Theda Bara, Silent Films "The Vamp," promoted Maybelline one hundred years ago

Theda Bara was one of the most popular Stars, of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols.

The word “vamp,” originated from Theda’s nickname while filming a sultry vampire, in A Fool There Was.    

A 1915 silent film, inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The Vampire." Theda's character simply known as “the Vampire."  was reduced to “vamp,” and the title stuck.

Just as Theda Bara, appeared as the Vamp, in

A Fool There Was in 1915 - Mabel Williams, inspired her brother, Tom Lyle Williams - to formulate an eye beautifying product, called Lash-Brow-Ine - that  became Maybelline, in 1916, and was named in her honor.

Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline, were the first eye beautifying products, in America, sold through mail order and eventually over the counter.  Silent Film Stars, like Theda Bara, made the public aware of the most forgotten feature on the face, "The Eyes."

Tom Lyle Williams, founder and owner of The Maybelline Company from 1915 - 1967.

Older brother Noel James Williams, also played a role in Maybelline's birth, when he loaned his brother Tom Lyle, $500. to launch Lash-Brow-Ine, in 1915.  He was Maybelline's Vice President from 1915 until his death in 1951.

Hollywood and Silent Films were a key ingredient in making Maybelline, a great success in the  20TH Century.  

The Tim and Corey Show June 17th I'm a guest on a Health, Beauty and Wellness Panel...great giveaways

Once again I will be returning to the Tim and Corey Show. The hottest show on internet radio. This time I will be on a panel discussing health and beauty and Wellness.  All the panel members will be giving away wonderful gifts. Click below to enter and be sure to tune in Wednesday to hear the show.  If you miss it, it will be available anytime after the original show.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE
Listen to the Tim and Corey Show here click

Tune into the Tim and Corey Show on June 17th, 2015, at 5pm (PST) to learn more about this amazing panel of women and the wonderful giveaway gifts!

Six (6) winners will be randomly selected to win one (1) of the following prizes (one winner per prize): A signed copy of The Maybelline Story, a bag of Boss Babe Body Coffee Scrub, a basket of organic foods valuing over $100, a beautiful crown pin, a $108 gift certificate to ronwear.com, or a 3-pack of Basiltops Pesto. There is no purchase necessary to enter, and you may only enter once per email address. To receive additional entires, follow the instructions on this page.

The giveaway will end on June 24th 2015 at 11:59pm (PST) and each winner will be contacted the following day, June 25th 2015. 

L'OREAL/MAYBELLINE Plans to test it's products without using people or animals. They will use 3-D bioprinters

Click to read memorial

                              in-memory-of-joyce-may-hewes-dennhey

Settlers Pond, an animal rescue in Illinois, rescued several monkeys injured in animal testing. It's heartening to hear L'oreal/Maybelline are working to prevent animal cruelty.

Two of the rescued monkeys, one named Maybelline, in honor of Joyce, were taken to a primate specialist in Florida. It took months to raise funds. All they did was take various samples which resulted in massive bruising, then sedated the most injured one to take unauthorized photos.

The injured monkey, Max, was a hermaphrodite.  In the lab his penis was partially torn off and his tail broken. The Vet, informed Pinky, at the Shelter, that Max needed extensive surgery but she, (the vet,) couldn't do it. Sadly Max died.

So much of Joyce Dennehy's, money was wasted. Settlers Pond, was her favorite charity.  She contributed generously. She would be furious if she knew.

• AUTHOR: MARGARET RHODES.MARGARET RHODES
 
• DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.28.15.05.28.15
 
• TIME OF PUBLICATION: 10:00 AM.
  

INSIDE L’OREAL’S PLAN TO 3-D PRINT HUMAN SKIN

L’OREAL MAKES COSMETICS AND hair color. It also makes skin. Human skin, created in a lab, so it can test its products without using people or animals. Now it’s talking about printing the stuff, using 3-D bioprinters that will spit out dollops of skin into nickel-sized petri dishes.

The idea is to produce skin more quickly and easily using what is essentially an assembly line developed with Organovo, a San Diego bioprinting company. Such a technique would allow the French cosmetics company to do more accurate testing, but it also has medical applications—particularly in burn care.

Treating severe burns typically involves grafting a healthy patch of skin taken from elsewhere on the body. But large burns present a problem. That hasresearchers at Wake Forest experimenting with a treatment method that involves applying a small number of healthy skin cells onto the injury and letting them grow organically over the wound. 3-D-bioprinted skin potentially could be produced faster, provided Organovo can successfully replicate the cell structure of human epidermis.

L’Oreal already has a massive lab in Lyon, France, to produce its patented skin, called Episkin, from incubated skin cells donated by surgery patients. The cells grow in a collagen culture before being exposed to air and UV light to mimic the effects of aging. Organovo pioneered the process of bioprinting human tissues, most notably creating a 3-D-printed liver system. Both parties benefit from the partnership: L’Oreal gets Organovo’s speed and expertise, and Organovo gets funding and access to L’Oreal’s comprehensive knowledge of skin, acquired through many years and over $1 billion in research and development.

