#226 The Beauty Bosses of Fifth Avenue

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2017

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

EPISODE 226 The Midtown Manhattan stretch of Fifth Avenue, once known for its ensemble of extravagant mansions owned by the Gilded Age's wealthiest families, went through an astonishing makeover one hundred years ago. Many lavish abodes of the rich were turned into exclusive retail boutiques, catering to the very sorts of people who once lived here. On the forefront of this transformation were two women from very different backgrounds. Elizabeth Arden was a Canadian entrepreneur, looking to establish her business in the growing city of New York. Helena Rubinstein, from Poland by way of Australia, already owned an established company and looked to Manhattan as a way to anchor her business in America. Their products -- beauty! Creams, lotions, ointments and cleansers. Then later: eye-liners, rouges, lipsticks, mascaras. In this episode we observe the growing independence of American woman and the changing beauty standards which arose in the 1910s and 20s, bringing 'the painted face' into the mainstream. And it's in large part thanks to these two extraordinary businesswomen, crafting two parallel empires in a corporate framework usually reserved for men. ALSO: Theda Bara, Estée Lauder, Max Factor and a whole lot of sheep and horses! Visit boweryboyshistory.com for images described in this show as well as other articles relating to New York City history. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 2.26, the Beauty Bosses of Fifth Avenue.
0:05.2	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:06.8	Hey!
0:07.8	Support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:11.4	Join us for as little as a dollar a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:20.4	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:23.2	And this is Tom Myers.
0:24.7	And today we'll be discussing a profession very crucial to the development of New York City over the decades.
0:31.7	An area of New York that was transformed by this profession and two moguls who oversaw businesses
0:39.1	that would change the lives of millions of women all over the world.
0:43.1	Today's show actually has four characters.
0:46.3	The profession is the American beauty industry.
0:50.5	The area is New York's Fifth Avenue, particularly Fifth Avenue in Midtown.
0:56.5	And the characters are none other than Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein.
1:01.3	Two immigrant women who built beauty empires and who managed to hold on to control of their companies in a world of men for decades.
1:10.9	These are two extremely successful business women in an era with few ways to break the glass ceiling into big business.
1:19.3	So the solution, at least in the case of these two ladies, was to excel in an industry where women could rise to the top.
1:26.3	An industry for women.
1:28.3	This industry, the beauty business, went from being in the sidelines to really mainstream in the first three decades of the 20th century.
1:37.3	And Tom, I think this is going to be kind of a fun story to tell because not only are we taking a stroll up Fifth Avenue,
1:45.3	but a stroll back into time to an era when the standards of beauty were changing.
1:51.3	So sit back and relax as we examine line by line, Arden and Rubenstein in our compact history of the Fifth Avenue beauty business.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tom Meyers, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tom Meyers and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.