The Maybelline Story
Room VIII · The Studio

Maybelline Prince meets MGM Princess in 1939.

By Sharrie Williams · Written January 2011 · 2 min read

Maybelline Prince meets MGM Princess in 1939.



Pauline Elna Mac Donald born Jan 17, 1924 in Santa Monica, California. She met Bill Williams at University High School , in West Los Angeles in 1939. They were 15.




Pauline’s father, Andrew Mac Donald was the main construction boss at MGM – the biggest, richest, and most productive studio in Hollywood. It’s twenty-two stages and hundred acre back lot of standing sets produced forty two feature films a year. The largest output of any studio in the history of the cinema. In the 1930’s M.G.M came into its golden age. It was a magical period, and with it’s perfection – achieved more by hard labor than magical thought – and behind the beautiful facade of glamour and glitz – the studio was truly a brutal, vulgar, grasping place that produced great art. This was the backdrop of Pauline’s life.


Pauline’s mother Elna Mac Donald created a home fit for a movie executive. Her home and family where her life. She didn’t drive a car and spent most of her time dressed in a cotton house dresses like a well kept Victorian housewife. Pauline was her pride and joy and she raised her only daughter to be a little Princess.

There was a sweet natural chemistry between Bill and Pauline and she made him feel at ease, She was the sweet, wholesome type – went to church, cared about others, and was a good listener. Bill asked her about her dad, and she told him he was very busy working on
“The Wizard Of Oz,” and “Gone with the Wind.” His men built every set ever made at MGM.

Pauline wanted to be a dancer at the studio and Bill hoped to be an art director as well. It seemed like a match made in heaven. Except for one thing. Evelyn wanted more for her only son and never accepted Pauline as being good enough.

Read more about Bill and Pauline and the magical era at MGM and Tom Lyle’s Villa Valentino in Hollywood Hills, in The Maybelline Story.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nACj50uq6_s 

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Maybe She’s Born With It

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