Maybelline, “The Little Company That Could”

Maybelline ad, 1936

As the Great Depression continued through the 1930’s Maybelline cornered the market in eye cosmetics and money poured in from every direction. No other cosmetic company enjoyed more confidence and higher regard among the trade and had the envy among competitors as did Maybelline. Tom
Lyle’s policy for perfection and his reputation for fairness set him apart and above all others in the field. Even his competitors agreed, there would never be another man like Tom Lyle Williams or a company like Maybelline. His sensitivity allowed him to see how women were affected by his advertising strategies. By 1939, Tom Lyle was at the top of his game. He was the most important executive in the cosmetic business. He never became selfish, egotistical, or self serving and his kindness and spirituality never ceased to exist. Maybelline became known as “The Little Company that Could!”



1933 Maybelline Ad.

Tom
Llye Williams, Maybelline’s founder believed that a woman’s greatest asset was her ability to capture a man’s imagination through her expressive eyes.

Empowered for the first time since the Victorian era, women discovered a passion for imitating stars who exuded sex appeal on the screen.

Maybelline provided an inexpensive eye beautifier that enhanced a woman’s sex-appeal while movies mirrored celluloid forgeries professing nonconformity with old world standards. As Movie stars became models for America’s changing values, Tom Lyle threw Maybelline in the dime stores in 1933 and as little cosmetic companies fell by the wayside or were bought out by Maybelline, The Maybelline Company went on to be the undisputed giant in its field during the Great Depression.