The Maybelline Story: And the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It - Softcover

Sharrie Williams; Bettie Youngs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984308113 ISBN 13: 9780984308118

Publisher: Bettie Youngs Books, 2010

Synopsis

In1915, when a kitchen stove fire singed his sister Mabel's lashes and brows, Tom Lyle Williams watched in fascination as she performed what she called 'a secret of the harem'—mixing petroleum jelly with coal dust and ash from a burnt cork and applying it to her lashes and brows. Mabel's simple beauty trick ignited Tom Lyle's imagination and he started what would become a billion-dollar business, one that remains a viable American icon after nearly a century. He named it Maybelline in her honor. Throughout the twentieth century, the Maybelline company inflated, collapsed, endured, and thrived in tandem with the nation's upheavals—as did the family that nurtured it. Tom Lyle Williams—to avoid unwanted scrutiny of his private life—cloistered himself behind the gates of his Rudolph Valentino Villa and ran his empire from the shadows. Now, after nearly a century of silence, this true story celebrates the life of an American entrepreneur, a man forced to remain behind a mask—using his sister-in-law Evelyn Boecher—to be his front.

Stories of the-great-man-and-how-he-did-it serve as a traditional mainstay of biographies, but with the strong women's book-buying market, a resurgence of interest in memoirs that focus on relationships more than a single man and his accomplishments are more likely to be discussed in women's book groups. The Maybelline Story combines the best of both approaches: a man whose vision rocketed him to success along with the woman held in his orbit.

In the way that Rhett Butler ignored the criticism of his peers to carve his own destiny, Tom Lyle Williams shares similar grit and daring. But Rhett without Scarlet wouldn't be much of a story. Evelyn Williams provides the energy of an antagonist. Like Scarlet, we sometimes hate her and want to shake her, but sometimes, we must admit that we hold a grudging respect; we get a kick out of her and even occasionally, love her for her guts and tenacity, and certainly because she carved out a life for herself and insisted on having a voice, even if she was a fly in the ointment for others. 

The Maybelline story provides other kinds of classic literary satisfaction. We are especially fascinated to slip vicariously into the lives of the rich and privileged yet cheer for the underdog who overcomes obstacles to astound doubters with his success. We are enthralled with the historical sweep of events whose repercussions live on to the present, all elements of The Maybelline Story—which reads like a juicy novel, but is in fact a family memoir, distilled from nine hundred pages of family accounts from the 1920's to present.

An engrossing and captivating saga that spans four generations and reveals the humanity, the glamour, and the seedy underside of a family intoxicated by the quest for power, wealth, and physical perfection. It is a fascinating and inspiring tale of ambition, luck, greed, secrecy—and surprisingly, above all, love and forgiveness, a tale both epic and intimate, alive with the clash, the hustle, the music, and dance of American enterprise.

(Sharrie Williams The Maybelline Story)

About this title

About the Author:

Sharrie Williams, heir to the Maybelline legacy, is Tom Lyle Williams's grandniece and Evelyn Boecher Williams's granddaughter. Growing up in their homes, and steward of the vast Maybelline archives, Williams tells the story of the birth of the Maybelline empire and dishes intimate and never-before-told details about the fascinating family dynasty behind it.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Six

Triangle

The Memorial Day parade of 1922 marked both the beginning of summer and an end to hard times. The grim chaos of war, the grip of the flu epidemic, and the ensuing suffering and loss were all in the past. The Twenties were beginning to roar. For my family, that day would also mark another turning point: the moment when fate brought together the three titans who would dominate the family's destiny far into the future. People of all social classes and income levels crowded the sidewalks to watch the parade that day. Flappers sashayed down the street with cloche hats over bobbed hair, summer dresses rose dangerously close to the knee, eyelashes fluttered, laden with Maybelline. The so-called flaming youth-especially the young women who had won the right to vote in August 1920-were setting themselves free. These new women were thought of as a little fast, a bit brazen. They went out together without a man to look after them; they sat in the backseats of motorcars, smoking cigarettes; they publicly held hands with men.

Preston was there for the parade, of course. Memorial Day held special significance for him, representing as it did that horrible day in the freezing Atlantic, the day that had changed his life. He had no idea that his life was about to take yet another drastic turn.

He was out on the street that day, leaning against a lamppost, dressed in a white linen, single-breasted Gatsby suit with a pale pastel shirt and matching pocket square, topped off with an expensive tie. Who could resist a man in a suit like that? He smelled of Tom Lyle's French-milled sandal- wood soap, shaving cream, and the pomade on his hair. When the military drill teams marched by, he wanted to shake hands with every one of them. He stood there as if waiting for his destiny, smoking a Camel.

Destiny arrived right on time, in the form of Evelyn Boecher, a beautiful young women sashaying down the sidewalk with the best of them.

Their first encounter was all in the eyes. Preston turned his head to see Evelyn's pale-blue gaze fixed on him from under a hat whose wide brim drooped flirtatiously to frame her gorgeous face. He noted her subtle eye makeup, the blood-red lipstick that defined a kissable pout, the slinky dress, silk stockings, and her lean, muscular legs.She sized him up, and in a haughty yet flirtatious voice, said, "Look at that cad. He looks exactly like Valentino. Better, actually.”

Preston liked her saucy attitude. Tapping her on the shoulder he asked,

About this edition

• Publisher: Bettie Youngs Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0984308113
• ISBN 13: 9780984308118
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416