For Men Only

"Magnificently masculine. . . ."

"There's something special about him, a hint of heather and fern that's as clean as a fresh wind. . . ."

"A ... refreshing fragrance as bracing and invigorating as a spring morning in the northwoods."

In these studied bass tones, a new advertising campaign last week rose to full cry. Its purpose was to sell the average U.S. male something he had always skittered away from buying--a line of for-men-only cosmetics, ranging from perfumes to bubble baths. In the nation's stores, bashful men fingered flashy bureau and bath sets, shaped like whiskey bottles, perfume bottles sporting horsehead corks, pictures of big game. One Midwest manufacturer crowed over a solid gold shaving bowl worth $1,875, without the soap. ("Boy, that's luxury!")

The selling trick was to keep men's cosmetics as far away from the boudoir as possible, give them a hairy-chested appeal. Hollywood's Courtley, Ltd. said gruffly: "A shaving lotion for he-men only." (But Manhattan's Faberge, Inc. was selling a cologne: "Aphrodisia for Men.") Courtley Ltd.'s bubble baths had ruddy, full-blooded titles: "Chukker," "Steeple Chase," "Irish Moss." Parfums L'Orle Inc. of Manhattan had "Buckskin" and "Touchwood" perfumes ("Just for your handkerchief, of course") at $5 an ounce. Another managed to combine the smell of "the finest cognac, cedarwood, Russian leather and the great outdoors.

Why Not? All this hallooing was touched off by a trim, glib Manhattanite, Alfred D. McKelvy, a former longshoreman, clerk, gold prospector (he panned $87 worth of gold in six months) and adman. McKelvy got his idea in 1939 while sharing the apartment of a lady friend (absent) with another man. The roommate rummaged through cosmetics he found, just for fun gave himself the works--including a bubble bath and a cologne rubdown. He enjoyed it so much that McKelvy thought: "Why wouldn't other men?"

The idea was not new. Yardley of London, Inc. (now made in New Jersey), Roger & Gallet, and Guerlain, Inc. had, in a limited way, gone into the lotion-and-lavender field for men 30 years ago, had then been followed, timidly and on a small scale, by other talc and cosmetic makers. Altogether in 1939 they grossed only about $12,000,000 a year, small change compared to the half-billion-a-year business in women's cosmetics.

Eggbeater Production.What McKelvy wanted to tap was a new luxury market. Said he: "I had the same problem that cigaret makers had selling to women." At night, McKelvy began mixing powder in a tin pan with an eggbeater, soon had enough to take around to stores. To Manhattan buyers, he brought cheap full-page ads in obscure trade journals, promised them they would appear in the slick magazines. The stores bit, but slowly at first. He lost $5,000 the first year. Then came the war, and the boom in shipments of gift packages to G.I.'s overseas. By 1942, Alfred D. McKelvy Co. (trade name: Seaforth Toiletries for Men) grossed over $500,000, good enough so that Vick Chemical Co. paid McKelvy upwards of $500,000 in Vick stock for a controlling interest. Last year Seaforth grossed over $2,000,000. Last week McKelvy stepped out of his company as board chairman to launch a new venture: McKelvy Industries (women's cosmetics).

Where he led, others have followed. The handful of men's toiletries companies has grown to over 100, with a gross business of $50,000,000 a year, an advertising budget of $10,000,000. It had reached a point where even Hollywood thought it worth satirizing (see cut). Moreover, returning G.I.s are buying heavily scented colognes without a snigger. They have been well educated. Said one salesgirl: "From all the stuff we've mailed to servicemen overseas, I'll bet that jungle smelled awful nice."

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