Akron native pens 'Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl' on early days of Estée Lauder | Book Talk
As they massaged "Super Rich All-Purpose Cream" into their skin, how many 1940s women knew that the luxurious product was whipped up in Estée Lauder’s tiny kitchen?
Lauder’s rise in the cutthroat cosmetic industry is dramatized in “Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl,” a novel by Akron native Renée Rosen.
In 1938, former socialite Gloria Downing has changed her name and is starting over in New York to conceal her connection to a family debacle. Accustomed to high society, she gets a job as a shampoo girl in the salon where she meets Lauder, who’s renting a corner of the shop to sell her products. Gloria is first turned off by Lauder’s aggressive approach, but they soon come to a touchy friendship.
In these later years of the Depression, Lauder’s persistence and her own flawless complexion are her best selling assets, but the friendship becomes strained when Lauder begins to market to the social set to which Gloria had once belonged.
Trying to keep people from knowing her real identity, Gloria is apprehensive about attending fancy parties where she might run into people from her old life, and she is playing intermediary between Lauder and her good-guy husband while dealing with her own romantic issues.
Gloria, while trying to maintain her own secret past, takes quite a while to realize that others have their secrets, too.
The book is framed by an interview with the literary forger Lee Israel, who is trying to get Gloria to spill dirt on Lauder. (Israel did write an unauthorized biography of Lauder in 1985.) This construction is similar to that of Rosen’s “Park Avenue Summer” about a Youngstown girl who becomes the secretary of Cosmopolitan Magazine’s editor Helen Gurley Brown in 1956. According to the book’s author profile, Rosen’s next historical novel is about Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll.
"Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl” (432 pages, softcover) costs $17 from Berkley. Renée Rosen now lives in Chicago; her books include the Akron-set teen drama “Every Crooked Pot” and “The Social Graces,” about the wives of Gilded Age robber barons.
Renée Rosen will sign “Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl” from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Fairlawn-Bath branch of Akron-Summit County Public Library, 3101 Smith Road.
EVENTS
Twinsburg Public Library (10050 Ravenna Road): The 50 Book Challenge Author Fair & Book Expo features about 20 authors, including Anastasia Hastings, Julie Ann Lindsey, Kathryn Long, Jane Ann Turzillo and Irv Korman, 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Fireside Book Shop (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls): Former CIA agent Bill Rapp signs “A Turkish Triangle,” fifth in his Cold War Thriller series, 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Tuscarawas County Public Library (121 Fair Ave. NW, New Philadelphia): Rose Tipka, contributor to “Hospitable Hosts,” talks about being an Airbnb host, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday. Register at tusclibrary.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Strongsville branch, 18700 Westwood Drive): Andrew Pegman talks about “Outdoor Tales of Northeast Ohio,” 7 to 8 p.m. Monday. From 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Kristan Higgins discusses “A Little Ray of Sunshine,” a novel about the complications of adoption. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Cleveland Public Library (Mount Pleasant branch, 14000 Kinsman Road): Clothilde Ewing, author of “Stella Keeps the Sun Up,” reads from her book at storytime, 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Kent Free Library (312 W. Main St.): Les Roberts signs his crime novel “The C.I.,” 7 p.m. Thursday.
Dover Public Library (525 North Walnut Street): Jeff Snook, who wrote “Great Times and Tan Lines” with American Tropic founder Ron Rice, talks about his career and the famous people he has met, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Register at doverlibrary.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Beachwood branch, 25501 Shaker Boulevard): Andrew Pegman talks about “Outdoor Tales of Northeast Ohio,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Brook Park branch, 6155 Engle Road): Vince Guerrieri talks about “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): Scott Simon, author of “Scare Your Soul,” talks to Sara Coven, author of the middle-grade novel “The One We Left Behind,” 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Warrensville Heights branch, 4415 Northfield Road): Historian Gregory May discusses “A Madman’s Will: John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (North Royalton branch, 5071 Wallings Road): Wade Rouse, writing as Viola Shipman, talks about “Famous in a Small Town,” 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library: Photographer Jamie Beck joins the Online Author Talk series to discuss “An American in Provence” in a virtual event at 2 p.m. Thursday. Register at smfpl.org.
Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson): Don Ruff signs his novel “Hostas” and his nonfiction books “It’s My House Now” and “Customer Service: The Art of the Impossible,” 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Chagrin Falls branch, 100 E. Orange St.): WJW-TV anchor Wayne Dawson talks about “The Seeds of Greatness Are Within You: A Memoir,” 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.
Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. I tweet at @BarbaraMcI.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl' explores early days of Estée Lauder
