In 1901, Helena Juliet Rubinstein, moved into Mrs Isabella Stern's boarding house
Kalara at 77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda (
1). A year or so later, Helena's cosmetics business was established, which by the time of her death in 1965 was worth 60 million dollars
(2). It is accepted that James Thompson, the Managing Director of the Robur Tea Company, was instrumental in the establishment of Helena's business by providing financial, business and marketing support and advice. It is said that they met while she was waitressing at the Winter Garden Tea Rooms in the basement of the Block Arcade or the Cafe Maison Doree in Swanston Street
(3), but new evidence has come to light that they first met at Mrs Stern's boarding house, and thus 77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda can be considered to be the birthplace of the Helena Rubinstein's beauty empire.
Helena Rubinstein in 1904
Image: War Paint: Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, their lives, their times, their rivalry
by Lindy Woodhead (Virago, 2003) (4)
We know that Helena lived for a time with Mrs Stern's but because of a robbery at the boarding house we now know that James Thompson also lived there. Mrs Stern made a police report on December 2, 1904 that a
silver cigarette case and light-grey tweed coat, belonging to Morris Kozminsky and a flat top pearl shirt stud; a gold round knob scarf pin and a pair of boots with patent leather toes belonging to James H. Thompson were stolen from her premises.
Robbery Report at the boarding house
Victorian Police Gazette, No. 49. December 8, 1904
We will look at the main characters in this story starting with Isabella Stern, who owned the building where Helena first met James. Isabella Stern was the second child of nine of Rabbi Moses and Elvina Rintel. The Rabbi had arrived in Sydney in 1844 where he served the Sydney Congregation as the Principal of the Hebrew School. In January 1849, he was appointed as the Reader of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, and in 1857 he established the Mikveh Yisrael Melbourne Synagogue
(5). Elvina's father, John Hart had served in the British Navy in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, later migrated to America and then Australia. He died at his house,
Trafalgar Cottage, Albert Street in Windsor in January 1864
(6).
Isabella, aged 24, married Abraham Stern, aged 37, on September 15, 1875. Her father officiated at the wedding, held at the Synagogue in Lonsdale Street. Abraham was born in Schirwindt in Prussia and his father, Louis, was also a Rabbi. They had three daughters, Ruby, Eda and Rita. The family first lived in Victoria Street in Carlton, later moved to Dalgety Street in St Kilda and around 1895 they moved to 79 Grey Street
(7). 77 and 79 Grey Street are two adjoining residences, made of brick, each of nine principal rooms which had been built three years earlier by Gavin Shaw, a wine merchant
(8). Shaw was also the Mayor of St Kilda for two years from 1881
(9). After his death in June 1894, his widow Jane owned the property, and the Sterns leased it from her
(10). We know that the Sterns later owned both 77 and 79 Grey Street and they possibly purchased it from Jane Shaw's estate, after she died in May 1900
(11).
I wonder if that is when the Sterns decided to operate a boarding house to help defray some of the cost of purchasing the properties. Abraham's occupation in the Rate books and Electoral roll was that of warehouseman. He was a wholesaler in the drapery business, and had retired selling his entire stock by tender in April 1908
(12).
77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda, an imposing duplex built 1892.
Photo: Isaac Hermann
Grey Street at the time was highly regarded by the well-to-do citizens of Melbourne as a place to live (13) and it would not have been hard for Mrs Stern to attract boarders. Maurice Kozminsky, who was also a victim of the robbery, was the son of Abraham and Esther (nee Goldberg) Kozminsky. Abraham's occupation in the Electoral Roll was listed as an Investor and Maurice was a commercial traveller. In March 1906, the Kozminsky family held their son Clifford's Bar Mitzvah at Kalara, 77 Grey Street. In the 1903 Electoral Roll the family was at 32 Beaconsfield Parade but from the 1906 Electoral Rolls they were at 6 Burnett Street, St Kilda and it appears they were living with Mrs Stern for just a short time (14). 6 Burnett Street was for sale by auction in April 1905 (15), and though the Kozminsky's purchased it then, they looked to have been temporarily staying at Mrs Stern's boarding house, while it was being renovated. Maurice enlisted in the A.I. F. in May 1915, with the rank of 2nd Lieutanant, and sadly died of wounds (gun shot wound - abdomen) in France in August 1916. His brother, Clifford, also served in the First World War (16). Abraham was the brother of Simon Kozminsky, the jeweller and antiques dealer, who started his business in Melbourne in the 1860s (17).
