Max Factor, Sr.
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Max Factor, Sr. (1877 - August 30, 1938), born Factorowitz or Faktorowicz in Łódź, Poland (then Russian Empire), was a businessman and cosmetician who founded the Max Factor Cosmetics Company. He is known as the father of modern cosmetics.
Factor’s father was a rabbi and could not afford formal education for his ten children. Aged eight, Factor was placed in apprenticeship to a dentist/pharmacist.
He opened his own shop in a suburb of Moscow, selling hand-made rouges, creams, fragrances, and wigs. His big break came when a traveling theatrical troupe wore Factor’s make-up to perform for Russian nobility. The Russian nobility appointed Factor the official cosmetic expert for the royal family and the Imperial Russian Grand Opera.
In 1904, Factor and his family emigrated to the United States. He and his wife Lisa and three children travelled in the steerage class on board the S.S. Moltke and were processed at Ellis Island on February 25, 1904; he had $400 in his possession. Factor made a new start in St. Louis, Missouri, at the 1904 World’s Fair. He sold his rouges and creams, operating under the newly re-spelled name Max Factor. Factor saw an opportunity to provide make-up and wigs to the growing film industry. He moved his family to Los Angeles, California, in 1908. In 1914, Factor created a make-up specifically for movie actors that, unlike theatrical make-up, would not crack or cake. Soon, movie stars were filing through Max Factor’s make-up studio, eager to sample the “flexible greasepaint” while movie producers sought Factor’s human hair wigs. He allowed the wigs to be rented to the producers of old Westerns on the condition that his sons were given parts. The boys would keep an eye on the expensive wigs. Factor marketed a range of cosmetics to the public in the 1920s, insisting that every girl could look like a movie star by using Max Factor make-up.
Max Factor died at the age of 59 in Beverly Hills, CA in August 1938 and is interred at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. Factor is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6922 Hollywood Boulevard).
[edit] Family
Famed gangster John Factor was his younger half-brother.
Factor's second son, Frank (1904-1996), was known as Max Factor, Jr. He worked in the business all his life and took over as head of the company on his father’s death. Max Factor, Jr. is also interred at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Two of Max Factor's great-grandsons, Davis Factor, III and Dean Factor, founded Smashbox Studios in 1991. The enterprise expanded to incude a photo studio, modeling agency, production company, clothing line, and, in 1997, a cosmetics line called Smashbox Cosmetics. In 2004, Smashbox Cosmetics launched a global marketing campaign in conjunction with the legendary European cosmetics retailer Sephora. Another Max Factor descendent, Andrew Luster, is an inmate in prison serving a 126 year sentence for his 2003 conviction. Luster is the son of adopted Max Factor granddaughter Elizabeth Friedman-Luster.
The Max Factor Family continues their tradition of philanthrophy through various charitable organizations, trusts and private foundations. Grand children Gerald Factor, Max Factor III and Barbara Factor Bentley are trustees of the Max Factor Family Foundation which continues to make generous grants for medical research, patient health care, scholarships, human rights, care of the eldery, assistance to the disabled, etc.
Grand children Barbara Factor Bentley and Chester Lee Firestein serve on the Board of Directors of nationally acclaimed Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Factor-Firestein families have also contributed millions to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, including construction of the Max Factor Family Tower of the Cedars-Sinai hospital and Alfred Jay Firestein Diabetes Center.
