Maybelline founder Tom Lyle Williams
1934 - the year 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.
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.
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.
Read more about the Tom Lyle, Maybelline, Chet Hewes and Deluxe Mascara in, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.
Maybelline’s founder wanted to be known as the "King of Advertising" not the man who invented mascara
The man who would become a cosmetics giant, Tom Lyle Williams, was a private figure who hid from the public because when he launched the Maybelline Co., mascara was deemed the “province of whores and homosexuals.” To protect his family from scandal, and to stay out of view from the scrutiny of the press, Tom Lyle ran his empire from a distance, cloistered behind the gates of his Hollywood Hills Rudolph Valentino Villa. He contracted movie stars to represent him in all forms of media. From the earliest days of silent film he sought Photoplay stars, Viola Dana, Phyllis Haver, and Clara Bow.
Throughout the 1930’s “Golden Age of Hollywood,” he splashed magazines with glamour, using Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford and Merle Oberon to represent the ideal Maybelline image. During the World War ll era, he turned to pin up girls like Bettie Grable, Elyse Knox, Hedy Lamaar, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner, to inspire the boys fighting for our Country and keep Maybelline ingredients flowing. By the 1950’s, the girl next door, represented by Debby Reynolds and Grace Kelly, appealed to the emerging young mothers and housewives. When Maybelline appeared on Television in the early 1950’s, Tom Lyle decided to appeal to a more universal image and rather than promote film stars created the cool, exotic, sophisticated woman who would appeal to foreign as well as domestic markets.
Joan Crawford – had her teeth pulled and replaced to have a more beautiful smile and became Maybelline’s spokesperson for years.
Merle Oberon – was in an accident that disfigured the skin on her face, yet in films she looked flawless because of pancake make up.
Betty Grable - took over for the leading song and dance actress Alice Faye and became a big star in musicals as well As one of Maybelline’s top models.
Debby Reynolds - was to be Maybelline’s leading model in the 1950’s until Tom Lyle decided to change his ad campaign from the all American Girl to a more international exotic sophisticate in his TV commercials and print magazines.
Maybelline was the sole sponsor for the Grace Kelly, Prince Rainier lll, wedding in Monaco appeal to a more universal image and rather than promote film stars created the cool, exotic, sophisticated woman who would appeal to foreign as well as domestic markets.
Order a signed copy of the Maybelline Story directly from Author
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Maybelline 1915 - 2018 The Maybelline Story Embraces the drama, intrigue and history behind the Iconic Maybelline Brand and the family behind it.
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FOREWORD by Legendary Publicist, Michael A. Levine
“A woman’s most powerful possession is a man’s imagination.”
Tom Lyle Williams, 1934
I think every girl I ever dated as a teenager had one of those pink and green tubes of Maybelline Great Lash mascara stashed in her purse. How on earth would I know this? Because the contents of all those purses regularly spilled out of school lockers, behind bleachers, under the seats of cars…. If they weren’t scrambling to hide their other feminine products, then they were diving for the mascara because THAT wasclearly the key to their enchanting doe-eyed beauty.
As I’ve grown older, gotten married, divorced, and dated all over again, I’ve seen the contents of many beautiful women’s cosmetic bags. And there has always been a Maybelline product inside.
I recognize things like this because I’m a brand man myself. At an early age I discovered the power of perception…specifically, the perception of value, which can be even more important than price itself. For example, the Tiffany brand is indomitable because one need only see the powder-blue box and white satin ribbon to think that whatever is inside is premium simply because it comes from Tiffany.
So I was delighted when I was asked to read The Maybelline Story and learn about the origins and growth of this modest company into the best-known eye beauty brand around the world. What a story it is!
From humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to gangster-ridden Prohibition Chicago, to Hollywood in the ‘30s and ‘40s, pin-ups, the Pentagon, and eventually, the whole world, this is a classic tale of a makeshift product that developed out of one woman’s innovative need to fix something else, and her brother’s prescient understanding that she was onto something BIG!
In 1915, Mabel Williams singed her eyelashes and brows while cooking. Horrified that she no longer looked feminine, she concocted a mixture and applied it to her remaining lashes and brows, giving her some added sparkle and sheen. One of her brothers, Tom Lyle Williams, noticed the successful effect.
But he also noticed something more profound: a woman’s eyes were her calling card. “Come look at me.” “Coax me out of my bashfulness.” “Yes, I’m flirting.” “I’m interested in you.” He appreciated beauty in all women, and their beauty spoke to him straight through their eyes. Tom Lyle wanted to reproduce his sister’s “formula” to see whether regular women would pay a little to “up” the glamour in themselves.