James Thompson, was a tea merchant, associated with the name of Robur Tea from 1893 when he and a Mr Bell produced a booklet for the tea Hawthorn, Rhodes & Co., called Tea, its origin, cultivation, manufacture, effects on the human system, and how to tell good tea. The authors looked at various brands of tea and said Robur Tea was prepared on scientific lines and would produce a perfect tea. This booklet was sent to newspaper offices in Victoria, who then gave column space to the ideas set forth in the booklet and thus Robur Tea gained some publicity and brand recognition (18). By 1900, James was the President of the Robur Tea Company (19). In 1903 his address in the Electoral Rolls was 79 Grey Street, where, as we know, he was the victim of a robbery and where he also met Helena Rubinstein.
Accounts of Helena's life are many and varied, it's hard to pin down dates and Helena herself also gave different birth dates throughout her life and embellished her life story, so what follows is as accurate as can be surmised. Helena was born in the 1870s (20) in Krakow in Poland and arrived on the Prince Regent Luitpold in September 1896 (21). She then stayed with her uncles, Louis and Bernhard Silberfeld in Coleraine in western Victoria (22). They had a fancy-goods shop in town, though she found that many of the local women were keen to buy her face-cream that she had brought with her from Poland. This cream had been made by her mother's friend Jacob Lykulokis, a Hungarian chemist (23). After three years in Coleraine, some sources say that she worked as governess for the Fairbairn family of Meltham of Geelong; this leading to a year's position as Governess to Lord Lamington, the Queensland Governor, in Toowomba (24). After Helena returned to Melbourne around 1901, she became a nanny, at Linden, the Acland Street home of Moritz Michaelis and family (25).
Firstly to free herself from the stricture of living-in domestic work she took a room at Mrs Stern's boarding house in Grey Street, St Kilda (26) where she met James Thompson. To support herself, she worked as a waitress at the Winter Garden Tea Rooms and the Cafe Maison Doree. James and Helena formed a friendship, but were they lovers? Perhaps they consorted, though as both were single, their dalliance was not an adulterous one, as others have inferred.
(27).
In 1902, the Winter Gardens Tea Room was the venue for their business meeting which Helena attended with her sister, Ceska, who had recently arrived from Krakow. At this meeting James introduced his artistic designer, who helped to create a label for Helena's cream. James also introduced her to a printer, for the production of labels, which James financed with a £100 loan or gift. It is also said that she borrowed £250 to establish a beauty salon at 138 Elizabeth Street, and most likely this money also came from Thompson
(28). In February 1903, Helena trade-marked,
a toilet preparation known as skin food and at the same time trademarked the
distinctive label, though not the name. The name Valaze was not trademarked until June 1905
(29).
The distinctive label, trademarked by Helena Rubinstein in February 1903.
The label is written in Polish an approximate translation of which is - removes wrinkles freckles impetigo, gives face delicate fair transparent.
National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5003647
I had a look at the newspapers on
Trove to find the first time Valaze was mentioned as a product and came across this advertisement, below, which markets the preparation as Dr Lykulokis' product.
Early advertisement for Valaze.
On February 26, 1903
Table Talk had an advertorial on the product, extolling the virtues of Dr Lykulokis' Valase, imported by Helena Rubinstein & Co. of 138 Elizabeth Street. Helena had learnt from James Thompson the value of free publicity under the guise of editorial content. Table Talk explains what Valaze was -
Valaze is really a skin food, which is prepared by the most celebrated of all the European skin specialists, Dr. Lykuski (sic)
, from herbs which grow in the Carpathian Mountains, the dividing range between Galicia and Hungary. It is in no sense a "make-up" ; in fact, it is not visible upon the skin in any way. It is in the truest sense of the word a "skin food." When rubbed into the skin it is absorbed into the pores, and creates a perfectly healthy condition. By its aid all impurities are removed, and the skin becomes re-invigorated (30).
One month after the first advertisement appeared, and two days after the
Table Talk promotion, another advertisement, below, appeared for Valaze and this time there was no mention of Dr Lykulokis at all.
Advertisement for Valaze Skin Food.
Australian women fell in love with the product and sales earnt Helena £
12,000 in two years, enabling a move to 243 Collins Street (31). Initially the potion was imported from Europe, but it was soon made in her own laboratory with the ingredients coming from the firm of Felton, Grimwade & Co. They were a drug company, and later branched out into glass manufacturing (the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works
(32)) and a chemical works. They most likely also supplied the glass containers for her potions as well. It is possible that Helena was introduced to one of the founders of the company, Frederick Grimwade, by Moritz Michaelis
(33).
