The Maybelline Story: And the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It
Sharrie Williams with Bettie Youngs
In 1915, 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.
Arnold Anderson,
Debbie Reynolds
and Tom Lyle, 1950
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.
Purchase an autographed copy signed by the author Sharrie
Williams
In 1915, 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....
