The Maybelline Story Blog

Maybelline Heiress, Eva Williams Haines, Vintage Photos, Stories and Anecdotes

Maybelline might have been called Evaline

People have asked me why I didn't put more pictures in my book so they could see the different family members as they went from children to old age. Well I was only allowed 13 pictures and it was a hard choice as you can imagine. So I'm doing a picture-bio of the main characters - starting with Tom Lyle's youngest sister Eva. Here she is with her brother Preston, my grandfather, on their Morganfield Farm in in 1908, dressed for church I bet. Don't you love the big bow in her hair and the posing? Eva and Preston were very close playmates all their lives and she once told me how they loved to roam the woods around the old homestead, exploring and seeking adventure. When young Preston got in trouble and their father Sheriff TJ locked him in jail to teach him a lesson, it was Eva who snuck in dime novels to keep him busy while he learned his big lesson.

When the family moved off the farm and into their first little warehouse/office in Chicago -with an apartment upstairs - they all helped Tom Lyle get his little Maybelline company off the ground. Fifteen year old Eva's job was to be the "go-for" girl. When anyone needed something it was Eva who ran down the block to get it.

She once told me how when the family wanted a milk shake she gladly took a quarter for 5 drinks and ran down the street to the soda fountain, where she quickly drank her shake before slowly making her way back home so the shakes wouldn't spill. Sometimes the walk home took so long she got thirsty and sipped a little from each siplings drink. By the time she returned, you can just hear the flack she got from her brothers and sister, however Eva was a spitfire with a sharp wit and had a darn good reason for sipping those drinks I'm sure.

I love this picture of my grandfather Preston and auntie E, as my dad called her. She and Preston remained devoted even when my grandmother was at her wits end with his endless trouble making. When my grandmother kicked him out of the house Eva gladly welcomed him into hers and there was nothing I mean nothing she wouldn't do for her darling brother.

Look at those beautiful Maybelline eyes with a twinkle like no others. This picture was taken in 1924 for her sweetheart Ches Haines whom she married Oct 11th of that year. Auntie E once told me that it could have easily been her who concocted the ingredients that gave her brother Tom Lyle the idea for Maybelline. She was serious when she said it made her a little jealous that her sister Mabel got the credit, but then laughed at the idea of Maybelline being called Evaline. Not quite the impact Tom Lyle was going for I'm sure.

Here is my glamorous Auntie E at her daughter June's wedding in the late 1940's. She seemed to get more gorgeous the older she got and that quick wit made her a star in the family. Don't you just love that feather in her hat?

Uncle Ches the father of the bride, on the left next to June and her new husband John Gary.

Here is a picture of Eva with her daughter Marilyn, (Ditty) taken in 1966 at Tom Lyle's estate in Bel Air California. Eva is 65 in this picture, a beautiful, elegant lady with all the style and glamour of anyone of Maybelline's models. Tom Lyle is sitting on the floor with Miss Snoop E. Williams and Sparkie. He once told me chuckling, that the E in Snoop's name stood for his sister Eva. I wonder what he meant?

Eva is a colorful character in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. I think you will fall in love with her just like I did. She was one of a kind.

http://www.maybellinebook.com/2012/11/my-priceless-maybelline-family-history.html

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V

Maybelline's era of teen marketing was born in 1955 when Elvis Presley caused the first musical riot on record

Excerpt from The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Although Tom Lyle knew that much of the company's success was due to his own daring eye for advertising combined with Emery and Arnold’s exceptional talents, he also knew that without Rags, Maybelline would simply not have been able to stay constantly at the top of the fast-growing cosmetics market.

For his efforts, Rags was paid solely on a commission of one and one-quarter percent of gross sales, which had risen from $359,000 at the time of his employment in 1933 to its 1955 level of over $7,000,000 a year. Knowing that this tremendous rise in sales was directly due to Rags relentless work and devotion to the company, Tom Lyle decided to not only raise Rags' commission to one and one-half percent, but give him three percent of Maybelline’s stock. To seal the deal, Rags would also be made Executive Vice President in charge of Sales, positioning him as an equal with Tom Lyle and Tom Lyle, Jr. --in other words, as family.

With Rags securely placed as a jewel in Maybelline’s crown, Tom Lyle could direct his next move on the cosmetics chessboard. Although he continued to target both the sophisticated, intelligent woman in her 30s and the more mature woman in his world-wide advertisements, as 1955 continued a new brand of female was emerging. This girl differed from both the World War II pin-up girl and Rosie the Riveter.

Thanks to movies like East of Eden staring James Dean, and Blackboard Jungle, featuring the song “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets, “The Rebel" had become the latest cultural icon. Maybelline sales soared as heavy make-up appeared in every teenage girl's purse. The era of teen marketing was born in Jacksonville, Florida, that year, when young girls jumped out of their seats to dance at an Elvis Presley concert--the first first musical riot on record.

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Rock Around the Clock

Maybelline - Queen of the Drug Store in the 1930s

Vintage Drug Store Advertising Banner announcing Maybelline sold in it's original 75 cent box.

