Maybelline - Never before known information revealed.

New information about Tom Lyle Willliams brother Noel James Williams locked in a safe for over 80 years - just discovered.

 Noel James Williams carrying a file under his arm while walking down the street outside the Maybelline Building in Chicago.  Could this be the missing file that has just been returned to his family.

                                 Here's the scoop:

For over 80 years a file containing private information about the Maybelline Company was lost, only to be discovered recently by a twist of fate.  My publisher Bettie Youngs of Bettie Youngs Books received a call from a man who said he had a file belonging to Noel Williams that he'd been holding onto since 1985.  Turns out Mr. Harold Ramsey bought a safe that year from the company Tom Lyle Williams sold the Maybelline Company to in 1967, Plough Inc.  When Mr. Ramsey opened the safe he found a file with important documents dating between 1932 and 1939 that he hoped to return to the rightful heirs of the Noel James Williams family, but after so many years he'd given up.  For some reason, he said, he got a hunch and googled Maybelline, Williams one last time, and up came The Maybelline Story.

To make a long story short the file has been returned to the Noel James Williams family and wow what an amazing tale has been revealed.  It turns out that Tom Lyle's brother Noel not only postponed his wedding for one year to loan his brother the money to finance the first advertising campaign for Lash-Brow-Ine in 1915, he continued to loan the Maybelline Company money during the depths of the Great Depression.  While other companies fell by the wayside with large overheads, Maybelline navagated through the storm with Noel James at the helm.  This is humongous information and needles to say now documented in tax returns from the 1930's.  Noel James Williams, must be given the credit he deserves and be remembered as one of the founders and financiers of the Maybelline Company and his younger brother Tom Lyle's greatest ally. 

Read more about The early day's of building an empire, Noel James contribution to it's success and the never before told story that has been kept secret for five generations in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind it. 

When Maybelline sold to Plough in Dec of 1967 it was the most successful eye cosmetic company in the world -commanding 75% of the market - today Maybelline New York is still a global giant in the cosmetic field.  The little eye beautifier that started off with a $500 loan from Noel to his brother Tom Lyle is now a multi- billion dollar corporation owned and operated by L'Oreal of France. 

Just a few of the Noel James Williams branch of the family with  my sister and I, from the Willliam Preston Williams branch. left to right, 

 Patrick Williams Huber,

 Julee Williams Huber, 

James Williams Huber,

 Christine Williams-Goodie,

 James Noel Williams,

 my sister Donna Williams,

 Nancy Williams Fesler,

 Antonio Williams-Corbet Carneros,

 John Williams Huber, 

Mike Williams, 

Kathy Williams Huber, 

Charles Allen Williams, 

              Ann Williams Corbett              .                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                   

Maybelline's little sister Lash-Brow-Ine in 1915.

                                       Before Maybelline
                 there was Lash-Brow-Ine.

"Before and After" ad for Lash-Brow-Ine, 1915.

 In 1915, women were just starting to accept cosmetics again, after avoiding them during the Victorian era. Creams and powders prevailed on the market; however, eye make-up remained all but taboo.  In England, social constraints against cosmetics, including lash color, persisted well into the Victorian age, though business was brisk in back-alley beauty services. 

Proper English ladies of the nineteenth century considered
make–up to be off-limits, the province of prostitutes whose penchant for cosmetics earned them the label “painted women.”  Viewed as appropriate only for prostitutes and music-hall performers, make-up was so forbidden in
Victorian society a man could divorce his wife for wearing it.

Directions inside a box of Lash-Brow-Ine, 1915.

While the American colonies were under British rule, the use of white powder, rouge and lipstick was brisk. After the revolution, cosmetics became political. For example, an unpainted face was a sign of a good Republican.
Women were expected to pinch their cheeks and bite their lips if they hoped to brighten their faces. Men enjoyed greater leeway. They could and did, dye and condition their air, mustaches and sideburns, often with a touch-up dye for graying hair called Mascaro, from which Tom Later derived the word mascara.

Yet, the onset of the silent movies in the early 1900’s was changing the way society viewed cosmetics, as alluring actresses such as Theda Bara and other screen stars glamorized the painted look once associated with prostitution.

Theda Bara as Cleopatra, in 1917

Women began to enter the work force and began to build independent lives for themselves, making fashion and beauty a bit more robust.  At the same time, women were beginning to organize for their political rights, holding suffragist rallies for right to vote. In New York in 1913, more than one parade of Suffragettes marched down Fifth Avenue past a salon owned by a woman named Elizabeth Arden.  Arden in New York, along with Helena Rubinstein in England, opened the first beauty salons in the cosmetics business, specializing solely in skin products.


Read more about the birth of Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  You can now purchase an autographed cope directly from me by clicking on maybellinestory.com under the picture of the book. 

