The women in those ads belonged to a generation of actresses whose careers were built almost entirely inside the studio system. Through the 1930s, 40s and into the 50s, major studios like MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros and Columbia signed performers to long-term contracts that controlled nearly every part of their public image. Studios decided an actress’s name, her hair color, her wardrobe and even who she was seen dating. Rita Cansino became Rita Hayworth after Columbia’s Harry Cohn decided her name and look needed reworking, and stories like hers were common rather than rare.
Hair was a particularly visible part of that machinery. Studio hairdressers like Sydney Guilaroff at MGM worked with stars constantly, shaping looks that would photograph well under studio lighting and hold up across dozens of takes. The styles these women wore on screen, from soft waves to the bouffant that took over by the end of the 1950s, became templates that ordinary women tried to copy at home or asked their salon to recreate. A shampoo ad featuring a star with shining, manageable hair was selling access to that look.
Lustre-Creme itself had been around since 1944, when Colgate-Palmolive’s Kay Daumit division introduced the lanolin-based cream shampoo. By the early 1950s the brand had built a marketing approach around movie star endorsements, running ads that featured rows of contract actresses all using the same product. The Academy Awards became a natural tie-in point for these campaigns, with ads timed to coincide with awards season and built around whichever stars were having a moment that year.
By the mid 1960s, the studio system that had produced these stars was already breaking down. Television had pulled audiences away from theaters, and the old contract structure that gave studios this kind of control over actresses started to fade. Many of the women who appeared in these shampoo ads, including Natalie Wood and Shirley Jones, kept working steadily through the 1960s and beyond, but the specific kind of manufactured glamour these ads sold became harder to maintain once the studios stopped grooming stars the way they once had.
This page brings together a run of Lustre-Creme print ads from the 1950s and 1960s, featuring Natalie Wood, Janet Leigh, Shirley Jones, Debbie Reynolds and many more of the actresses who defined the look of that era.
Tonight! Go where glamour is… Step out and see a great movie (1953)
These top stars of Hollywood use Lustre-Creme shampoo for the most beautiful hair in the world
Tonight, spend an enchanting evening . . . with any one of these stars, who brings glamour to the movie theatre in your neighborhood. You’ll love seeing her, in her latest and greatest movie.
And as you thrill to her beauty, how exciting to know that you can share a beauty secret known to all the top stars of Hollywood — famous Lustre-Creme Shampoo.
Yes, all the stars you see here . . . in fact, 4 out of 5 top Hollywood stars … use Lustre-Creme Shampoo. On the set, on location and at home, these top stars make Lustre-Creme their personal and professional shampoo choice. Their hairstylists recommend it, too!
Row 1: Julia Adams, June Allyson, Pier Angeli, Anne Baxter, Ann Blyth
Row 2: Rhonda Fleming, Ava Gardner, Mitzi Gaynor, Betty Grable, Kathryn Grayson
Row 3: Betty Hutton, Deborah Kerr, Dorothy Lamour, Piper Laurie, Janet Leigh
Row 4: Marilyn Monroe, Maureen O’Hara, Debra Paget, Eleanor Parker, Jane Powell
Row 5: Debbie Reynolds, Ruth Roman, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck
Lustre-Creme Shampoo is blessed with lanolin… never dulls or dries a star’s hair… even when it’s subjected to hot lights, daily shampoos and hard water. Lustre-Creme’s fragrant, instant lather “shines” as it cleans… always leaves hair soft and manageable, tamed to any whim of brush and comb.
If you would win glamour . . . have hair that behaves like the angels and shines like the stars … use the favorite beauty shampoo of 4 out of 5 top Hollywood stars… Lustre-Creme Shampoo.
POUR IT ON — OR CREAM IT ON! In famous Cream Form Lustre-Creme is America’s favorite cream shampoo. And all its beauty-bringing qualities are in the new Lotion Form. Whichever form you prefer, lanolin-blessed Lustre-Creme will leave your hair shining clean, eager to wave, never dull or dry.
Row 1: Corinne Calvet, Claudette Colbert, Jeanne Crain, Arlene Dahl, Yvonne de Carlo
Next rows: Susan Hayward, Rita Hayworth, Virginia Mayo, Ann Miller, Vera Ralston, Donna Reed
Last row: Jan Sterling, Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, Esther Williams, Jane Wyman
MORE: Longing for an uncluttered life? Doris Day tells you how to get organized! (1959)
Vintage actress Natalie Wood for Lustre Creme shampoo
For every woman who has been over-washing her hair… A shampoo so rich, you only need to “lather once”!
Natalie Wood, starring in “Love With The Proper Stranger,” a Paramount Pictures’ release, uses new “Lather Once” Lustre-Creme and her hair behaves beautifully.
ALSO SEE: How to do ’50s eye makeup – brows, lashes, shadow & more – with tips from the pros
Janet Leigh for Lustre Creme shampoo
Janet Leigh, starring in the Hal Wallis production “Wives and Lovers,” a Paramount Pictures’ release, uses….
Shirley Jones for Lustre Creme shampoo
In the magic world of movies where lovely hair is so important, top movie stars use Lustre-Creme
Shirley Jones, starring in “Dark Purpose,” a Universal release…
MORE: Shirley Jones & Gordon MacRae are unforgettable in ‘Carousel’ (1956)
At Academy Award time… (1960)
Lustre Creme shampoo salutes these beautiful stars who have made this the greatest movie season ever!
Row 1: Sandra Dee, Lana Turner, Susan Kohner, Barbara Rush
Row 2: Millie Perkins, Martha Hyer, Simone Signoret, Doris Day
Row 3: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, Elizabeth Taylor, Joanne Woodward
Row 4: Lee Remick, Vera Miles, Deborah Kerr, Haya Harareet
Vintage actress Bette Davis for Lustre-Creme shampoo (1951)
Vintage actress Joan Crawford for Lustre-Creme shampoo
ALSO SEE THIS: Young Joan Crawford shows her good side (1927-1933)
