Max Factor's Hollywood: Glamour, Movies, Make-Up

by Fred E. Basten

If you don't mind slogging through a distinctly romantic, promotional account of Max Factor's life and his singular importance to Hollywood, then this book could prove interesting. The abundant photos (color and b&w) of silver screen goddesses posing with Factor's products are amusing. The text includes insights into changing make-up fashions (Factor pioneered "bee-stung" lips, by the way), movie star anecdotes, and handy beauty tips for today's woman. No bibliography. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Hardcover

First published October 4, 1996

About the author

FRED E. BASTEN is the author of over thirty-five books including, “Glorious Technicolor: The Movies’ Magic Rainbow,” “Max Factor’s Hollywood,” and “Steve McQueen: the Final Chapter” (with Grady Ragsdale). He currently lives in Santa Monica, CA

Reviews

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This (apparently rare) hardcover book published in the 1990s covers the history of Max Factor make-up and wigs. While cosmetics don't interest me much, history and Hollywood do, and I did find a number of details that were relevant to my research needs. The book is loaded with color pictures, not only of famous actors and actresses, but of fascinating old make-up bottles and the original Max Factor facilities around Los Angeles. Max Factor himself was an interesting fellow. His exact age was not known, even to him, but he was from Poland and Jewish, and spent a number of years as essentially a prisoner of the Russian court. He kept a secret family on the outside that he could only visit once a week. Together, they fled to America in time for him to start exhibiting wares at the St. Louis World's Fair.

That said, as a book it is surprisingly poorly edited and disorganized. Little insets of information throughout use a backdrop that is very difficult to read, and one such factoid is repeated twice. The content is uneven, too. The earlier book was more interesting to me, since that is my area of need, but I think it's also be more appealing for many readers due to the curious Hollywood trivia; the end of the book devolves into talk about the structure of company administrators and who bought what division and it's incredibly dry and boring. It genuinely felt like they didn't have enough information to wrap up the company's recent history, so they culled from the Wall Street Journal.