Ruth Maurer, La Crosse’s Cosmetics Entrepreneur
Ruth Maurer was a woman ahead of her time. Born Ruth Johnson in 1870, she married Dr. Albert Maurer, a widower with two school-aged sons in 1898. The family moved to La Crosse, where Ruth began manufacturing creams and lotions about 1903. Her business was incorporated as Marinello Company in 1904 and expanded rapidly. Ruth’s products catered to women’s needs, while her clever advertising targeted their growing sense of independence. By 1925, Ruth Maurer was running a cosmetics empire, with a huge manufacturing line and network of beauty schools and salons selling Marinello products throughout the United States and several foreign countries. This all started as a small business in La Crosse.
In her account of Marinello’s beginnings, Ruth Maurer described making face cream in a double boiler over a gas jet in her basement at 631 State Street. Her physician husband reportedly gave her $300 to start her business, not believing it would succeed. Supposedly he told her, “Take this and throw it away on your fool idea – then drop it.” This story may be true, but might not reflect everything about how Ruth Maurer got into the beauty business.
In 1901, Ruth Maurer patented a depurator, a machine to remove debris from the skin by creating a partial vacuum. Ruth’s patent not only cleansed skin, but included an inlet tube which allowed medications to be applied.
Ruth also published an extensive beauty manual through the McIntosh Battery and Optical Company. The second edition of The Skin, Its Care and Treatment came out in 1904 under the pen name Emily Lloyd, with updated versions in 1907, 1910, and 1914. (The 1903 first edition did not cite an author). The book dealt with the structure of the skin, use of skin creams and cosmetics, massage and electrical treatments, and diet and exercise. It was well-received by medical journals of the time.
Maurer produced manuscripts using the name Emily Lloyd throughout her career, including for two periodicals, Cosmeticians Exchange and The Marinello Messenger (1913-1914); Emily Lloyd’s Notebook (1915); and The Marinello Textbook (1915). The Marinello Training School was founded in Emily Lloyd’s name. A 1913 La Crosse Tribune article clearly defined the Maurer/Lloyd connection. “The Marinello business has been built up by the effort of a La Crosse woman. Although known in business and her writing as “Emily Lloyd,” this lady is known by her friends as Mrs. A. A. Maurer, wife of Dr. A. A. Maurer of this city.”
Ruth Maurer may have had an earlier pen name, writing beauty advice columns as Madame Michaud for the Chicago newspaper The Inter Ocean between 1900-1905. Michaud gave recipes for beauty treatments, and later sold them. In one column she mentioned “Cream Celeste”, with ingredients similar to an early Marinello product of the same name. The 1903 first edition of The Skin, Its Care and Treatment claimed to be following the “Michaud System.” Ruth Maurer may have simply copied Madame Michaud’s recipes and product names. But the knowledge demonstrated in The Skin, Its Care and Treatment makes it seem likely that Maurer had experience in the beauty business before 1903.
From simple beginnings, the Marinello Company grew rapidly. One reason may have been timing. Marinello was founded in an era when women’s beauty products and services were hard to come by. Women in 1903 had fewer options for skincare or hair styling outside the home. Many made their own face creams and lotions. Cosmetics were often considered decadent. Every woman wanted to retain her beauty, but means to do so were limited. Ruth Maurer’s savvy advertising got the word out about Marinello products, quickly boosting her La Crosse company.
The name Marinello was a tribute to Giovanni Marinello, author of Gli Ornamenti delle Donna (The Beautification of the Ladies), a 1562 Italian book on female health and beauty. The frontispiece of that book was used in Marinello “Beautistry” textbooks. Marinello labels featured a stylized elephant head symbolizing “Power and Wisdom,” the company’s business slogan.
Early Marinello products included Whitening Cream, Antiseptic Lotion, Lettuce Cream (a cleanser), Acne Cream, Tissue Food, Zinc Ointment, Paste Soap; Finishing Cream, Vegetable Powder (face powder), and Cream Celeste (cold cream). Ruth Maurer may have made some items herself initially. Later they were developed in conjunction with chemist Carl Runckel, who operated a drug store with his brother Louis at 124 South 5th Avenue in La Crosse. Rounding out Ruth’s initial team was Harriet Chamberlain, who managed company accounts.
