Question: What’s been one of the most challenging or unusual thing you’ve been asked to do in your career as a studio makeup artist? Answer: Probably the work I did which resulted in an Academy Award — “The Planet of the Apes”. It was something that had never been done, especially on a scale like that. All of us that worked on that (film) still feel that way about it. I certainly had a lot of fun working on the “Golden Girls.” That was a kick. What I really like is when I meet people that don’t realize that Estelle Getty was around the same age as the rest of the girls. That was a lot of fun — making her look 25 years older. Q: You have worked on a lot of famous faces. Do you ever get star struck? A: No. There are two people that have impressed me. One was an actor that was on the screen to scare people all the time. He was the original Frankenstein — Boris Karloff. I met him late in life and he was not very healthy and was on crutches. I was assigned by Universal to work with him on a shoot. He walked on crutches to the front porch of where he was going to do his scene and he watched the double walk through what he was supposed to do as he read his lines. He let go of his crutches, went up the porch steps and walked the area. You would never know that he was in such pain. That impressed me more than any actor I ever worked with. The other one was the mother of one of our most popular presidents and one of the most dynamic people I’ve ever met — Rose Kennedy. Every time she was on the West Coast, I would be called to work with her. It wasn’t “star struck” — it was a privilege. Q: What made you leave your job as a studio makeup artist and start your own cosmetics company? A: While I was working as a make up artist for the studios, I spent a lot of time on location from a couple of days to as long as two months. I saw my family as much as I could. I had friends who had a family, and all of a sudden their children would grow up and move away. After they would move away, they would talk to their children once in a while on the phone and such. I thought ‘I enjoy my family too much. What can I do to prevent that?’ So I retired from the studios as an active makeup artist and started Cinema Secrets. I asked my wife and three children if they would like to be involved as partners with me. Well, the business grew and grew and they became independently more important to the company because they are all totally different in their areas of responsibility. Q: What is the beauty product every woman should have? A: It depends on the woman. Some will not leave the house without the thing that shows more than anything else — her lipstick. Some will say, ‘If I don’t have mascara on, I’m going to put dark glasses on.’ My wife won’t leave the house without her foundation. Q: What’s been the proudest moment of your career? A: The most rewarding thing for me has been my hobby-working with burn survivors and cancer patients. When a beautiful young girl has had her face badly burned, I take over where the medical industry leaves off. I teach and train medical personnel how to teach burn survivors how to put makeup on so the general public won’t stare at them when they walk into a room. I’ve been doing that for quite a few years. That’s really what I get the most satisfaction from.
Company Founder Shares Secrets
