Erno Laszlo
Encyclopedia
Hungaria
Hungaria may refer to:*Kingdom of Hungary*Hungary, a European country*Hungaria , a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt*Hungaria, a former New Zealand association football team, now part of Wellington United*434 Hungaria, an asteroid...
n-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dermatologist and cosmetic
Cosmetics
Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...
businessman who founded The Erno Laszlo Institute.
Early life
Laszlo studied skin pathologyPathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
and skin disease at the Royal Hungarian Elisabeth University of Medical Sciences in Budapest, Hungary, and completed his clinical studies in Berlin, Germany, under Max Joseph.
In 1920s, back in Budapest, he achieved notoriety when Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Stéphanie was a Belgium princess by birth, and then made Crown Princess of Austria through her marriage to the heir of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Rudolf...
tried one of his skin preparations. Soon women from all ranks of society wanted to see Laszlo for skin and make-up advice.
He married the actress Iren Gombaszoegi, whom he met while treating her sister, actress Frida Gombaszoegi, for scars from bullet wounds in her face.
In 1927, Laszlo opened his first institute in Budapest.
The Erno Laszlo Institute
In 1939, at the onset of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Laszlo moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. On November 3, 1939, the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
reported that the Erno Laszlo Institute, specializing in beauty treatments and cosmetics, had leased a floor in a building on 677 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Laszlo's poor command of the English language threatened his institute, for despite the efforts of a language coach he could not pass the American Medical Association's
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
accreditation examinations.
In the early 1940s, Helena Rubenstein approached Laszlo and offered to buy his business, but he declined. In 1945, Laszlo became a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizen.
The Erno Laszlo Institute was aimed at the rich, famous and powerful. One needed to be recommended to gain admittance. Among his clients were the Duchess of Windsor and the Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor
The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
, Doris Duke
Doris Duke
Doris Duke was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist.-Family and early life:...
, Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, Lilian Gish, Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
, and Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
. In the 1960s, the list grew to include the Begum Aga Khan, Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
, Hubert de Givenchy
Hubert de Givenchy
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy is a French aristocrat and fashion designer who founded The House of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn, as well as clothing for clients such as Jacqueline Kennedy...
, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
.
In 1966 Erno Laszlo entered the retail marketplace, with partner Chesebrough-Ponds, which later bought the Erno Laszlo Institute.
In April 1967, Erno Laszlo's wife, Iren, died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. Three years later, in 1970, he married Sibille Schulz in a ceremony near Lugano, Switzerland.
The company after Laszlo's death
In 1995, the company Erno Laszlo had founded was bought by Mana Products from Elizabeth ArdenElizabeth Arden
Florence Nightingale Graham , who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who built a cosmetics empire in the United States. At the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.-Biography:Arden was born in 1884 at Woodbridge, Ontario,...
. Mana Products' founder, Nikos Mouyiaris, had once worked for Erno Laszlo as a chemist. The company was purchased in 2002 by Cradle Holdings Inc., a division of corporate finance group Fox Paine. In February of 2011, the RBS Special Opportunities Fund, managed by RBS Equity Finance, backed Charles Denton
Charles Denton (business executive)
Charles James Denton is an English entrepreneur who has served as chief executive of a number of business enterprises and charitable organizations...
in the acquisition of Erno Laszlo.
The products, although mainly targeted at the female market, are unisex.