As Ruth Maurer’s business mushroomed, she established a second office in Chicago in 1909. Carl and Louis Runckel’s La Crosse drug store was remodeled into a factory in 1912, with a dedicated Marinello printing plant at 172 Sixth Avenue South.
Ruth Maurer had begun a second enterprise, a network of Marinello Training Schools as early as 1905. The first schools were in La Crosse and Chicago; more soon followed. Marinello Training Schools used a medical training model, accepting both male and female students. Students were expected to understand anatomy and the structure of skin, recognize skin diseases and conditions, and follow medical standards by disinfecting equipment. The first textbook used at Marinello Schools was The Skin, Its Care and Treatment. In 1914, The Marinello Text Book was introduced; it went through five editions (1914, 1915, 1920, 1921, and 1923) and remained the undergraduate textbook until 1927.
A third arm of Marinello, the School of Cosmeticians, began in 1912 as a gathering of Marinello School alumnae. Eventually, it became an accrediting body providing certification for graduates of the Marinello Schools. Having established an accrediting body, Maurer campaigned successfully for state laws to control the beauty shop licensing. The new laws required beauty operators to spend 625 hours in an accredited school of beauty culture and one year of apprenticeship under the direction of a registered beautician. Only then could they obtain a state license. Marinello Schools offered this accredited program, with Marinello salons providing apprenticeship and subsequent employment. In a sense, Marinello Company, Marinello schools, and the School of Cosmeticians could all be considered part of Marinello. This advantageous business circle contributed to Marinello’s amazing growth.
Francis Chilson, who later worked as the company manager of Marinello, summarized the arrangement. “(Marinello’s) products were used in and distributed through more than 5,000 of the largest and most elegant beauty salons in the country. Marinello did not own these salons but controlled them absolutely. Nothing but Marinello products could be used in these salons; no beautician could get a job in any of them unless she had a certificate from a Marinello School of Cosmeticians and this, in turn, was the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Marinello Company. It was a closed circuit.”
By 1914 Marinello was manufacturing over 50 preparations including skin creams, skin bleaches, hair dyes, perfumes, hand creams, manicure products, foot creams, deodorants, and cosmetics such as rouge, lipstick, eyebrow pencil, and face powder. Many were available only through Marinello salons. The main products Marinello promoted for wider sale included face powders and skin creams. Marinello salons featured multiple beauty options: several facials; acne, rosacea, and coarse pore treatments; bleaching and wrinkle masks; tired eye massage; colored light treatments; and muscle strapping. Massage equipment, straps, and electrolytic cups were sold in salons for home use.
Ruth Maurer wrote extensively for house periodicals The Marinello Messenger (for Marinello cosmeticians) and Milady Beautiful (for the public). These magazines sought not only to inspire employees or attract customers; in them, Maurer gave voice to the idea of the modern, liberated woman. Ruth’s ideas of female empowerment became associated with Marinello products and added to their appeal.
Outlining a clear path to success for women in The Marinello Messenger, she wrote in 1918, “Would you too rise above the environment you now have, waste no time in bemoaning your fate, or explaining what bad luck you have always had, or how few people appreciate your efforts, or in short telling just what obstacles have prevented you from attaining your ambitions. Instead, sit down quietly, by yourself, and make up your mind just what you want to accomplish. Then go to work on your project with determination to keep on working steadily each day, in spite of interruptions, or the opinion of others, or the hardest kind of obstacles, to attain your desire.”
Interviewed by The Illustrated World, Maurer further championed the ability of women to rise over adversity, “One of the first things I must teach women who have had unfortunate experiences is that adversity is generally a blessing in disguise…When a woman begins to realize that every good thought, every thought of confidence and success is a nail driven into the structure of success she is building, she is on the right road.”
Ruth Maurer’s company ran into legal problems in 1918 when their profitable “closed circle” methods were questioned. Marinello Company, Marinello School of Chicago, and the School of Cosmeticians were all charged under the Clayton Anti-trust Act with unfair trade methods to stifle and suppress competition. Complaints included forcing graduates of Marinello Schools running beauty shops to exclusively use Marinello products, and opening competing shops near any salons not selling Marinello products at set prices. Marinello emerged from this lawsuit largely unscathed.
