Rudolph Valentino's Aspiration, sets the tone for positive thinking.

Rudolph Valentino's Aspiration, still inspires the Williams family to always look up.

Here is a picture of my father Bill Williams with his cousin Noel A. standing next to Aspiration.

Aspiration (Rudolph Valentino)

1930. Roger Noble Burnham. Marble and bronze statue, 36' x 16' x 16. De Longpre Park, 1350 North Cherokee Street, Hollywood, California. Plaque reads: Erected in memory of Rudolph Valentino, 1895-1926. Presented by his friends and admirers from every walk of life in all parts of the world in appreciation of the happiness brought to them by his cinema portrayals.

The Villa Valentino, with Aspiration overlooking the pool.  Bottom right, Bill, Tom Lyle and Evelyn Williams.

Aspiration at the Villa Valentino, Tom Lyle's home in the Hollywood Hills.  I believe Tom Lyle, was a major contributor, paying for the statue to be set in De Longpre Park, in 1930.  He bought the Villa, placed a copy of Aspiration in a fountain and called his home, The Villa Valentino.   Aspiration is still in our family and we love his inspiration to aspire up and never look down.

Maybelline Heir, Bill Williams, says "I do," for the third time.

Bill  Williams, marries his third wife, Gloria Rosan, at his cousin Noel A. and Jean Williams home in Montecito California, on New Years Eve, 1977.

The Minister gives the vows to Bill and Gloria as Jean and Noel stand by.

Bill toasting his bride.

                       Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Williams Jr.

         The big 4, Jean, Bill, Gloria and Noel A. Williams   
                             "Let the 80's begin!"

If you've been following the Maybelline Blog, you have watched Bill and his cousin Noel A. since they were babies together.  Now they're in their 50's as life takes on yet a new beginning.

The statue created for Rudolph Valentino in 1930, lives on.

Aspiration lives on to inspire the next generation, even after Tom Lyle and Maybelline are gone.

1979, Baby Georgia rocks in her rocking chair unaware of the history that has come before!

My One Woman Show today was a smashing success.  Please check in this weekend for pictures, video's and details of the event in Beverly Hills, California.

The healing begins, as my family takes on a new make-up.

Getting on the right track, as our family heals from the aftermath of Arkansas.

Gene's mother, Evelyn Dorney, Gene, Sharrie, Baby Georgia, my sister Billee, Bill and Gloria at Georgia's second birthday at Disneyland.

Life took on a new slant, three years after Nana's death, and our war-torn family began to heal.  Bill calmed down with Gloria, and he took his role, as head of the family, more seriously.  He was a grandfather now, a father and soon to be a married man once again.  The best years of our lives waited for us in the 1980's.

Stay tuned for Bill and Gloria's Wedding in Montecito, New Years Eve, 1979.

It's still not to late to purchase tickets for my One Woman Show, Sept 7th, at The Beverly Hills Women's Club.  Hope to see some of you there as I make The Maybelline Story come alive.

That 70's show...Life after Nana's mysterious death, 1978

After Nana's sudden death - that shook us all to the bone - I realized I was no longer her little glamour-protege'.  I embraced a healthier lifestyle, which included, eating clean, exercising and being Baby Georgia's Mommy.

Sharrie and Baby Georgia, on her first Birthday, loving her first set of Hot Wheels and all the cake she wanted to eat with her hands.

              Gene and Sharrie with Baby Georgia. 

The baby gave our lives meaning, and dreams of becoming a star seemed to melt away after Nana was gone.  I felt happy inside and not so concerned about how I looked in designer clothes anymore.  Our lives became simple, quiet and peaceful.

Of course you know the drill by now.  If you want to know more about my life after Nana's death, purchase your copy of The Maybelline Story and let me know what you think. 

The Beach Boys sing, God Only Knows.

Stay tuned next week for highlights from my One Woman Show for the Beverly Hills Women's Club.  I will be featuring rare music from the Philharmonic Orchestra, playing The Beach Boys in concert.  This music is from Chuck Williams, BB1's private collection given exclusively to him from Mike Love.  It should create a nostalgic atmosphere that will make the 250 vintage pictures I'm showing, pop off the screen.   

