Fire and Ice : The Story of Charles Revson, the Man Who Built the Revlon Empire

This is the story of Charles Revson (b.1906 d.1975), the insecure kid from a cold-water flat in Manchester, New Hampshire, who never went to college but founded Revlon. He went from putting the nail polish on his own nails (to test it) and criss-crossing the country by rail (to sell it) to, ultimately, a $5,000-a-day New York lifestyle complete with a 257-foot yacht, the Ultima II, whose gas tank cost $20,000 to fill and whose staterooms Revson liked to keep chilly enough, in the heat of the Caribbean, to require toasty electric blankets. (Andrew Tobias)