Mabel's daughter, Shirley Hughes, who passed away recently at 95 years if age.


Maybelline and the "New Woman" in 1920

Girls, I don't think we're in Kansas any more!



Vogue, Nov, 1920 reveals the new, modern woman.

Two major shifts, in culture and conscienceness, took place in 1920;  Prohibition and American women winning the right to vote.

Women's contempt for Prohibition was a factor in the rise of the flapper.  With newly bobbed hair and heavily made up eyes, the modern woman embraced Maybelline, endorsed by Hollywood Stars,  like Ethel Clayton in 1920.


Social mores in place for a century were obliterated among young women in 1920.  Liquor consumption sky rocketed, skirts shortened, music heated up and America's Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp.


Women, like my great aunt Bunny, discarded old, rigid ideas about roles and embraced consumerism and personal choice.  They were often described in terms of representing a "culture war" of old versus new.



"New Style" feminists, admitted that a full life,
called for marriage and children - 
but had an irresistible compulsion to be 
individuals in their own right."



Read more about Maybelline and it's effect on the modern woman during the 1920's in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Signed copy available.



Maybelline lifts Women's Spirits in 1915.

Lash-Brow-Ine was introduced in 1915, at a time when women, were fighting to be recognized as individuals.


Vogue magazine cover, Christmas, 1915, depicting
the image of an ideal lady.


Everyone looked alike, no real individuality in 1915. The world was still very Victorian Age.


 Than, D W Griffith's Birth of a Nation,  proved extremely controversial, with its negative depiction of Black Americans and their supporters, and its positive portrayal of slavery and the Ku Klux Klan, as well as women being abused.



Click on this video to view some of the most controversial themes in D W Griffith's 1915 Birth of a Nation.

In 1915 a course of events led to change - a parting of the Red Sea, that cleared the the way for Maybelline, to be born and women to have a voice.


January 12House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women right to vote


February 8"Birth of a Nation" opens at Clune's Auditorium in LA.



May 7Lusitania sunk by German submarine; 1198 lives lost



October 9Louis Kaufmans "Unchastened Woman," premieres in New York City



October 2325,000 women march in New York City, demanding right to vote
December 4Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County Ga



December 16   Albert Einstein publishes the General Theory of Relativity


LASH-BROW-INE IS BORN!!!!






Tom Lyle Williams, formed Maybell Laboratories and Lash-Brow-Ine's first little ad, appeared in The Police Gazette magazine.  

From the looks of what was going on at the time, you'd think there would be a slim chance for Lash-Brow-Ine, to be accepted, but women were ripe for expressing themselves, and the product took off way beyond Tom Lyle, Noel and Mabel's greatest expectations.

Read the whole wonderful saga, in The Maybelline Story.  Signed copies with Hedy Lamarr make-up bag will be available very soon.

Maybelline, 100 years ago!

100 years ago here is what was going on. 




 The ideal woman on the cover of Vogue Magazine, December 15, 1911.



Internatio​nal Women's Day 100th anniversar​y on March 8, 2011, we celebrate a century of hard fought  achievemen​ts for women around the world. 
 
In 1911, Mary Pickford played the stereotype role
 of mothers, ingenues, spurned women, spitfires, slaves, native Americans, and a prostitutes.  However, women began to identify with the "The Girl with the Golden Curls," "Blondilocks" or "The Biograph Girl," and she became the most famous woman in the world. ushering in a new era for women in film.
  
 Owen Moore and Mary Pickford;  from The Lonely Villa (Biograph, 1909)
 
Moore and Pickford married in 1911 and divorce in 1920.
 


Victorian Age, Gibson Girls, 1911.

Image of the helpless, long suffering woman, and the
 tyrannical old man in 1911.
At the same time, all this was going on in 1911,
 a 15 year old boy, named Tom Lyle Williams, bought a second hand motorcycle for $40.00, drove it work, at the nickelodeon, and earned $6.00 a week.  It was here he noticed Mary Pickford and was inspired.  
 
After a year, he sold his motorcycle by advertising it, in the classified section of Popular Mechanics Magazine.  Astounded by the response from people willing to pay $50.00, a young entrepreneur was born, who planned to make advertising his life's work. 
 
At that time Tom Lyle, had no idea the role he'd play in establishing women's identities, for the next 100 years.  Maybelline will be 100 years old in 2015.
 
Read more about Tom Lyle Williams, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

BONO - STUDIO MALI AND THE MAYBELLINE STORY.