I will be posting my radio interview on Voice America next Monday, and will be doing the Dare to Dream radio show on May 11th.  Stay tuned for more exciting tid bits and Maybelline trivia from those wonderful days gone by.

Maybelline's Royal Couple.

            Maybelline's Royal Wedding

Taken completely by England's Royal Wedding and William and Kate's obvious love for each other, I was reminded of a Wedding that took place in our family in 1949. 

It was a freezing cold February morning in Chicago when the Bride arrived at the church soon to be wed to Maybelline Company's Vice President Noel James Williams son Noel Allen.  Jean Kilroy and Allen met in High School and now 7 years later the wedding of the year was finally taking place

                 The Bride assisted by her her parents. 

200 guests waited patiently for the Bride to make her appearance as the Groom watched with quiet excitement next to his brother, and Best Man, Dick Williams.

Jean was a stunning Bride and it proved to be worth the wait to see the beautiful gown she chose to wear. 

This was a true love match and Jean and Noel Allen remained married until his death in 1994.

Read more details about the never before told story of the family behind the Maybelline Company and about Noel Allen and Jean's life together in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

             Noel Allen and Jean on the way to their reception.

The Bride and Groom with their parents and bridesmaids.

Also I want to thank my followers from around the world who check in everyday to view my Blog.  Here is a list of countries so far that are getting the word out about my book.  I hope you enjoyed my post yesterday and will make your own Pineapple Upside Down Cake soon.  Stay tuned next week for my half hour radio  interview with Voice America. 

  

Video of Sharrie in the Kitchen making Nana's Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

            In The Kitchen With Sharrie!

Here is my cooking show, hope you enjoy it.  Make Nana's Pineapple Upside Down Cake yourself and enjoy that old time taste for a reasonable price. 

Click here for the video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nb0WTcTk1M

    Nana's Pineapple Unside Down Cake


Ingredients

1/2 cup of butter


1 cup of packed brown sugar


1 can of 20 oz sliced pineapple


4 eggs seperated


1 cup of sugar


1 teaspoon of vanilla extract


1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour


1 teaspoon of baking powder


1/4 teaspoon of salt


8 Maraschino cherries




Directions


Melt butter in 10-12 in ovenproof skillet


Add brown sugar


mix well until sugar is melted


Drain pineapple, reserving 1/3 cup juce


arrange 8 pineapple slices in a single layer over sugar with a cherry in the center of each


set aside


In a large bowl, beat eggs yolks until thick and lemon-colored


Gradually add sugar, beating well


Blend in vanilla and reserved pineapple juice


combine the flour, baking powder and salt


add to batter, beating well


In a small bowl, beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form


fold into batter.


spoon into skillet


Bake at 375 for 30 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center is clean


Let stand for 10 minutes before inverting onto serving plate


Yield 10 servings for around $10.00

Maybelline, in the kitchen with Sharrie



Maybelline cousins, Jackie and Bob Haines, Sharrie and Matt Haines

Riht after Sharrie made her grandmother's Pineapple Upside Down Cake the cooking show on AZTV.  
 3 -30-11.



Check back on noonday  May 2nd and watch Sharrie make her grandmother "Miss Maybelline's" 
famous Pineapple Upside Down Cake filmed March 30th, 2011, on AZTV.  Recipe will also be reposted.

Maybelline - The Wonder Company of the 20th Century.

Maybelline's Success Story up until now was a lost thread in the American Fabric.

Tom Lyle Williams at 19 years of age in 1915.

By 1929 Tom Lyle Williams 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 Theatre 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.


Thank you for following my blog, be sure to tell your friends  about it and also you can purchase an autographed copy directly from me for $14.99    Click on maybellinestory.com/.   Happy Reading!!


My cooking segment on AZTV will be posted next week as well as a half hour live radio interview on Voice of America.  So stay tuned.  Leave me a comment or an email at maybellinebook@gmail.com.

Maybelline founder...a generous benefactor.

No one was more generous than

Tom Lyle Williams.

Ten year old Bill Williams was selling magazine subscriptions in hopes of winning a new Schwinn two wheeler, but was having trouble competing with the other boys at school until he made his rounds at the Maybelline Company.  There he found a pot of gold when uncle Noel, uncle Chet, uncle Ches, Rags Ragland and all the rest of the Maybelline employees bought up half his orders.  Bill had one more call to make and was excited as he patiently waited in his uncle Tom Lyles office hoping to sell a few more subscriptions before heading home.  An hour went by and he almost fell asleep on the leather sofa when the door finally swung open and there stood the majestic figure of  uncle Lyle, or Unk Ile as he liked to called him.