At the moment, L’Oreal uses its epidermis samples to predict as closely as possible how human skin will react to the ingredients in its products. If L’Oreal can more quickly iterate on the molecular composition of its skin samples, it can produce more accurate results, conceivably across different skin phenotypes. That means products like sunscreen and age-defying serums—which inevitably will yield varying results across varying skin types—can be tweaked for greater efficacy.

L’Oreal also has a history of selling Episkin to other cosmetic and pharmacology companies. The company won’t disclose the going rate, but in 2011 toldBloomberg it sold half-centimeter-wide samples for €55 each (about $78 each at the time). That said, Guive Balooch, who runs L’Oreal’s in-house tech incubator, says the bioprinting will be done primarily for research purposes.

Click to Open Overlay Gallery

Organovo’s Novogen MMX Bioprinter can print 3D samples of human tissue. COURTESY OF ORGANOVO

Balooch approached Organovo after seeing its human liver model. While the two companies still need to settle on an exact plan for the skin samples, the bioprinting process for epidermis will be roughly similar to that of the liver. It happens in three steps, says Michael Renard, a VP at Organovo. Once scientists have collected the human cells from the various companies that harvest and sell them, they use a proprietary in-house technology to turn the cells into a “bio-ink” that feeds into the bioprinters. The actual manufacturing isn’t all that different from what you might see with a standard 3D printer.

“In concept, it’s the same idea of programming the 3-D printer to print architecture on an X-Y-Z axis,” he says, referring to the CAD designs that typically inform 3-D printers. “We just happened to use living human cells. There’s delicacy involved.” During the last step, the structure of cells is nourished (Renard won’t say how) and kept in a temperature-controlled environment so they can fuse into a cohesive mass of tissue.

There are still a bevy of unknowns, such as when Organovo will start production and just how much faster it will be compared to L’Oreal’s current derma-farming methods. Still, Renard says Organovo produces at  “a commercial scale,” so it stands to reason the same will go for skin. That’s a vague start, but these things—you know, the rapid manufacturing of human flesh—don’t happen overnight.

Maybelline cousins,1934, during the Great Depression

Left to right - Bobby, Dick, Tommy, Marilyn, Shirley, June, Allen, Billy, Neppy, Helen, Tom Jr and baby Joyce in Chicago in 1934.

Though times were uncertain during the Great Depression, the Maybelline family worked and played together.  They were known as a tight knit tribe., They loved playing cards at each other's homes on Friday night and Sunday picnics after Church. 

My father, Billy Williams, loved Spring time at his Auntie E, and uncle Ches' home in Chicago.  He'd romp around with his cousin's June, Marilyn and  Bobby,  when he wasn't at Dundee Military School.  

Auntie E. made everything fun.   Her gaiety and charm was infectious and her laugh could light up a room.   Uncle Ches ran the distribution part of the Maybelline Company and was always ready with a quick joke or a good song.   He'd pile the kids in the car and thought nothing of cruising them  up and down Michigan Ave,  just for the fun of it.

Billy and his cousin June were best buddies.   They loved playing house by throwing a sheet over the kitchen table and crawling underneath it. Auntie E made sure they had homemade snacks and their favorite toys. 

Occasionally the whole gang joined up at Auntie Mabel and uncle Chet's home for Sunday dinner.   Bill and his cousin Shirley, liked to dress up and play Doctor and nurse,  while little Tommy volunteered to be the brave young patient getting shots.  Baby Joyce was just an infant in her mother's arms in 1934,  but she too joined in as she grew up. 

Auntie Mabel's wonderful home cooking was well known in the family and her hugs and kisses gave Bill a real sense of  stability.   Mabel was the Mother figure of the Williams family; sweet, modest and never overbearing or grandiose like Billy's mother,  Evelyn, a true city girl.  Auntie Mabel was naturally beautiful though not a glamour puss, like auntie E and Evelyn. However she was Maybelline's namesake and Tom Lyle's inspiration for his eye beautifier, soon to be coined Mascara in 1935. 

Mabel wore pencil thin eyebrows, had flawless skin and a smile that would melt your heart.  She represented motherhood, apple pie and America. Auntie Mabel's husband  uncle Chet was in charge of producing Maybelline mascara and was the epitome of the good husband and father.  Billy longed for a strong, grounded role model, his parents were never able to give him.  uncle Chet with his dry sense of humor and  sharp wit was an important figure throughout Bill's life.

As much as he loved visiting auntie Mabel and auntie E, his favorite place was uncle Noel and auntie Frances home.  They had four children and cousin Allen was like a brother.  They played Cowboy and Indians, wearing real cowboy hats, holsters and matching Western duds right out of a Tom Mix movie.

Allen's little brother Dick, followed them around and annoyed them while they played with their men.   (WW1 metal soldiers.)  Dicky would eventually  tired and crawled into his big sisters, Helen or Neppy's lap, while they sipped  lemonade on hot Summer days.  