Tama Walley and Paul Chandler are a young married couple, living and working in Mali West Africa.  They are striving to make a difference in the world, while making their dreams a reality.
Tama designs her dresses, using Malian cloth,  takes her patterns and cloth to Bali, where she teaches yoga and massage, and has them sewn into the most adorable sun dresses.
Tama, also designs her own Mali Bags, and brings them to the United States and sells them during the Summer.  A few are left for purchase at www.maybellinestory.com.
She also has a line of Mother and Baby, Summer dresses, that are head turning and I hope to have  available at the Maybelline Store Summer 2012.
How cute are these little girl dresses that match Mom's African print Summer Dresses.

Tama and I met in Maui, while we were doing Bikram Yoga during the Summer of 2003.  She was in the process of purchasing the Bikram Yoga Studio, and encouraged me to become Bikram Yoga instructor my self.  It was during this process, I decided to finish The Maybelline Story, and not go to Bikram Teacher Training.
Tama and her husband Paul started a non-profit Charity in Mali called Instrument​s 4 Africa.  Lister to her speak while touring the  Togola community center.

Instrument​s 4 Africa is partnering with the Togola Community Center in Bamako, Mali to provide quality education and mentoring. A portion of the money from Tama's dresses and bags, goes directly to Instruments 4 Africa, and because of her incredible mission to help raise the quality of life for her kids, I have donated portion of every Maybelline Story as well.
BONO with Paul Chandler in Bamako Mali.

Tama's husband Paul Chandler, is the director of Studio Mali, and is an artist, educator and producer, living and teaching in Mali since 2003. He is a certified teacher of music and language arts at the American International School of Bamako.

studio mali @ oren clip

                       Malian singer Mah Soumano,
                       Produced by Paul Chandler.

STUDIO MALI is a production company, record label, recording studio and artist management organization based in Bamako MALI, that produces events/organized projects in Mali for National Geographic, NY Times, Carnegie Hall, USAID, Johns Hopkins/Bloomberg School of Public Health, UNICEF, US Department of State and BONO’s non-profit organization DATA.

Click below for more information

Instruments 4 Africa
Studio Mali

BEVERLY JOHNSON FIRST BLACK COVER GIRL 1970

 By the 1970's, African-American models became mainstream, when the phrase, Black is Beautiful was coined.


 Beverly Johnson, made history when she rose to fame as the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974 (August issue).  A year later, she became the first black woman to appear on the cover of the French edition of Elle magazine.




 32 years later, Beyonce, one of the most beautiful women in the world, is sought after to grace the covers of magazines everywhere.

And it all started with Tom Lyle Williams and Maybelline. I believe that Tom Lyle, deserves The Medal of Honor, for his tremendous contribution to the American Spirit!

African-American models pose for the camera, in 1968..

First African-American, Cover Girl and Super Model, emerge in American beauty magazines, in the late 1960s.



 African-American woman gracing the cover of top fashion magazine was just not done until the late 1960s. Glamour magazine broke with convention, by putting Katiti Kironde on their August 1968 College Issue.




Best known for her role as Vivian Banks, on the NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1993 until 1996,

Daphne Maxwell (now Reid,) was the first black model to appear on the the October 1969 cover of Glamour.






Naomi Sims. The first African-American supermodel, kicked down the doors of inequality as the first black cover girl on "Ladies Home Journal" in 1968 and Life in 1969. She was the epitome of black is beautiful.



Maybelline was the first Eye Make-up to advertise, using African-American model's between, 1959 to 1967.  After that Maybelline was sold to Plough Inc.  By the 1970's, the phrase Black is Beautiful was coined and African- American models were sought after by the top 
modeling and advertising agencies. 

Corporations now had a new target market, with buying power.  The Beautiful Black Woman. 

Maybelline targets the African American market, in the 1960's.

Maybelline, launches African American Beauty, in 1960's advertisements.



Ultra Lash was launched in 1964, and appeared in both African American and White, Advertisements,

Maybelline was one of the first to target their brand to the African-American population in the 1960's, changing the stereotype image of the past, to one of glamour, style and confidence.


Diana Sands and Alan Alda on the February 1965 cover of Ebony magazine. They starred in the original Broadway production of “The Owl and the Pussycat” in 1964. The two-character play was originally written for white actors.



LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act into law only a few months before the publication of this particular ad, and the inclusive tone of "Come Alive! You're in the Pepsi Generation" links drinking Pepsi with integration.




In response to the fight from the civil rights movement,  Maybelline began to target black consumers.  Tom Lyle, truly believed that all women were beautiful, and that Maybelline only enhanced that beauty.


Throughout the 1960's, African American models captured the corporate market, but it wasn't until 1969 that there was an African American Cover girl.