In 1905, the year she trade-marked the name Valase, Helena went to Europe to study skin treatments and upon her return opened the Valaze Institute at 274 Collins Street, which was a full service beauty parlour (
34). On May 17, 1907, Helena applied for Australian citizenship and her referee was Frederick Grimwade, of Felton, Grimwade & Co., who attested to her good character (
35).
An original Helena Rubinstein & Co. of Melbourne bottle, likely to have been manufactured by the Felton, Grimwade & Co. subsidiary, Melbourne Glass Bottle Works.
In 1908 Helena took her company overseas and it became successful on an international scale. Helena had drive, energy and highly developed business acumen. An acquaintance from the early days in Melbourne, Abel Isaacson, is quoted as saying Without Mr Thompson - he was the manager of the Robur Tea Company - she wouldn't have done what she did. He helped her. He taught her. He made her. Mark my words, he was the brains behind the little lady' (36). Would Helena have had the success that she did, had she has not met James Thompson in Mrs Stern's boarding house? We will never know, but Kalara, 77-79 Grey Street deserves its place in history as the birthplace of a global cosmetic empire.
Acknowledgements
The Age December 3, 1904
The report noted the date that the robbery took place and an address in Grey Street, though it wasn't until I found the original report in the Police Gazette on Ancestry that we had the correct address. Then Isaac realised that Mr James Thompson, was Helena's mentor and so we gathered that their first meeting was not a cafe in Melbourne but Mrs Stern's boarding house where they both lived. The research in this post is very much a collaboration between Isaac and myself. Isaac also supplied the photos of the cobalt blue Helena Rubinstein bottle.
Footnotes
(1) Woodhead, Lindy War Paint: Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, their lives, their times, their rivalry (Virago, 2003), p. 44. Also quoted in the website Cosmetics and Skin: Stories from the history and science of cosmetics, skin-care and early Beauty Culture
http://cosmeticsandskin.org/companies/helena-rubinstein.php
(2) Poynter, J. R Helena Rubinstein - Australian Dictionary of Biography entry
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rubinstein-helena-8293
(3) Woodhead, op. cit. p. 47 implies she met Thompson at the Winter Garden Tea Rooms. The Cosmetics and Skin website says they met at the Cafe Maison Dore.
(4) This was Helena's press photo that she supplied to
Table Talk in 1904. The image credit in Lindy Woodhead's book is the Helena Rubinstein Foundation.
(5) I have written about Rabbi Rintel and the establishment of his Mikveh Yisrael Synagogue,
here. I have also written about Henri Rintel, Isabella's brother,
here.
(6) John Hart's life is partly mentioned in his son, Henri's obituary in the
Jewish Herald of May 2, 1884, see
here. John's death notice, published in
The Argus of January 25, 1864, tells us that he lived and died at Trafalgar Cottage in Windsor, see
here.
(7) Isabella Rintel and Abraham Stern - information about their marriage, his birth place and parents come from their marriage certificate. They had three daughters - Ruby (1876-1945, married Edward Lazarus in 1909, they had no children; Eda (1878-1879) and Rita (1881-1960, never married). The birth notices of the daughters provided the Victoria Street address and the St Kilda Rate Books available on Ancestry provided the Dalgety Street address and the move to Grey Street.
(8) Victorian Heritage Database citation
https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1113
(9) Gavin Shaw died aged 64 on June 2, 1894. You can read his obituary in the
Prahan Telegraph of June 9, 1894,
here.
(10) St Kilda Rate books, available on Ancestry.
(11) Isabella died February 3, 1921. Her will (on-line at the Public Records Office of Victoria) lists all her property, including 77 and 79 Grey Street. Jane Shaw died May 18, 1900 Her death notice was in both the
Argus and
The Age the next day.
(12) Abraham Stern - you can read the list of his goods that were put to tender in April 1908 in
The Age, April 1, 1908, see
here (last column, under Tenders). Abraham died April 8, 1912. He had a short obituary in the
Jewish Herald of April 12, 1912, see
here. He and Isabella are buried at Brighton Cemetery.
(13) Victorian Heritage Database citation
https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1113
(14) Information about the Kozminsky family comes from the Electoral Rolls on Ancestry. The information about Clifford's Bar Mitvah was from a snippet in the
Jewish Herald March 24, 1905, see
here.
