PRETTY POWERFUL
There are no ugly women. Just lazy ones.
And when it came to industrious transformations, Mary Kay Ash could turn pink to green.
Born in 1918, Mary Kathlyn Wagner was a child of Houston’s poor Sixth Ward. In 2001, the year of her death, Mary Kay Inc. reported a revenue of $1.3 billion.
She married at 17 and had three children, but divorce led to a direct-sales job. For 25 years, Ash was a fiercely competitive saleswoman at Stanley Home Products. For her efforts, she won a night-fishing “flounder light.” That sorry incentive inspired her “Cinderella gifts,” like the pink Cadillac.
Corporate life’s gender inequities disgusted Ash — especially watching her male trainees get promoted ahead of her. And earning twice her salary. So in 1963 — when women couldn’t even sign for bank loans — Ash paid about $2,000 for a skin-cream formula from an Oak Cliff beautician who tried marketing the product but failed.
From a small office in Exchange Park, Ash unleashed the talents of self-employed “beauty consultants,” who sold garnet-frost lipstick and mauve-satin blush to a pyramid of acquaintances. She changed the face of business by giving women careers beyond the roles of teachers, secretaries and nurses.
However, don’t attach Mary Kay’s name to the second wave of the feminist movement. Ash regularly preached that women should “remain pretty — not be sharp, abrasive or unkempt.”
She tried to hide one particular beauty secret: salesmen. Because “men tended to detract from our true success stories.”
In 1993, Alan Krilov of New Orleans became the company’s first “King of Sales” by outselling 275,000 female colleagues. Ash rewarded Krilov by draping a three-quarter-length mink over his shoulders and issuing merit certificates that referred to him as “she.”
By 1996, Mary Kay’s definition of “success” underwent a facelift. For ringing $170,000 of product in six months, Craig Hogan of Houston was the first male to earn a pink Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Mary Kay awarded him with a Texas license plate that read “1ST MAN.”
A flamboyant wit, Mary Kay understood the power of promotion and signature branding — like her flaxen sculpted cotton-candy hairdo and her controlled lip-parting smile.
Even her Preston Hollow mansion was pink. Her chandeliered bathroom was a replica of Liberace’s. And sales reps had good-luck photos taken of themselves standing in her sunken pink bathtub.
Mary Kay’s pink-granite headquarters off Dallas North Tollway was originally intended for Sunbelt Savings. Harwood K. Smith designed the 13-story tower in 1985. Because of the S&L crisis, construction was halted and it remained unoccupied until December 1995, when Mary Kay, Inc. relocated. The first floor contains a museum dedicated to Dallas’ glitzy icon of free enterprise.
‘MARY KAY ASH:’ JAMES LOVE | WARDROBE: RICHARD D. CURTIN | HAIR: CHARLES YUSKO | PROP: JUAN FACIO + HEYD FONTENOT
LOCATION: MARY KAY, INC. WORLD HEADQUARTERS, ADDISON
PRODUCTION DATE: JULY 12, 2011 | PHOTO: BRYAN AMANN | DIRECTION: DANIEL KUSNER
And when it came to industrious transformations, Mary Kay Ash could turn pink to green.
Born in 1918, Mary Kathlyn Wagner was a child of Houston’s poor Sixth Ward. In 2001, the year of her death, Mary Kay Inc. reported a revenue of $1.3 billion.
She married at 17 and had three children, but divorce led to a direct-sales job. For 25 years, Ash was a fiercely competitive saleswoman at Stanley Home Products. For her efforts, she won a night-fishing “flounder light.” That sorry incentive inspired her “Cinderella gifts,” like the pink Cadillac.
Corporate life’s gender inequities disgusted Ash — especially watching her male trainees get promoted ahead of her. And earning twice her salary. So in 1963 — when women couldn’t even sign for bank loans — Ash paid about $2,000 for a skin-cream formula from an Oak Cliff beautician who tried marketing the product but failed.
From a small office in Exchange Park, Ash unleashed the talents of self-employed “beauty consultants,” who sold garnet-frost lipstick and mauve-satin blush to a pyramid of acquaintances. She changed the face of business by giving women careers beyond the roles of teachers, secretaries and nurses.
However, don’t attach Mary Kay’s name to the second wave of the feminist movement. Ash regularly preached that women should “remain pretty — not be sharp, abrasive or unkempt.”
She tried to hide one particular beauty secret: salesmen. Because “men tended to detract from our true success stories.”
In 1993, Alan Krilov of New Orleans became the company’s first “King of Sales” by outselling 275,000 female colleagues. Ash rewarded Krilov by draping a three-quarter-length mink over his shoulders and issuing merit certificates that referred to him as “she.”
By 1996, Mary Kay’s definition of “success” underwent a facelift. For ringing $170,000 of product in six months, Craig Hogan of Houston was the first male to earn a pink Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Mary Kay awarded him with a Texas license plate that read “1ST MAN.”
A flamboyant wit, Mary Kay understood the power of promotion and signature branding — like her flaxen sculpted cotton-candy hairdo and her controlled lip-parting smile.
Even her Preston Hollow mansion was pink. Her chandeliered bathroom was a replica of Liberace’s. And sales reps had good-luck photos taken of themselves standing in her sunken pink bathtub.
Mary Kay’s pink-granite headquarters off Dallas North Tollway was originally intended for Sunbelt Savings. Harwood K. Smith designed the 13-story tower in 1985. Because of the S&L crisis, construction was halted and it remained unoccupied until December 1995, when Mary Kay, Inc. relocated. The first floor contains a museum dedicated to Dallas’ glitzy icon of free enterprise.
‘MARY KAY ASH:’ JAMES LOVE | WARDROBE: RICHARD D. CURTIN | HAIR: CHARLES YUSKO | PROP: JUAN FACIO + HEYD FONTENOT
LOCATION: MARY KAY, INC. WORLD HEADQUARTERS, ADDISON
PRODUCTION DATE: JULY 12, 2011 | PHOTO: BRYAN AMANN | DIRECTION: DANIEL KUSNER