Tom Lyle sat down at his over sized carved walnut desk and listened to the little speech Bill had prepared.  He thought for a minute than proceeded to give him a lecture about safety and riding a bike on the streets of Chicago.  Bill promised that if he won the bike he would always look both ways before crossing the street and would never pull out into traffic.  Once Tom Lyle was satisfied his nephew understood the dangers of owning a two wheeler, he took out his check book and wrote a check for the entire amount... Bill won the contest hands down and never forgot what his Unk Ile had done for him.

This is just a small example of the kind of man Tom Lyle was.  He always went beyond the call of duty for his family and everyone he knew for that matter and today though he is just a memory he will live in our hearts forever as a loving, generous angel.

You can read more about Tom Lyle, Noel James, Chet Hewes, Ches Haines, Rags Ragland and the Maybelline Company in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. 

Thank you for continuing to follow my blog, and stay tuned for my cooking show on AZTV coming up soon, as well as my interview on Voice America next week.  (Check it out under events.) 

 

Miss Maybelline looking like a million bucks rocks the Wild West in 1935

                    Charm, Wit and Style
               Oh, Those Maybelline Days!

Bill and his Mother Evelyn.

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. 

What happened to Glamour, Style and the Confidence to dress to the teeth?  I guess that's an American tradition that can only be enjoyed in vintage photos now.

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/.

Maybelline Diva Evelyn Williams - Oh What Price Glory!

There was no one in the Maybelline family more invincible than Evelyn Williams...at least that's what she wanted us all to believe.

My grandmother Evelyn with my father William Preston Williams at Dundee Military School, Chicago, 1934 -1935

With the same voratious appetite Evelyn had for succeeding in all areas of her life, including playing the violin, mastering the stage as a ballerina and finally securing a position within the Maybelline family, she focused on her only child William Preston Williams Jr. (Bill.)  

Evelyn wasn't your ordinary sweet homemaker, though she did love her son as ferociously as a mother Lion loves her cub, however her main objective was to instill a mindset for survival in the boy and that meant creating an indisputable bond between Bill and his uncle Tom Lyle Williams. 

She succeeded, though not  without making herself unpopular with the rest of the Williams family.  Evelyn fought on the battlefield of life in her persuit to win at all costs and today I realize my remarkable grandmother, the original auntie Mame, was two generations ahead of her time. 

A tiny 5' 2" powerhouse with boundless energy,   Machavellian mental machinations and the ability to outsmart the smartest of wild cats, she had one desire.  To place her clan at the top of the heap no matter what the price -and Evelyn paid the highest price of all... with her life! 

Read more about Evelyn Williams incredible story and her ability to get what she wanted - while growing even more beautiful and glamorus as she aged in

The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  

Nana was a diva in every respect and not only expected but demanded I follow in her footsteps. I wonder if she'd be pleased today with the fact I've dedicated my life to her memory and the family she loved so much. 

Maybelline Mascaraed Eyes in 1917? Not for the "Faint Of Heart!"

One word summed up Preston Williams and that word was Evelyn!  What was it about that woman that kept him fascinated for so many years?

Evelyn and Bunny Boecher, 1912

My grandmother wasn't just another pretty face looking for a meal ticket according to her.  Oh no!  She was not only beautiful, she was talented, tenacious and disciplined as well as a little cunning, competitive and ruthless truth be known.  Fine qualities for a man, but in 1917 not quite what most men wanted in a wife.  Evelyn cut her teeth on excelling and winning.  She constantly sought the attention of her strict German parents and old-world musical and dance teachers who called her a prodigy.

  My grandmother studied the violin from age 4 to 16 and was accepted into  Chicago's Musical College at an early age --- however she hated the idea of spending the rest of her life with an instrument glued to her left shoulder.  She adored Ballet and also studied with the finest teachers.  When it came time to decide her future she begged her parents to allow her to focus on ballet and they agreed only if she and her sister Verona, a talented pianist, and her little sister Bunny a gifted trumpet player, continued to entertain with their little trio at parties in the family ballroom on the third story of their Chicago brownstone.  

Oct 27, 1917 Fred, Evelyn and her sister Verona and Charlie Stroh

Verona and Charlie, with Fred and the fabulous Evelyn, 1917

 All three girls of course agreed but when Evelyn was accepted into The Ballets Russes in 1917, at age 16 she was finally allowed to put down her violin and tour across the country with one of the most influential theatre companies of the 20th century.  Evelyn's natural talent, grace and beauty set her apart from most young women in her generation and she lived in a glamours world of ground-breaking artists, contemporary choreographers, composers and dancers.  She learned to interpret Classical, Neo-Classical, Romantic, Neo-Romantic, Avant-Garde, Expressionist, Abstract, and Orientalist styles of dance while also finishing her high school diploma with a tutor on the road with her.  

I'm sure that when Preston Williams saw Evelyn Boecher with her sister Bunny, walking down the street at the 1922 Memorial Day Parade, he must have said to himself,  Wow what a Woman! 

