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Estée Lauder (businesswoman)

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Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder with a customer (1966)
BornJosephine Esther Mentzer
(1906-07-01)July 1, 1906
Corona, Queens, New York City, U.S.
DiedApril 24, 2004(2004-04-24) (aged 97)
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBusinesswoman
Known forCo-founder of Estée Lauder Companies
Spouse Joseph Lauder ​ ​(m. 1930; div. 1939)​ ​ ​(m. 1942; died 1982)​
Children2
Parent(s)Max Mentzer
Rose Schotz-Rosenthal

Estée Lauder (/ˈɛsteɪ ˈlɔːdər/; née Josephine Esther Mentzer; July 1, 1906 – April 24, 2004) was an American businessperson. She co-founded her eponymous cosmetics company with her husband, Joseph Lauter (later Lauder). Lauder was the only woman on Time magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Lauder was born in Corona, Queens, New York City, the second child born to Rose Schotz and Max Mentzer. Her parents were Hungarian-Jewish immigrants, on the mother's side her grandmother were from Sátoraljaújhely and her grandfather from Gelle (now Holice, Slovakia), while her father had Czech Jewish ancestry. Lauder's claims of descent from European aristocracy were discredited in a biography, Estée Lauder: Beyond the Magic (1985) by Lee Israel, later known for her forgery of letters purportedly written by celebrities; her New York Times obituary observed 'she was a New Yorker and not an aristocrat at all', notwithstanding 'the mythmaking that is so much of the magic of the beauty industry'. Her 'favourite story was that she had been brought up by her Viennese mother in fashionable Flushing, Long Island, in a sumptuous home with stables, a chauffeured car and an Italian nurse.'

In actuality, her mother Rose emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1898 with her five children to join her husband, Abraham Rosenthal. But, in 1905, she married Max Mentzer, a shopkeeper who had also immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. When their daughter was born in 1906, they wanted to name her Eszti, after her mother's favorite Hungarian aunt, but decided at the last minute to keep the name "Josephine", which they had agreed upon. However, the baby's nickname became "Estee", the name she would grow up using and responding to. Eventually, when she launched her perfume empire with her husband, she added an accent mark to make her name sound French and began pronouncing it the way her father had in his Hungarian accent.

Lauder attended Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York, and much of her childhood was spent trying to make ends meet. Like most of her eight siblings, she worked at the family's hardware store, where she got her first taste of business, entrepreneurship, and what it takes to be a successful retailer. Her childhood dream was to become an actress with her "name in lights, flowers and handsome men."

Lauder with Algur H. Meadows in 1972.
Lauder with Ivana Trump in 1986

When Lauder grew older, she agreed to help her uncle, Dr. John Schotz, with his business. Schotz was a chemist, and his company, New Way Laboratories, sold beauty products such as creams, lotions, rouge, and fragrances. She became more interested in his business than her father's. She was fascinated watching her uncle create his products. He also taught her how to wash her face and do facial massages. After graduating from high school, she focused on her uncle's business.

Career

Lauder named one of her uncle's blends Super Rich All-Purpose Cream, and began selling the preparation to her friends. She sold creams like Six-In-One cold cream and Dr. Schotz's Viennese Cream to beauty shops, beach clubs and resorts. One day, as she was getting her hair done at the House of Ash Blondes, the salon's owner Florence Morris asked Lauder about her perfect skin. Soon, Estée returned to the beauty parlor to hand out four of her uncle's creams and demonstrate their use. Morris was so impressed that she asked Lauder to sell her products at Morris' new salon.

In 1953, Lauder introduced her first fragrance, Youth-Dew, a bath oil that doubled as a perfume. Instead of using French perfumes by the drop behind each ear, women began using Youth-Dew by the bottle in their bath water. In the first year, it sold 50,000 bottles; by 1984, the figure had risen to 150 million.

Lauder was a subject of a 1985 TV documentary, Estée Lauder: The Sweet Smell of Success. Explaining her success, she said, "I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard."