All he needed was $500 and a rudimentary chemistry set to give his idea a real try. But gathering $500 in 1915 wasn’t easy. So when his brother Noel offered to loan him the money, he promised to repay him in full. Little did any of them realize then that Noel would receive a return on his investment similar to the original investors in Microsoft or Apple!
For over a half century, Maybelline operated as a private company owned by the Williams family. What Tom Lyle, his brother and sister started as a small, mail-order business eventually became an internationally recognized brand purchased 82 years later by French conglomerate L’Oreal for over 700 million.
I can tell you: it’s one thing to recognize a winning product discovered by accident, and quite another to turn it into an empire that, for decades, transcended all competition and remains an icon to this day.
How does one do that? Precisely by branding. By taking an exceptional product and equating it with excellence in every way. By having a constant, relentless drive to promote a desirable image through that product. By turning that product into the sine qua non of, in this case, eye beauty.
Tom Lyle Williams packaged and sold artifice – the importance of beautiful eyes. He made eye beauty the singular defining quality of a beautiful woman, and he branded Maybelline as representative of perfect beauty. His genius was in convincing millions of women the world over to buy Maybelline with the absolute conviction that using Maybelline eye products would truly make them perfectly beautiful.
Unlike most folks in Hollywood, this unlikeliest of legends kept a low personal profile and let his creativity speak through his work. In my opinion, Tom Lyle Williams can teach us more about branding than Colonel Sanders, Calvin Klein, and Coco Chanel combined. He was first to enlist movie stars to promote his products. One of the first companies to promote corporate social responsibility by supporting war bonds. First to take advantage of advertising on broadcast television. First to employ market research. And first to truly understand the buying power of women.
Surely such a creative man must have had a muse…perhaps some woman he thought the ideal version of his own vision of beauty? Indeed! While he named the company for his sister, his muse was actually his sister-in-law, Evelyn. She was gorgeous, smart, and often too smart for her own good.
The drama of this family-business-story, as with many such sagas, lies in deciphering where the family and the business intersected, frequently came to loggerheads, and sometimes went to court. Secrets existed, lies were told, and facades masqueraded as truth – often to protect the family from itself, and always to protect Maybelline above all else.
Edison made light bulbs. Ford manufactured cars. Here’s another great American rags-to-riches story. This time the name is Williams. The cash cow wore mascara and Maybelline.
Review By Kate Farrell of Kates Reads
www.katesreads.com
@KatesReads
“The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Dynasty Behind It”, by Sharrie Williams is a gripping memoir of the cosmetics company and her own family. It is vintage Hollywood, with all of the glamour, greed, passion and intrigue you would expect.
Tom Lyle, the company’s founder and patriarch of the family, discovers the idea for mascara from an incident with his sister, Mabel. He turns the idea into a business venture and begins a successful mail-order marketing campaign. He names the company Maybelline in honor of his sister. Over the years the business will grow and then reach the brink only to be brought back to success by Lyle’s business and marketing savvy. He was truly an entrepreneur.
The extended family is filled with interesting and colorful personalities. Most of them are involved in the company in some shape or form; or at least dependent on their share of the family fortune. How they interact with each other and get tangled up in drama makes for titillating reading. The author does not seem to have left any skeletons in the closet or stones unturned.
This is a very engaging memoir. Williams’ writing brings all the players to life and makes the reader anxious to know what happens to them next. It has all the ingredients for a great piece of fiction but is even better when you realize it all really happened. A great read!Th
Maybelline presented a image of the the American woman in 1924...
1924 Vogue cover, with a beautifully made-up face.
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Illustration of "IT GIRL" Clara Bow. |
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Maybelline's Illustration of Vamp, Louise Brooks. |
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, once known as "The Wonder Company"... "The Little Company that Could"
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| Tom Lyle Williams at 19 years of age in 1915. |
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| Tom Lyle Williams in 1929, from an article in a trade magazine. |
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.
“Once you become a star, you are always a star!” Maybelline Girl, Mae Murray, rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"
"One of the many Beautiful Stage and Screen Stars who wear and highly recommend Maybelline Beauty Aids''.
May Murray appeared in this Maybelline ad while starring with Rudolph Valentino in The Delicious Little Devil in 1919.
she was once "The Merry Widow," or a hardworking professional silent screen actress who got lost in her own publicity.
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