Lash-Brow-Ine history, by James Bennett.

Tickets for Sharrie Williams One Woman Show, click here.

Lash-Brow-Ine

Cosmetics and Skin
Copyright © 2011 James Bennett

Anyone who talks about the origins of Maybelline usually starts with Maybelline’s founder, Tom Lyle Williams, watching his sister Mabel applying burnt cork mixed into petroleum jelly to her eyebrows and lashes after she singed them on the stove. The story goes on to describe how Tom Lyle created an eyelash and eyebrow preparation (using a chemistry set) and a business (after borrowing some money from his brother Noel). However, the product he eventually sold through mail-order was developed by Park-Davies not his chemistry set and the business used to sell it was called Maybell Laboratories not Maybelline.


Maybell Laboratories


The product Tom Lyle got from Park-Davis was a scented cream made of white petroleum with oils to provide sheen. He marketed it through his mail-order business as ‘Lash-Brow-Ine’ a name he selected because of its similarity with other eyelash and eyebrow products already on the market such as ‘Eye-Brow-Ine’ and ‘Lashneen’. The business he started to sell Lash-Brow-Ine he named Maybell Laboratories.


Tom Lyle called Lash-Brow-Ine an eyebrow and eyelash growth promoter. Applying Lash-Brow-Ine to eyelashes and eyebrows would have made them appear darker and thicker but would not have stimulated them to grow. However, a long held belief that oils and petrolatum would stimulate hair growth would have given his claim substance in the minds of many potential buyers. Clearly there was demand as sales reached over $100,000 by 1920.


Tom Lyle registered the name ‘Lash-Brow-Ine’ as a trademark in 1917 but by 1921 it was no longer used in advertising. It had been replaced with ‘Maybelline’, a word Tom Lyle reputedly created by combining his sister’s name (Mabel) with the ‘ine’ of Vaseline. The reason usually given for the change was that the original name proved to be a mouthful. However, this simple explanation is not the whole truth.


In 1920 Tom Lyle was taken to court to settle a trademark dispute with Benjamin Ansehl, the founder of ‘Lashbrow Laboratories’. The outcome of the case was that Maybell Laboratories trademark for Lash-Brow-Ine was invalidated and Tom Lyle was given a court order to remove and destroy any references to Lash-Brow-Ine from that day onward.


Lashbrow Laboratories


Lashbrow Laboratories was started by Benjamin Ansehl in St Louis in 1912. It also made an eyebrow and eyelash growth promoter marketed as ‘Lashbrow’. The similarity between the names Lashbrow and Lash-Brow-Ine was the cause of the trademark dispute.


According to court records Lashbrow consisted of petrolatum, beeswax and powdered willow charcoal. It may have been made to a recipe similar to the one given below:


Vaseline yellow 56


Beeswax 4


Lampblack 40


The mixture of ‘vaseline’ and beeswax is melted by being placed in a warm mortar, and the lampblack is well ground in. The preparation is stored in small pots.


Redgrove & Foan, 1930, pp. 67-68


‘Lashbrow’ was marketed as promoting the growth of eyebrows and eyelashes rather than as a mascara. The product sold well enough for Ansehl to extend sales at the end of 1912 to the rest of the United States through Meyer Bros., a wholesale drug company.


Maybelline


In 1917 Tom Lyle developed a new product for darkening and lengthening eyelashes he called ‘Maybelline’. This product was an early version of what would be later known as cake mascara although Williams did not refer to it as such. It was a mixture of sodium stearate soap and pigment mixed together, extruded into strips, stamped and dried and was applied with a small brush that was first wet before being rubbed over the cake.


Why did Williams call the new product ‘Maybelline’? This was a new line and perhaps after all ‘Lash-Brow-Ine’ was hard to say. However, cake mascara is not vaseline based so that part of the story cannot be true.