The original Maybelline box was sold only through classifieds in newspapers and magazines and wrapped in brown paper to protect a woman's reputation between 1915 and 1933.

Today this original Maybellne box is almost
100 years old.

Maybelline brought a new flux of young customers into Drug Store's hoping to be discovered in Hollywood.

Maybelline was positioned at the front door of the drug store to encourage impulse buying.

Another drug store strategy was to place a carton of Maybelline boxes on the lunch counter and near the cash register to encourage ladies to grab it before they left the store.

A vintage Maybelline sign found in early drug stores.

The original Maybelline brush fit perfectly in the
little red box.

During the Depression, the price of Maybelline was dropped to 10 cents and packaged in a much smaller box than the 75 cent version. Now every woman could afford a box of maybelline and have beautiful eyes.

The Maybelline Girl now on carded merchandise, was introduced in the early 1930's at the drug store.

Color was added in the late 1930's.

A 10 cent Depression size brass tin of Maybellne Eye Shadow, featuring the original Maybelline Girl.

It was the beautiful advertising that brought the crowds of women into their local drug store for a box of Maybelline in 1932.

Maybellilne's Before and After Ad's were first seen in vertical advertising found in news papers and magazines in the early 1930s.

The Film Cleopatra staring Claudette Colbert, inspired this before and after ad in 1934.

Big Stars like Jean Harlow along with the Good Housekeeping seal of approval expanded Maybellines credibility in the 1930
http://www.maybellinebook.com/2011/07/maybelline-targeted-average-housewife.html

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My Guest Blogger, Leon Purvis wants a date with Gold Medalist Gabby Douglas, Will she honor his request.

I received an email from Leon Purvis asking me id I'd like to post a video of him asking Gabby Douglas for a date.

I was a little uncertain about it, but than realized I'd done a post about Gabby Douglas being on the Oprah Winfrey Show after she won her Gold Medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

My Primise at the time was that Gabby Douglas did for Olympian gold, what Maybelline model, JeTuan Taylor did for the modeling industry, and will surely inspire more black girls to embrace gymnastics and make their dreams come true.

http://www.maybellinebook.com/2012/08/gabby-douglas-has-become-first-black.html

I decided to post Leon's video request to Gabby Douglas and ask you, my Blogging audience what you think. "Will Gabby go out with Leon, or should he be flattered she replied to him in a text and wish her well."

Here is Leon's email to me....

Hello, Leon Purvis here, check out this video of me talking about asking Gabby Douglas out on a date via YouTube, and how I did what she wanted, but I am still awaiting a response from her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTQUSqaK0u4

It turns out by this tweet from Gabby that she is flattered by me :) so this date may happen!

Here is the original video of me asking Gabby Douglas out on a date. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otG_OxqdPE8
Please let me know if you would like to do a story or not thank you. :)

Leon Purvis ‏@LeonPurvis2 Oct

@gabrielledoug I'm glad that you are flattered 😄. So does that mean that this date I have been asking you on will happen?

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Glamour, Style and the Confidence to dress like a million bucks...An American tradition found only in vintage photos

My father and grandmother,
Bill and Evelyn Williams.

A picture's worth a thousand words I hear. This picture was taken in 1935 while Preston, Evelyn and Bill were driving across the country from Chicago to California, on their way to see Tom Lyle and Emery at the Villa Valentino. They had just stopped at an Indian Reservation where Evelyn bought two turquoise beaded wrist cuffs and a rawhide jacket with long fringed sleeves. I can't imagine dressing up like that on a road trip, can you? They even slept in a pup tent once or twice and yet every morning they were up at the crack of dawn and my grandmother made up her face, styled her hair and dressed like a star. This picture could easily be a scene from a movie, made on location in New Mexico... and how do you like that pose? Forever the diva!!!

Evelyn was a stickler for perfection and even altered her son Bill's shirts and pants if they didn't fit just right. The two of them kept up that standard of style and panache until the day they died and if I faltered in any way or looked less than perfect - I'd have to hear about it. How could anyone keep up that level of perfection on a daily basis? you'd have a heart attack! - But the Williams were like that and always had "The Right Look," for every occasion.

I love this picture of my grandparents Evelyn and Preston Williams. You'd think they were Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart taking a break between scenes. And, they were on a long road trip for heaven sakes ! Today people wear t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops, no makeup and their hair going every which way, but in 1935 it was Showtime everyday and "People- Watching" was a national past-time, like the Macy's Day Parade. Yes, those wonderful Maybelline Days when it was cool to look beautiful, dress with style and make-up those Maybelline Eyes.

The day my 82 year old father, Bill, fell and hit his head, having to have two brain surgeries and ultimately dying, he walked into the hospital looking like two million bucks and when the nurse said, "are you ready to go Mr. Williams," he simply winked at her and said, "OK BABY!

Charm, Wit and Style right to the end.

I hope you're enjoying my posts - and will tell your friends to check them out as well. Also don't forget to purchase an autographed copy of my book,

The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind

It at http://www.maybellinestory.com/.

Be sure to stop by my hilarious Saffrons Rule Blog at http://saffronsrule.com/