Lani Barry
Professor Hewitt
History of Makeup Independent Study
11 December 2011
Makeup in Early Hollywood
There is no question of how iconic the faces of early Hollywood are. Regardless of the popularity of contemporary film stars, fashion looks to the past and relishes the likeness of great actors and actresses in cinema’s first few decades. From Mary Pickford’s darling wide-eyes to the Phantom of the Opera’s monstrous complexion, the innovations and uses of makeup in older films is are often disregarded. In an age of green screens and digital imagery, we often neglect that smoke, mirrors, and a little greasepaint paved the road for modernization. In this paper I explore the development of film makeup in Hollywood cinema from the early 20th century to the end of the Second World War. Additionally, examine who was responsible for such transfigurations in early celluloid, and what they contributed to the artistry through each decade.
During the late 19th century comma film was still in its infancy. It had begun as a novelty; film was simply a series of photographs that were projected at high speeds without sound. In the late 1800’s films were gimmicky shorts shown at vaudevillian theaters, exhibitions, and Thomas Edison’s early ‘Kineotoscope’ parlors. Until a tool was invented in 1923 that coupled music and sound with the film, audiences relied on musical accompaniment to the groundbreaking, visual spectacle that was cinema.
In the early 20th century, Victorian ideals of cosmetics were limited to toiletries and powders for the everyday wearer. However, once film progressed from shorts to multi-reel pictures, film actors used makeup to accentuate features that were subdued when captured on film. During the films of the early 1900s, greasepaint stage makeup in stick form was used on set. Sometimes the applied colors of makeup were unrealistic; tones of blue and green were used to define facial features as they translated to black and white film easier. Additionally, the theatrical greasepaint was heavy on the wearer and came in limited colors. Makeup artist Max Factor began to develop new formulas and applicators for stage makeup that were thinner and did not melt under the heat of film set lights.
Max Factor, or Maksymilian Faktorowicz , was a Polish Jew who emigrated from Europe with his family to escape the violent anti-Semitic attacks in Russia, called pogroms. In 1902 he and his family traveled to St. Louis to witness the World’s Fair, and they never returned home. In Europe, he had run a cosmetic shop and worked as a wigmaker and makeup artist for Russian theatrical productions and companies, such as the Imperial Russian Grand Opera and the Royal Ballet. Additionally, he had been a distributor of makeup products, especially brands such as Minor and Leichner.
In America, he changed his name and began selling cosmetics, hair goods, and greasepaint for the theatre in St. Louis. Eventually his notoriety grew, and he was beckoned out to Hollywood to contribute to film’s booming community. In 1909, Max Factor and his family moved to Los Angeles where he began working with the Pantages Theatre. He jumped on the opportunity to provide his services to the film industry. David Krajicek, a biographer of Max Factor’s great-grandson notes,
Factor took work as a makeup and hair stylist for film stars, and in 1914 he invented "Supreme Grease Paint," a face makeup that would not melt under the hot klieg lights on film sets. (Krajicek, 1)
It was this first innovation of efficient makeup made the progression of filming much smoother, as makeup touch ups became left frequent due to it’s hearty consistency.
During Hollywood’s early years, studios did not have a ‘makeup department,’ and most actors were responsible for having their own makeup artist. Max Factor became an invaluable resource, as he was a talented makeup artist, wig stylist, and provided new makeup products to stars.
His first contribution to film makeup innovation was his own version of greasepaint. Max Factor modified and improved the formula of stick stage makeup; he created a thinner consistency to the makeup, which ensured a smoother application and required less. Secondly, he made more shade varieties than any other brand of theatrical makeup. He offered twelve shades of measured skin tone varieties that came in tubes. Called ‘Supreme Greasepaint,’ the new cream formula was packaged nicely in metal foil tubes that could crease, which would waste less of the product and prevent it from drying out the way earlier makeup did.
In the 1910s, Max Factor was working along with his sons to further develop new makeup. They had opened a Max Factor beauty salon where they served clientele and sold products, and he continually worked on set for major motion pictures. Max served as a makeup artist, hair stylist, wig stylist, and conceptual designer for the stars. His notoriety grew exponentially in Hollywood, and he was the personal makeup artist of practically every major star. Bette Davis, Clara Bow, Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Rudolph Valentino and Ben Turpin were just a few of his celebrity clientele.
Some of Max Factor’s wig contributions for film were Lucille Ball’s red wig, toupees for John Wayne and Frank Sinatra, Glinda the Good Witch’s blonde wig in ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and a wig for Marlene Dietrich that was covered in 20 karat gold flakes. His conceptual stylistic work was responsible for the ‘cupid’s bow’ lip shape on Clara Bow, Joan Crawford’s full lips, and Jean Harlow’s platinum blonde hair, as he created these ‘looks’ for each star to give each a unique image. He invented products such as stick-form wax mascara for Clara Bow and human hair false eyelashes for Phyllis Haver. The Biography Channel elaborates:
He had improvised a new alternative to dye greasepaint, which he thought looked dreadful and ‘terrifying’ on the screen. He formed flexible greasepaint, which was the first make-up created for film. It helped make actresses look more natural in close up.