Uncle Noel, was Vice President of the Maybelline Company. He was his brother, Tom Lyle Williams, trouble shooter, while TL, was in California, at the Villa Valentino, making Maybelline's beautiful print ads.

    

Occasionally Tom Jr. joined his cousin's for special occasions.  He was a student at Duke University. Captain of the Football team.

Billy and his cousins were protected from the harsh reality of the Depression,  thanks their uncle Lyle,  and the family working together at the Maybelline Company.

Read more about Billy Williams and his cousins in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

1934 - the year that Maybelline replaced the phrase ‘eyelash beautifier’ with ‘mascara’ in its advertising.

Maybelline's letter to Time Magazine, Jan 1, 1934

1933 ended with a lot to be happy about at the Maybelline Company.  Tom Lyle's brother-in-law, Mabel's husband, , Chet Hewes, finally joined the family business that year and started the DeLuxe Mascara company.  Most likely because of a scandal going on in the cosmetic industry, over a product called Lash Lure.  Read the entire article by James Bennett.   Cosmetics and Skin.

In a letter to Time magazine, Tom Lyle Williams, the founder of Maybelline, made the case clearly.



... As the manufacturers of the largest-selling, best-known mascara in the world, Maybelline, an absolutely harmless, non-smarting eyelash darkener that contains no dye or aniline derivative, we have suffered untold damage to our old established business by the ambiguous publicity given out concerning the Tugwell bill. In a recent issue of the Paramount Newsreel, Professor Tugwell told a truly appalling tale of injuries caused by a poisonous preparation, but neglected to give its name as “Lash-Lure” or to state that it was a dye, merely calling it an eyelash "beautifier,” and concluding his speech with the dreadful remark, “This is the kind of stuff you women use on your eyelashes!”


You can imagine how utterly damaging this was to us, inasmuch as the phrase “eyelash beautifier” is practically synonymous with our trade name Maybelline, due to our product being the most extensively advertised mascara on the market for the past 16 years. 


In reply to our protest wired Professor Tugwell and President Roosevelt, Tugwell wrote that he and the department regretted any damage caused us, and that a press dispatch had been immediately issued revealing the name and nature of the offending product, also stating in reference to our product Maybelline that “... we have never heard of any reports of injury caused by it.” Considering that Maybelline has been used consistently every day by millions of women in all parts of the world for over 16 years, this last statement was indeed complete exoneration of our product. However, it did not reach the millions who heard the newsreel speech, therefore, you will realize with what relief and satisfaction we read your discriminating account of the Tugwell propaganda (TIME, Dec. 4), knowing that the real facts in the case would reach your many intelligent readers.

Again thanking you for the inestimable service you have rendered us and all other reputable manufacturers by your careful and authoritative presentation of the news, we are


THOMAS L. WILLIAMS


Maybelline Co. Chicago, Ill.


(Time, Jan 1, 1934)


Williams also took more drastic action: 1934 was the year that Maybelline replaced the phrase ‘eyelash beautifier’ with ‘mascara’ in its advertising.


Read more about the Tom Lyle, Maybelline, Chet Hewes and Deluxe Mascara in, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

1920s Maybelline kids dress for the camera

 I've been a fan of silent films for over 30 years and never miss them on, Turner Classic Movies, Sunday nights.  One thing for sure is, kids and dogs are scene stealer's, when there isn't a lot of talking going on, and  Baby Peggy was one of the best.

Of course Jackie Coogan was killer cute with Charlie Chaplin in the 1921 film, The Kid.

Here is a tribute to some of the adorable children, form my Father, Bill Williams Generation.  First, my father, 1925. Children's fashion was so classy in the 1920's.

Bill Williams with his cousin, Arvis in 1928. Don't you love the double breasted coats and  military hats.

Two little car-guys, Bill Stroh and Bill Williams, 1927. Luckily Bill Stroh's dad owned the Edgewater Laundry in Chicago.  Everything was starched and pressed .

Bill Williams with his first set of wheel's 1927, on Christmas day. Hats were big with kids in the 1920's.

Bill Williams, with cousin,  Arvis and her brother Bill Stroh, 1927.  Kids were so proper back them. 

My dad, "THE KID," Bill Williams dressed meticulously everyday by his doting mother Evelyn Williams.

Bill Williams in short pants and knee socks, a double breasted coat and cap - right out of a silent film, from 1928.

Bill and Arvis Stroh.   Roller Skating in Chicago, dressed for a fashion layout, in 1929.

Bill and Arvis Stroh, looking like part of the cast from Our Gang, in 1929.

Well dressed,children,  Arvis and Bill Stroh are in this picture and the way they light up in front of the camera, in 1929.

Doesn't get much cuter than this.  Bill and Arvis Stroh, in 1927.

My dad's cousin's and Mabel and Chet Hewes daughter, Shirley and her little brother Tommy, in about 1932 - 33. Look at the gold bracelet and ring on little Shirley's hand. These children look like child Stars or Royalty by today's standards.  Parents took such pride in their children's fashion in the early half of the 20th Century.