And don't forget since Evelyn was used to wearing stage makeup she was quite comfortable with her eyes heavily made up with Maybelline while most young girls were still a bit faint of heart being seen in public with heavily mascaraed lashes.   

Evelyn and Preston with my dad, William Preston Williams Jr., 1925

Read more about the fascinating love affair between Evelyn and Preston Williams, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind it.

Caution, don't read before going to bed!  you won't be able to stop turning the pages and may loose sleep!

Tom Lyle's son takes his name and joins the Maybelline Co.

Tom Lyle's son Cecil Anderson changes his name to Tom Lyle Williams.

Tom Lyle Williams and Cecil Anderson, 1925.

No one loved his son more than Tom Lyle loved Cecil Anderson. He gave as much time and attention as any father living at a distance running a mega-company could possibly give.  However It was a hard situation and Tom Lyle worried that he should have done more.  When Cecil Anderson graduated high school and was accepted into Duke University he asked his father if he could change his name to Tom Lyle Williams. Of course he could and Tom Lye was not only honored, he felt relieved that he had succeeded at being the kind of father his son could be proud of. 

After graduation from Duke University where Tom Jr. had been Captain of the Football Team, he joined his father at the Maybelline Company where he worked for over 30 years helping expand the company overseas and making Maybelline the largest eye cosmetic company in the world.    

Tom Lyle Williams and Tom Lyle Williams Jr.  1934

Read more about Tom Lyle Jr. and his desire to expand the Maybelline Company internationally in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.


Thank you for following the Maybelline Blog and I hope you enjoy my book as much as I loved writing it.

Sharrie Williams

Maybelline Roars as the American Dream unfolds in the 1920's.

By 1925 Maybelline was thriving as more and more women entered the workplace and exercised their purchasing power. The company’s advertising budget had reached $15,000 a month, and profits accumulated at ever-growing rates


The family was thriving, too. A period of prosperity and good times blanketed the entire Williams clan, but no one enjoyed it more than Tom Lyle's brother Noel - the driving force behind the Maybelline Company -  Noel James Williams felt the glow of success as Vice President of Maybelline that year and Tom Lyle depended on his down to earth decision making older brother to help "skyrocket Maybelline to the moon," during the prosperous 1920's. 


There was one other reason Noel felt on top of the world that summer of 1925 - after two darling daughters, Helen and Annette, Frances had given him his boy!  Baby Noel Allen Williams was a golden haired boy and the pride and joy of his successful father.  He was to grow up like a Prince, never knowing the harsh reality America and the rest of the world would face five years later when the stock market crashed.  But for now, America and Maybelline enjoyed it's "Hay Day," and it was a time for big dreams, big cars and big futures.

Read more about Noel James Williams enormous contribution to the Maybelline Compnay during the prosperous 1920's in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind it 

Thank you for following my blog and tell your friends!   
Sharrie Williams.

Maybelline's Black Sheep - Preston Williams.



Preston, Eva, Tom Lyle, Mabel, Noel, Susan and Sheriff T.J., 1916.

 Tom Lyle's brother Preston has no interest in being part of the Maybelline company.

Preston in front with Ches Haines, 1922.

Why was that? After all he had every opportunity to become part of the executive team for the Maybelline Company.  Oh, if only Preston had shown a little passion or devotion for the family business!  You'll have to read The Maybelline Story for the full scoop about my grandfather Preston but for now here are a few clues into his early years and why he  did it HIS WAY. 

As a child Preston envisioned himself heading out West searching for high adventure and had no desire to  work the family farm in Kentucky.  He was forever attracting trouble, though preferred periods of isolation where he might master his thoughts while fishing, hunting rabbits in the woods or just reading about cowboys while perched on a tree limb next to the barn.  Needless to say he was all boy and detested any restraints put on his free spirit.  However, his refusal to submit to his father T.J. brought  sure and swift consequences.

As Sheriff, TJ was likely to lock boys who got “too big for their britches” in a jail cell for an overnight stay.  Breakfast the next morning was served only after repentance had been made. But no matter what the punishment, Preston proved a hard nut to crack, and his willful behavior often drove T. J. into a rage. 

My great grandfather, Sheriff T.J., tried everything to break my grandfather's wild streak - from extended lectures, whippings, to finally the jail cell with no dinner - but Preston didn't care and when his father was out of sight, he simply pulled out a dime-novel rolled up in his pocket, leaned back and read about the Wild West or dreamed about Tom Mix in his latest Western movie....  

My grandfather ran off and joined the navy at 17 during the Great War, World War 1, only to return a broken man with PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Read more about Preston's wild adventures that left a wake of destruction in my family for generations to come, in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Preston Williams, 23 in 1922.