Creating false eyelashes, the eyebrow pencil, lip-gloss, and pancake makeup, Factor created a whole new language for screen cosmetics.
(Biography Channel, 1)
Until Max Factor, no other makeup artist or film professional had invested in new makeup technology. Additionally, no one else had invested so much in the appearance of the Hollywood actors.
What assisted in designing makeup looks for Hollywood clients were many more improvements to makeup. In 1914, Max Factor invented lip-gloss. In 1916 he added eyeliner pencil and eye shadow to his collection, and he further improved stage makeup with his line of ‘Color Harmony’ makeup that he developed in 1918. With more varieties of makeup shades than his line of 1914, he could now custom blend shades that would flatter the skin tone of all his patrons.
Another one of Max Factor’s contribution to film makeup was coining the expression ‘makeup.’ His son, Frank Factor (who later changed his name to Max Factor Jr.), joined his father in business in 1918, and in 1920 had suggested they change the expression from ‘to-make-up’ to ‘make-up.’ The reason for this was that cosmetics were still not considered appropriate for public use and wear. There were still negative connotations to makeup and ‘paint,’ but Factor and his sons pushed to alter the terminology with the hopes that their products would be feminine and beautifying like the creams and powders on the market. It was in the 1920s when cosmetic companies began developing makeup for women’s everyday wear that Max Factor himself developed a line of makeup for public consumption called ‘Society Make-Up.’ Promoted with the idea that every woman deserved to look like a movie star, it was the first product to be released on the market with the name ‘make-up.’ Mary Tannen of the New York Times explains how Max Factor helped improve the perception of makeup use off-screen:
In 1920, Max Factor introduced Society Make-Up, the first time the word makeup was used instead of the euphemism, cosmetics. Makeup was associated with the stage, and other manufacturers had long felt that women of polite society would not want to be taken for actresses. The Factors reasoned that every woman should desire to look like a movie star, and so would embrace the term. Max Factor later used the advertising slogan: ''The Make-up for the Stars -- and You.'' (Tannen, 1)
Thus, the painted woman had become idolized instead of criticized, and makeup had become glamorous thanks to Max Factor.
Max Factor and his sons continued to make advancements in film makeup throughout the 1920s. In 1922, Max Factor made the decisions to push sales of his own makeup at his salon and film studios. Previously he had sold a variety of other brands along with his own makeup. For example, he had been a seller of a German stage makeup brand called Leichner for many decades. The story goes that he and his wife stopped by the Leichner makeup headquarters in Germany while on vacation, yet he was never acknowledged and was left waiting in reception for hours. As a result, he wired a telegram to his sons back in California to push the sales of their tube cream makeup; they did not cease to sell Leichner brand but simply stopped promoting the other brands. In a short amount of time, the Max Factor brand became the most popular brand in the Hollywood entertainment community, and the other stage makeup brands felt the effect. This upped the standard of makeup quality in the film industry from then on, and it was Max Factor’s company that was looked to when an improvement was needed.
Improvements were made in 1926 for a film called Mare Nostrum when Max and his sons developed a formula of waterproof makeup. In the late 1920s, sound came to the cinema, and as a result, there were changes in types of lights and film used when making motion pictures. For example, Tungsten brand lights ran quieter than older, nosier models, yet their bulbs glowed with more heat intensity. Additionally, upgrades to panchromatic film (a more sensitive type of film than orthochromatic) gave actors the appearance of darker skin tones. Thus, Max and his sons had to develop a new form of makeup that could withstand the hotter temperatures of the lights, along with shades that would give actors a realistic skin tone.
Technicolor arrived in the 1930s, and the Panchromatic brand makeup did not mix well with color films. The residual shine of Panchromatic makeup resulted in a slight color reflection from nearby set objects, and actors insisted on a new formula or they would not appear in colored films. Frank Factor was responsible for the creation of ‘Pan Cake’ makeup, and after two years work experimenting with a new formula he created a makeup with a matte finish for the camera. Produced in small tin pans, Pan Cake makeup was activated by a wet sponge and easily applied in thin layers on the face. The first film it was featured in was Vogues of 1938, and when enough makeup was produced to market to the national consumer, it became the fastest selling makeup in history. Perfume historians at Lightyears Inc. attribute Max Factor with the development of pancake makeup:
The company continued to innovate, being the first to develop makeup suitable for the new color films. In 1937, the year before Max died, a patent was obtained for the Max Factor "Pan-Cake Makeup". (The "pan" because it was originally sold in a small pan.) In 1938, the year of Max Factor's death, the new makeup made its appearance in Hollywood films. (PerfumeProjects, 1)
This was a significant innovation in film makeup, and it is the very pancake makeup that theatre actors use today that is descended from Max Factor’s matte, heat-resistant ‘Pan-Cake Makeup.’
