Sculptor, inventor, and writer Lillian (Lidman) Greneker was born of Swedish immigrant parents in 1895 in Savannah, Ga. The family moved to Chicago, where she studied piano and joined a theater stock company (ca.1918). In 1919 she moved to New York City where she worked as an actress prior to her marriage in 1921 to Claude P. Greneker, director of publc relations for the Shubert theater interests. In 1937 Lillian Greneker began making mannequins with moveable parts to replace the immoveable plaster statues then in use. Made out of papier-mâché, the mannequins were manufactured by the Greneker Corporation in Pleasantville, N.Y., and were sold to department stores all over the world. Another invention was FNG-R-TIP, thimbles with various attachments that could be used to paint, write, crochet, etc. During World War II, the factory turned to military work, and at the request of the United States Rubber Company, she invented and manufactured forms for self-sealing gasoline tanks for Navy warplanes. After the war Greneker turned to portrait sculpture, and her heads of actresses and others were exhibited widely. She also devoted her time to writing plays and other works, some of which document her interest in hypnotism and telepathy. Greneker died in New Jersey in 1990.
From the description of Papers, 1890-1990 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232008179
