War Paint Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry

Lindy Woodhead

Turner Publishing Company

Now a Tony-nominated Broadway musical playing at the Nederlander Theatre starring two-time Tony Award winners Patti LuPone (Evita, Gypsy) as Helena Rubinstein and Christine Ebersole (42nd Street, Grey Gardens) as Elizabeth Arden.A fascinating dual biography of the women who founded today's beauty industryThey were both born in the nineteenth century in humble circumstances―Helena Rubinstein in an orthodox Jewish household in Kraków, Poland, Elizabeth Arden on a farm outside Toronto. But by the 1930s, they were bitter rivals in New York, the rulers of dueling international beauty empires that would forever change the way women thought about cosmetics, salons, and wrinkles. This riveting biography brings these two celebrated women to life, revealing the ruthless drive and innovative business strategies that took each to the top. Along the way, it offers an intriguing look at their personal idiosyncrasies (Rubinstein collected art, Arden racehorses), their checkered marriages, and the rarefied social milieu in which they both traveled.

War Paint

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Little, Brown Book Group

The story of two remarkable women - Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. Between them they left an extraordinary legacy which touches the lives of virtually all women today: the creation of the modern cosmetics and beauty industry. The book traces the humble beginnings of both Arden and Rubinstein and examines the forces and influences that drove them. It also explores the period in which they lived, without an understanding of which their phenomenal achievement cannot be truly appreciated. The similarities between the two are intriguing: dedicated to beauty, they were both born into genteel poverty and were motivated by money and the creation of their businesses, to the exclusion of almost everything else. They were both avid social climbers and desperately thrifty. They also hated each other. This is the story of an industry, of a social movement and of a great rivalry.

Little Brown Hardbacks (a & C)

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Books by Lindy Woodhead