Max Factor passed away in 1938, and his sons carried on with the business. Frank Factor took the name Max Factor Jr., and along with his brothers, they continued makeup innovations into the 1940s. A lipstick with color-stay and smudge-proof qualities was produced in 1939. To test its capabilities on set, the brothers developed a ‘kissing machine’ that featured a pair of rubber lips whose ten pounds of pressure would stamp out lipstick kisses. Named ‘Tru-Color’ lipstick, it was brought to the screen and mass marketed to the public in 1940. Patented in 1947 and released in 1948, a non-greasy stick form of Max Factor’s Pan Cake makeup was purchased by film stars and consumers alike. The name Max Factor has carried through decades of film and generations of makeup clientele; even today a wand of Max Factor mascara holds tribute to their makeup contributions in the film industry.
Another notable force of the Hollywood makeup industry was the Westmore family. Patriarch and first of the famous Westmores was George Westmore, an Englishman from Kent who, along with his wife Ada, had nineteen children, six of whom carried on to be Hollywood makeup artists themselves. George Westmore’s life and career paralleled that of Max Factor in a few ways; he was also an immigrant, wigmaker, and hairdresser from the Isle of White, who emigrated to the United States around a similar time. First through Canada, then Philadelphia, New Orleans, Texas and finally California, and along with his sons, they had hand-built all of their salons in each state.
After arriving in Hollywood they set up a new salon and subsequently found work in the silent film industry. Their notoriety first began when George’s son, Perc, helped recreate part of a moustache that actor Adolphe Menjou accidentally shaved off. The film’s production company was in awe of the Westmore’s wig talents, and from then on they had all of their hairpieces and wigs supplied by the Westmore family. There was no makeup department established in any of the studios of Hollywood at the time. Therefore, actors were responsible for procuring help preparing for the camera. It was in 1917 that Metro Pictures first set up its hair and makeup department, largely because of George Westmore and his sons. Marvin Westmore, George’s grandson explains:
My grandfather got involved in a couple of projects where he could see that there needed to be a unification of actions, a department so to speak, to take care of makeup and hair. He was instrumental in establishing the first makeup department. My grandfather got his sons involved in the studios working at a very young age. I have some advertisements dating back to 1926 showing Perc and Ern doing wigmaking for the industry. (Westmore, 1)
While Max Factor promoted his makeup innovations with celebrity associations, it was the Westmore family who single handedly helped assemble departments in which the makeup and hair artists could work in the film industry.
Eventually, each of George Westmore’s sons went on to become the head of makeup departments for major studios. Perc Westmore spent over twenty years at Warner Brothers and worked on films such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Big Sleep. His makeup career began in 1921 and carried on until 1971. Wally Westmore was employed at Paramount studios for forty years and oversaw makeup in films such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hold Back The Dawn, The Great Gatsby, and numerous Alfred Hitchcock films. Of his brothers, he by far had the most extensive makeup career, which includes hundreds of films from 1931 to 1970. Wally designed the false teeth and full facial makeup of Mr. Hyde. His makeup transformations gained him prestige and praise in the film community; especially considering it was his first film.
Mont Westmore, who worked on notable films such as Gone With the Wind, 1932s Scarface, and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940s film Rebecca, was mostly a freelance makeup artist whose supervision went mostly unaccredited. Bud Westmore began working for Universal Studios in 1938 and continued on until 1973 with his last film Soylent Green. He was best known for his Abbott and Costello films, The Glenn Miller Story, and his achievements in The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Frank Westmore was the youngest of George’s six sons, who began working on films in 1948. Notable films Frank worked on were The Amazing Mr. X, The Ten Commandments, and Shenandoah. His career continued on until he passed away in 1985. The shortest career of them all was in fact Ern Westmore’s, who worked in film from 1926 to 1937. His involvement in films was both as a B-movie actor and makeup artist. He was the only of his brothers to win an Academy Award for his makeup work (in 1931) before the category was invented in 1981. He struggled with alcoholism, and like his father, grappled with slipping mental health. Their father, George Westmore, who worked on eleven films such as The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, and The Thief of Baghdad before committing suicide by poisoning himself with mercury in 1931.
