Business & Finance: Billions for Beauty?

Much given to hyperbole and superlative is the U. S. cosmetics industry. High priests of the beauty business seldom fail to inject into any serious discussion of their industry the magic phrase: "Two Billion Dollars." Last week at a divisional meeting of the American Cosmeticians' Association in Chicago, Thomas Lyle Williams, President of Maybelline Co., was happy to report that the beauty business was running 15% to 20% ahead of last year. That, said Beautician Williams, would mean a $500,000,000 increase in volume for 1934, a grand total for the Industry of "$2,000,000,000."

An impartial but liberal estimate of the annual U....

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