Awards and honors

Lauder received the Knight class of the Legion of Honour from the Consul General of France, Gerard Causer. She was the first woman to receive the Chevalier Commendation this year, on 16 January 1978. She was inducted to the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.

Personal life

Estée met Joseph Lauter when she was in her early 20s. On January 15, 1930, they married. Their surname was later changed from Lauter to Lauder. Their first child, Leonard, was born March 19, 1933. The couple separated then divorced in 1939 and she moved to Florida, but they remarried in 1942. Their second son, Ronald, was born in 1944. Estée and Joseph Lauder remained married until his death in 1982, and she later regretted her divorce, saying that she married young and assumed that she had missed out on life but soon found out that she had the "sweetest husband in the world."

Leonard became the chief executive of Estée Lauder and then chairman of the board. Ronald was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration and was U.S. Ambassador to Austria in 1986–87.. Now he is the president of the World Jewish Congress.

Death

Lauder died of cardiopulmonary arrest on April 24, 2004, aged 97, at her home in Manhattan.

See also

References

  1. "Estee Lauder Obiturary". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  2. "From A Kitchen in Corona, Estee Lauder Built An Empire". Queens Chronicle. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  3. "Estée Lauder Founder of cosmetics empire and epitome of gracious living". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  4. "Estee Lauder". The Biography Channel. AETN UK. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  5. Timothy Williams, Gates Among Time's Top 20 20Th-Century Business Titans Seattle Times, November 30, 1998
  6. Severo, Richard (April 26, 2004). "Estée Lauder, Pursuer of Beauty And Cosmetics Titan, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
  7. ^ "Josephine Esther Mentzer – New York, New York City Births". FamilySearch. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  8. ^ Kent, Jacqueline C. (2003), Business Builders in Cosmetics, The Oliver Press, ISBN 1-881508-82-X
  9. ^ Lauder, Estee. "The Makings of a Beauty Tycoon: Estee Lauder is Born". EvanCarmichael.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  10. "Population Schedule". Fourteenth Census of the United States. US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1920. Retrieved August 29, 2016 – via FamilySearch.com.
  11. "Population Schedule". Fifteenth Census of the United States. US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1930. Retrieved August 29, 2016 – via FamilySearch.com.
  12. Votruba, Martin. "Estée Lauder". Slovak Studies Program. University of Pittsburgh.
  13. "Empress with a finger in every pot of cream". The Glasgow Herald. re-published at Google News. April 8, 1986. p. 10. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  14. "Estée Lauder, Pursuer of Beauty And Cosmetics Titan, Dies at 97". The New York Times. April 26, 2004. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  15. "You couldn't make it up". fashion.telegraph.co.uk.
  16. Lauder, Estee (October 21, 1985). "Estee Lauder". New York. 18 (41). New York Media: 32. ISSN 0028-7369.
  17. Herzog, Edwin (May 2012). "Estée Lauder profile". Majoroszog Journal.
  18. ^ "Estee Lauder biography". financial-inspiration.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2008.
  19. "estee lauder Biography". thebiographychannel.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  20. "Estee Lauder was honored by the Government of France. She received..." Getty Images. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017.
  21. Kent 2003, p. 115.
  22. "Leonard Lauder". Cityfile.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  23. "Cosmetics Magnate Estee Lauder Dies at 97 (washingtonpost.com)". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  24. Mirabella, Grace (December 7, 1998). "Beauty Queen: Estee Lauder: She turned cosmetics into a big business by making the experience at the sales counter a personal one". Time. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  25. "Cosmetics mogul Estee Lauder dies". CNN. April 26, 2004. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  26. "Just Who Was Our Envoy to Vienna". The New York Times. July 27, 1989. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  27. "Cosmetics Mogul Estee Lauder Dies". CBS News. April 25, 2004. Retrieved August 8, 2008.

Further reading

External links

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