(15) I assume that they purchased 6 Burnett Street in April 1905, and that a renovation was the reason they were temporarily at Mrs Stern's boarding house. 6 Burnett Street was described as a
semi-detached two-storied brick and cement residence, known containing drawing, dining, breakfast rooms, kitchen, scullery, wash house, 8 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, spacious tiled verandahs and balconies. Attached to the house, on the south side, is a large billiard room, of wood. The outbuildings and stables are also of wood. The Age, April 8, 1905, see
here. See the Victorian Heritage Database citation for 6 Burnett Street,
here.
(16) National Archives of Australia. Maurice's A.I.F record can be read
here and Clifford's
here.
(17)
An advertisement for Simon Kozmisky's business from Punch, November 21, 1907
(18) Thompson and Bell's booklet was reported on in The Launceston Examiner of July 15, 1893; The Herald, August 24, 1893 The Kyneton Observer, August 31, 1893, The Avoca Mail, September 5, 1893.
(19) Letter to the Editor of
The Age, November 29, 1900, see
here.
(20) Her record on the passenger list for the Prince Regent Luitpold, the ship she arrived in Melbourne on in September 1896, says she was 20, thus born 1876; her Australian Naturalisation papers have her birth date as Christmas Day, 1897. She died April 1, 1065 and claimed to be 94, this born 1871.
(21) Unassisted Passenger List at the Public Records Office of Victoria and Ancestry.
Helena's record from the Prince Regent Luitpold - she embarked from Genoa, her age was 20 and nationality listed as German.
(22) Louis and Bernhard were her mother's brothers. Louis Silberfeld, a bachelor, who died April 23, 1908 at the age of 54, had the store at Coleraine with his brother and then a grocery store at Merino. You can read a short obituary in the
Hamilton Spectator of April 27, 1908,
here. He was granted a Grocer's License for Merino in December 1905, see Hamilton Spectator, December 9, 1905,
here. He is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.
Bernhard Silberfeld died June 25, 1923, aged 86. He had one daughter, Eva, who married Louis Levy (divorced in 1896). Eva had three sons, Reg, Fred and Theo. The three boys all enlisted in the First World War, Fred was discharged on medical grounds, but the other two served overseas. Bernhard is buried at Brighton Cemetery.
(23) Gardiner, Frank
The Fields of Coleraine (published by the Author, 2003), pp. 165-166.
(23) Woodhead, op. cit., pp 42-46; Poynter, op. cit - ADB entry, see
here. Helena's Naturalisation application from May 1907, has this time-line: Arrived in Australia July 1897 on the Prince Regent Luitpold; three years in Coleraine, one year in Toowomba and five years in Melbourne.
(24) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 46.
(25) Lindy Woodhead, p. 46, says she was a nanny at Morty Michaelis. Moritz Michaelis (1820 - 1902) - the founder of the Michaelis, Hallenstein Tannery at Footscray, read about that
here. Read his obituary in the
Jewish Herald of December 2, 1902,
here. Linden, is now owned by the City of Port Phillip and is an art gallery, see
here and read the Victorian Heritage Database citation,
here.
(26) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 46.
(27) Woodhead (p. 47) said they were lovers and that the relationship
was doomed due to the inevitability there was a Mrs Thompson. The relationship may have been doomed but
James Thompson did not get married until 1906. This was to Isabella Grist (nee Hutchings) and they had one daughter together, Thelma Belle, born on March 27, 1908. Isabella died September 1918 at the age of 50. Thelma married Frank Hartley in May 1930, you can read a report and see a photo of the lovely bride,
here in
Table Talk, May 22, 1930. James died on August 23, 1933, aged 72. Helena married Edward William Titus in 1908 in London. They had two sons, Roy and Horace, read about the marriage in the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry,
here.
(28) Poynter, op. cit - ADB entry, see
here.
(29) The trade mark applications are digitsed at the National Archives - the 1903 application can be read
here and the June 1905 application
here.
(30)
Table Talk, February 26, 1903, see
here.
(31) Poynter, op. cit - ADB entry, see
here.
(32) Melbourne Glass Bottle Works established in 1872 and in the 1920s amalgamated with Australian Glass Manufacturers, and later became Australian Consolidated Industries. Source: Encyclopedia of Australian Science, see
here.
(33) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 48;
Cosmetics and Skin website, see
here. Felton, Grimwade & Co - established by Alfred Felton (1831-1904), read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry,
here and Frederick Shepphard Grimwade (1840-1910), read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry,
here. It is Lindy Woodhouse (p. 48) who suggests that Helena was introduced to Frederick Grimwade by Moritz Michaelis.
(34) Poynter, op. cit - ADB entry, see
here.
(35) Citizenship application has been digitised and can be accessed on the National Archives of Australia, see
here.
(36) Woodhead, op. cit., p. 46
