Max Factor, Sr.

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Max Factor, Sr. (1877 - August 30, 1938), born Max Faktor in Łódź, Poland, was a Polish-American businessman and cosmetician who founded the Max Factor Cosmetics Company. He is known as the father of modern cosmetics.

Max Faktor (Faktorowicz ?)
born in Łódź, Poland

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. 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, given to him at Ellis Island. 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 as extras. 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 in 1938 and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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.