A strike at the La Crosse factory in 1919 demonstrated more unrest. Eighteen women walked out over a change from weekly wages to unspecified piecework rates. Plant manager Hattie Chamberlain summed up the walkout, “The girls quit. It isn’t a strike. They can’t come back. A couple of disgruntled ones made the rest go. We’ve filled all their places. We had a hundred applications on the waiting list. If they intended it for a strike, they planned it poorly.”
A later oral history interview from Florence Munson, one of the employees who walked out, shared another viewpoint. Munson said she was given her pay in an envelope, without knowing what the piecework rate was. When their inquiries about piecework rates were ignored, a group of women walked out in protest and were replaced. Munson found another job waitressing at the Stoddard Hotel.
Marinello expanded lavishly in 1920 with the purchase of late steamboat magnate P.S. Davidson’s mansion at 225 South 6th Street in La Crosse. The building was expanded and renovated into a headquarters for Marinello. It included a factory, offices, laboratory, kitchen, and clubhouse for employees. An article in the La Crosse Tribune raved about the elegant decor interwoven throughout with images of elephants, the Marinello symbol of good fortune.
By 1925, Marinello was an international concern, with products marketed throughout Mexico, Canada, the United States, South America, England, Russia, South Africa, Australia, China and Japan. Marinello schools operated in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon. Between 25,000-30,000 Marinello beauticians were licensed throughout the United States. Over 8000 beauty shops used Marinello products. Sales amounted to $3 million, about $31.4 million in today’s money. Ruth Maurer’s dream had come true.
Lured by big-time developers and visions of further growth, Ruth Maurer relocated Marinello’s main operations to New York in late 1925. A new seven-story Marinello building including offices, a school, and manufacturing facilities was established at 72 5th Avenue in New York City. Ruth and Albert Maurer, Louis Runckel, and many of the 150 Marinello employees relocated to New York. A 1925 article in The La Crosse Tribune maintained that La Crosse was not being deserted, but for all practical purposes, it was.
At first, all went well. Then Inecto, a Marinello supplier, took over the company. By 1927, they had gained management responsibility for Marinello Products and the National School of Cosmeticians. Why Ruth Maurer agreed to this is unknown; perhaps she didn’t know what she was signing away. Her relationship with new management quickly deteriorated. She resigned from Marinello in 1929, bought out for $30,000, a small fraction of the value of the company.
While many Marinello employees returned to La Crosse, Ruth Maurer and her husband remained in New York City. Despite claims that she was retiring, Ruth Maurer established Rudemar Products Corporation in 1930. She tried to replicate the Marinello formula of products, beauty schools, and accreditation, again using the elephant symbol on Rudemar creams and lotions. But she was competing with her former company. As the Depression deepened, Rudemar closed in 1933.
Ruth Maurer continued to write columns for newspapers and speak at conferences. She cited trends in clothing, hats and perfume, and spoke out against frizzed bobbed hair, smoking, and excessive tanning. She claimed women were better at proposing marriage than men. In a 1935 article for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, she drew vignettes of models showing how to use makeup effectively. Though Maurer’s prominence had faded, she kept boldly expressing herself. In a speech to the American Cosmeticians’ Association in 1936, she said women should sleep nude so their skin could breathe.
Ruth Maurer died in 1945, three years after her husband Albert. The beauty schools she founded continued far beyond her death, Rudemar through the 1950s and Marinello until 2016.
In a 1964 La Crosse Tribune interview, Hattie Chamberlain, one-time bookkeeper for Marinello, speculated that if the company had remained in La Crosse and followed its original policies, it would now be the biggest concern in the field. One wonders what the economic impact to La Crosse might have been if Marinello had stayed.
Ruth Maurer’s influence as a businesswoman was profound. She founded, managed, and lost an immense cosmetics empire at a time when woman entrepreneurs were practically unknown. Her independence, ingenuity, and perseverance seem strikingly modern. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment, however, was her vision of the modern, independent woman. Her creativity and strength in an era when women usually remained in the background was pioneering. The example she set for feminine enterprise is one that still inspires today.
Article by Carole Mullen. Published in the La Crosse County Historical Society’s Past, Present and Future, September 2021.
