Bishop, Hazel, 1906-1998.

Hazel Gladys Bishop was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1906, the daughter of Henry and Mabel (Billington) Bishop. After attending Bergen School for Girls in Jersey City, she enrolled in Barnard College, graduating with a B.A. in chemistry in 1929. Bishop originally hoped to become a doctor, but financial considerations required that she give up medical school, and she began her career in bio-chemical research as a chemical technician at the New York State Psychiatric Hospital and Institute (1930-1935), while taking night school classes in biochemistry at the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University. She then became a research assistant to dermatologist A. Benson Cannon (1935-1942). During the war she was an organic chemist for Standard Oil Development Company (1942-1945), studying aviation fuels, and continued her work in petroleum research until 1950 with the Socony Vacuum Oil Company.

From early on, Bishop's mother told her, "Open your own business, even if it's only a peanut stand," and Bishop took this advice to heart and determined to create a new cosmetic formulation. Using her home kitchen as a laboratory, she developed a nondrying, nonirritating, long-wearing lipstick and in late 1948, Hazel Bishop, Inc., was formed. In 1950 Bishop hired Raymond Spector's advertising agency to help market the lipstick and on Spector's advice purchased the back page of a national newspaper, placing on it her "success" ad, featuring a hot embrace and the line "Stays on you, not on him." Sales continued to soar but friction developed between Spector, who had become the company's majority stockholder, and Bishop, and he was able to wrest control of the company from her. In November 1951, Bishop resigned as president of the company, and she filed suit, charging mismanagement of the company and diversion of assets. The case was settled in 1954, with the company purchasing Bishop's 8% of company stock, with the stipulation that she refrain from selling products under her own name.

Bishop did continue to develop products and found companies. After leaving Hazel Bishop, Inc., she became a consultant to the National Association of Leather Glove Manufacturers and developed "Leather Lav," a leather glove cleaner, which was endorsed by the association in 1955. She also developed a foot care product, marketed by H.G.B. Products Corporation, and in 1957 created a solid perfume stick called Perfemme. In the 1960s, she began a career as a stockbroker and financial analyst, working with Bache and Co. (1962-1968), for Hornblower & Weeks-Hemphill Noyes in 1967, and finally for Evans & Co. (1968-1981). As stocks of cosmetics companies soared, her advice and expertise were much sought after. She was also in demand as a lecturer on the cosmetics industry. In 1978, she began her final career, teaching in the cosmetics, fragrances, and toiletries department of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She was appointed to the Revlon chair in cosmetics marketing in 1980. In 1990 Bishop moved to a retirement community in Rye, New York, and she died there on December 5, 1998.