A name change


Williams advertised extensively, particularly in film magazines such as ‘Photoplay’. In 1920, while the court case was running, advertisements were taken out for Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline. In one version the two products are clearly differentiated by suggesting that Lash-Brow-Ine should be applied at night to ‘nourish and promote growth’, while Maybelline makes lashes and eyebrows ‘longer, thicker and more luxuriant’. However, the advertising copy for that year is not consistent and in another advertisement the two products appear to be equivalent:


Just a wee touch of the little brush over your eyelashes and eyebrows with Lash-Brow-Ine and you will find a new beauty in your eyes. For Maybelline instantly furnishes that delicate touch of darker color so necessary to eyelashes and eyebrows while they are gently invigorated by the little brush.

            1920 Maybell Laboratories Advertisement


     1920 [September] Viola Dana endorsement for ‘Lash-     Brow-Ine’ and ‘Maybelline’.


The lack of consistency in the advertising in 1920 probably reflects the uncertainty generated by the court case. However, it is clear that Lash-Brow-Ine was not renamed Maybelline simply because it was hard to say. Tom Lyle was probably hoping to maintain both products on the market as Lash-Brow-Ine had been a good earner and 1920 was not the best time to lose it. The world was in the middle of a post-war depression that would run through to 1922 so times were tough and as Maybelline was more expensive – it sold for 75 cents compared to 50 cents for Lash-Brow-Ine – there may have been concerns about potential sales. However, the court case forced Tom Lyle’s hand and Lash-Brow-Ine soon disappeared.


In 1923, Maybell Laboratories was renamed Maybelline and concentrated operations on eye make-up. The business flourished, helped by the continued use of extensive advertising and Tom Lyle’s shrewd use of actresses as role models. A liquid form of Maybelline was made available and sales of the “solid form” and “waterproof liquid form” of Maybelline did well, eventually finding their way onto the toilet counters of drug, variety and department stores.


See also Maybelline


19th April 2010


Sources


Poucher, W. A. (1932) Perfumes, cosmetics and soaps, Vols. 1-2 (4th ed.). London: Chapman and Hall.


Quirk, J. R. (1920) Photoplay magazine. Chicago, Ill.: Photoplay Publishing Co.


Redgrove, H. S. & Foan, G. A. (1930). Paint, powder and patches: A handbook of make-up for stage and carnival. London: William Heinemann.


The United States Trade-Mark Association. (1921). The trade-mark reporter. Volume 10. New York: Author.


Williams, S. & Youngs, B. (2010). The Maybelline story and the spirited family dynasty behind it. Florida: Bettie Youngs Books Publishing.

1920 [April-May] Ethyl Clayton endorsement for ‘Lash-Brow-Ine’.1920 [December] Ethyl Clayton endorsement Lash-Brow-Ine and other cosmetics. Note the Maybelline box in the background and the interchange of Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline in the copy.


Copyright © 2011 James Bennett


email: cosmeticsandskin@gmail.com


Vogues in beauty come and go then crop up again in the never-ceasing search for something new.


—G. Vail (1947)




email: cosmeticsandskin@gmail.com

Tickets for Sharrie Williams presentation at The Beverly Hills Women's Club click here.

Miss Maybelline, Rest in Peace!!!

Remembering my grandmother, at her memorial, I spoke of her incredible life and what I'd learned from it.

The Chapel was filled with her family and friends.  Two pictures of Nana sat on a table.  She was wearing a black hat with red feathered plums and had one foot up on a chair, exuding all the moxie of a confidant move star. 

The memorial was dramatic, and I gave the eulogy, wearing a 1950’s black Christian Dior dress, just like Nana wore, in her hay-day with Warren.

  My memories of Nana, brought the crowd of loved ones to tears, as details of her amazing life made it impossible to believe she was gone. 

 After the service a line of Cadillac’s, Mercedes and Rolls Royce’s cruised up the hill overlooking the ocean.  It was surreal, as fifty people gathered at the fountain to watch my larger than life grandmother, be put in a

red little box.

But as we soon learned, not for long!!!

Read the unbelievable details in The Maybelline Story, and purchase a signed copy today at http://www.maybellinestory.com/.

Sharrie Williams: Tom Lyle Williams Jr. dies in his 60's, two years after his father.

Sharrie Williams: Tom Lyle Williams Jr. dies in his 60's, two years after his father.

Tom Lyle Williams Jr. dies in his 60's, two years after his father.