The Westmore family’s contribution to the makeup industry of Hollywood is immeasurable, as their mark has been left throughout history. Most of their descendants have gone on to work in the film industry, many of them makeup artists themselves. Their legacy is marked in Los Angeles with their name adorned on studio lots, sidewalk stars, museums, and the Westmore Academy of Makeup in Burbank California. In Frank Westmore’s book, The Westmores of Hollywood, he notes on his family’s legacy:
At one time or another, a Westmore headed up the makeup departments at Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, RKO, 20th Century-Fox, Selznick, Eagle-Lion, First National, and a dozen other movie lots that once flourished in the industry. The Westmores' artistry in creating ingenious horror and aging makeups helped change the movies from make-believe to a realistic medium. (Westmore, 15)
The Westmore family set the precedent for the future of fantasy and specialized makeup in film, as they had their hand in every major studio in Hollywood and met the challenges that each new film project.
When examining the makeup of early Hollywood, you cannot ignore the name of a prominent actor and talented makeup artist named Lon Chaney. Known as early film’s greatest character actor and ‘Man of a Thousand Faces,’ he was also responsible for creating the faces of memorable characters such as Quasimodo in 1923s Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Phantom in the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera.
Born in 1883 in Colorado Springs to deaf parents, Lon Chaney excelled in pantomime as it was used to communicate in his household. He joined the vaudeville circuit when he was nineteen, then after marriage to Cleva Creighton in 1905 the birth of his son in 1906 (who could become the infamous Lon Chaney Jr.), the Chaney family moved to Los Angeles, California. Lon Chaney worked mostly in the theatres of Hollywood as stage manager, choreographer, and wardrobe supervisor. A scandal involving his wife’s attempted suicide while he was onstage, his divorce from her, and remarriage to chorus girl Hazel Hasting eventually expelled him from the theatrical community.
He began working with Universal Studios in 1912 and held a five-year contract that got him bit parts, but mainly due to his uncanny hand at makeup. Using readily available materials like wax, putty, stage makeup, and elastic, he was able to compile fake prosthetics for the face and body as he created grotesque characters for the screen. Daniel O’Brien of FilmReference.com credit’s Lon as a competent makeup artist:
He always created his own makeup, working with the materials of his day— greasepaint, putty, plasto (mortician's wax), fish skin, gutta percha (natural resin), collodian (liquid elastic), and crepe hair—and conjured characters unrivalled in their horrifying effect, including his gaunt, pig-nosed, black-eyed Phantom for Phantom of the Opera (1925) and his Hunchback in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), for which he constructed agonizingly heavy makeup and body harnesses. (O’Brien, 1)
Chaney was particularly innovative, as he was developing prosthetics for film before anyone else in film attempted it. There was no makeup department in film studios, and when actors were expected to complete their own makeup, Lon Chaney stepped up to the plate and then paved the way for makeup professionals to tackle special effects. Chaney was equally dedicated to the craft of makeup as he was to acting, and he carried his makeup kit with him in a leather case to film sets. His knowledge on the subject was immense, and he contributed an article to the Encyclopedia Britannica on the topic. Because Lon was the pioneer for many makeup experimentations, he also was the guinea pig to many of his own innovations, which often had detrimental effects. For example, the prosthetic he built over his right eye for his role as Quasimodo prevented seeing out of both his eyes. After weeks of filming with limited vision, it damaged his sight and left him wearing thick glasses for the rest of his life. In 1920’s The Penalty, Chaney invented his own leg harness that allowed him to strap his legs in a bent position, and achieve the movements of a crippled character by walking on his knees. It was his genius of character makeup and prosthetics that helped launch him into super stardom and named him one of early Hollywood’s best character actors.
A visual effect he was not responsible for may have exacerbated his death; while suffering from lung cancer during his 1929 shoot of Thunder, a piece of gypsum-based fake snow was lodged in his lungs and may have contributed to his passing. If he hadn’t passed away in 1930, he was slated to continue on in notable films and create monsters like Dracula. Actor and Chaney fan Wally Wingert clarifies how important Lon Chaney’s contributions to film were:
To this day he has yet to be topped for the sheer number of characters he created. Virtually every make-up artist in Hollywood owes a debt of gratitude to Lon Chaney for the techniques and make-up protocols he developed. (Wingert, 1).
The ‘man of a thousand faces’ created and embodies creatures beyond the imaginations of the audience, and sparked groundbreaking ideas in special effects makeup.
Though the early films of Hollywood may have lacked color or sound, we must still revere their craft, artfulness, and brilliance, as they pioneered visuals unimagined by a young technological world. In contemporary times we may take for granted the imaginations of previous generations, as we are often lost in car chases, CGI monsters, and airbrushed cleavage when we go to the movies. However, early Hollywood’s legacy is not forgotten. Whether the green face of the Wicked Witch of the West of Oz, Quasimodo’s complexion, or Clara Bow’s doll eyes, the timeless images of film’s beginnings could not have been without the crafty eyes and hands of makeup artists such as Lon Chaney, the Westmores, and Max Factor’s family.
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