Battle for beauty

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 11th Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

31 Dec 1945

Length of issue (in feet)

1632

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Battle for beauty

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: The March of Time turns from the frim realities of war to another kind of battle - for while the American soldier as been fighting on foreign fronts, says the film, American women have been carrying on a secular struggle of their own home - the age olf battle for beauty.

"We’ve all been told", says an American spokeswoman, "that you can’t buy beauty in a bottle or a jar, but the American girl from thirteen to seventy, spends one billion dollars every year trying to prove that old adage is bunk." What women pay for their cosmetics is simply an index to their tastes, pocketbooks and environment, and while their egos are best-nourished by a well-placed investment in luxury goods, there is always something for sale in any American store which will gild the lily. Today the American beauty business is one of the largest consumer service industries in the country. Cosmetic manufacturers produced almost half a billion dollars worth of merchandise during the war, in spite of all restrictions, and with the coming of peace their output has risen steadily. What beauty care means to a woman’s morale was discovered in American war plants. Even shipyards had to install beauty shops for their girl workers, with the result that efficiency went up from ten to fifteen per cent and absenteeism went down.

In an industry as highly competitive as cosmetics, smart packaging is half the sales battle, for most women are attracted as much by the package as by the product, and the makers of toilet goods spend over fifty million dollars a year in advertising, to give their products the right suggestion of allure and luxury.
The film takes the audience on an amusing tour of beauty salons - where one sees women being waved, polished and punched into shape in the neverending struggle against the inevitable inroads of time, and if women never wholly win their battle, it is not for lack of courage in the fight. With her vanity driving her, says the film, she will never give up. "Vanity indeed!" retorts the girl commentator, "Today, less than ever before, is vanity a feminine monopoly. In the United States alone, there are one hundred and twenty thousand beauty shops for men, as against a mere eightythree thousand for women, and the fact that these establishments are called barber’s shops, instead of beauty parlours, doesn’t mean a thing. Hardly a man would dare walk out of one of them with just a shave or a haircut. He buys face creams, lotions, sun tans, and hair restorers. He gets fussed over, pampered, flattered and catered to, for the same reason that women do - because it makes him feel good". Westbrook Van Voorhis - the Voice of Time - makes one of his rare screen appearances in the closing sequence of the film, to make his stand in the never ending battle for beauty.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.12 No.2 of the US edition.

Keywords

Women; Fashion and costume

Written sources

The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.