In 1978, just two years after his father's death, Tom Lyle Williams Jr. passed away, at only 66 years of age.

Tom Lyle Williams,     1896 - 1976       
Tom LyleWilliams Jr.  1912 - 1978

5 year old Cecil Anderson Williams, is shown in this picture, with his father, mother and aunts and uncles.  Tom Lyle's only child, Cecil, took his father name after high school. 

Tom Lyle, with his 14 year old son, Tom Lyle Williams Jr. in 1926.

Three generations of Williams men, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Lyle and Tom Lyle Jr. in 1934.

Read more about Tom Lyle and his son, in The Maybelline Story, order a signed copy from the author today at http://www.maybellinebook.com/.

Who Killed Miss Maybelline?

Hot off the Press, March 2, 1978, The mysterious death of my grandmother, still unsolved today.

For the entire story, pick up your signed copy at www.maybellinebook.com

"Miss Maybelline" is born, after Tom Lyle's death.

1977, Nana becomes Miss Maybelline, gets a divorce, has a face lift, at 76 and forever remains 45.

For the full details of Miss Maybelline's life and times in her 70's, ending in an unexpected tragedy, pick up your copy of The Maybelline Story today.

Maybelline's owner, Tom Lyle Williams, dies at 80 years old.

            Tom Lyle Williams, 1896 -1976

The Maybelline Company, 1915 -1968.

The door's to the Maybelline Company in the 1940's, with their distinctive brass,  Maybelline door handle.

The Maybelline building 44 years after Maybelline sold to Plough Inc.  The famous "M" is still etched in the cement above the door, but the beautiful brass Maybelline door handle is gone.

The memory of Tom Lyle Williams and what went on behind those magical Maybelline door's come alive for you, when you read The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Get a signed copy at www.maybellinebook.com 

Love Vintage, Romance and Nostalgia? You will Love The Maybelline Story!

 From the Baby Boomer's tidal wave on the worlds markets,

 Television in the 1950's became an explosive venue to for Maybelline,

IThe Maybelline Story covers nearly 100 years 

You won't want to miss this priceless vintage never before seen story about our American history.

 Remember the good old days when style, glamour and confidence was the American way.

As well as remember those nostalgic Maybelline Ads from the 1960's,

back through the glamour years of World War ll, with the famous Movie Star Pin Ups.

order your copy signed copy of The Maybelline Story today.

Maybelline Story, supports Instruments 4 Africa.

 Toubab Krewe, is donating between fifty cents and one dollar on every ticket sold to Instruments 4 Africa, 501c-3. These donations will specifically go to build a music school in the Bamako, Mali area. The school will be headed by their teacher, Lamine Soumano.

Tama Walley and Paul Chandler are the founders of Instruments 4 Africa.  After spending the summer in the United States, they are now back in Mali,  expanding their charity to include, filming a documentary on the preservation of Mali's ancient musical instruments.  Stay tuned for updates as they set out to visit local tribes and collect ancient memories.

Maybelline, Bi-Centennial Wedding of the Year, 1976.

Noel and Jean Williams give their daughter Nancy, the Wedding of the Year, at their Maybeck estate in Montecito California.

The Noel A. Williams family:  Anne, Chuck, their Nana, Alberta Kilroy, Paul and Nancy Williams-Clark, Noel A., Jean and Jim. The Bride and Groom were married under this giant Monterey Pine, dripping with hanging baskets filled with yellow roses. 

Here is a picture of my father, Bill Williams with the Mother of the Bride, Jean Williams.

Noel Allen and his cousin Bill were like brothers.

Bill Williams with Bill Box and his girlfriend, standing next to George Huber on the side.

Father of the Bride dancing with his daughter, before she leaves on her honeymoon.

Here I am with my cousin Nancy 35 years later, still as devoted as ever.  Check out Nancy's comment in The Maybelline Story under, What People Are Saying About The Book!!

Nancy's Wedding marked the height of the Bi-Centennial year, that summer in 1976, and was a turning point for the entire family as Tom Lyle grew weaker everyday, with only weeks to live.  It was a bitter sweet time, knowing everything we had or ever hoped to have, came from the most generous, kindest adored man in  our lives.