2010 Tony Award Nominations

The Tony Awards began in 1947, twenty years after Mehron Makeup was founded in an off Broadway loft by Mehron Melik. Mehron was witness to the construction and opening nights of the large theaters that became the Broadway Theater District. One of the few Entertainment Awards that do not present an award for Makeup, the Tony Awards Show is a Broadway extravaganza. After decades of private ceremonies in large Ballrooms, CBS began televising the Tony Awards in 1977 and continues to be the broadcast outlet to this day.

This year Tony Awards night is June 13, 2010 and will emanate from Radio City Music Hall, an iconic Manhattan institution which opened to the public in 1932. Radio City Music Hall became the Tony Awards venue in 1997 in order to accommodate a larger crowd and offer seats to the general public. Although Radio City Music Hall is not considered part of the Broadway Theater District of New York City, its place in Theater History is renowned. Originally built as a joint venture between John D. Rockefeller, RCA chairman David Sarnoff, and Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who opened The Roxy Theather in 1927 the same year that Mehron Makeup started providing Makeup to the Professional Performers of the Broadway Theater District.

The 2010 Tony Nominations for Best Play include, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, Author Sarah Ruhl, Next Fall, Author Geoffrey Nauffts, Red, Author John Logan and Time Stands Still, Author Donald Margulies. Some Broadway veterans are nominated along with new faces for Best Performances including, Jude Law, Hamlet, Denzel Washington, Fences, Linda Lavin, Collected Stories, Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family, Kelsey Grammer, La Cage aux Folles, Sahr Ngaujah, Fela! along with others. Best Costume Design of a Musical includes nominees, Narina Draghici, Fela! Paul Tazell, Memphis, and Matthew Wright, La Cage aux Folles.

The Red Carpet opens at 6:00 P.M. ET, with the main event beginning at 8:00 PM ET on live CBS TV throughout most of the Nation. West Coast CBS Viewers will see a time delayed rebroadcast at 8:00 P.M. PT.

Even though there is not yet a prime time award for Makeup Artist in the Tony Schedule, Theatrical Makeup goes hand in hand with the art of theater and Mehron has been a part of the Theater World since 1927, producing Theatrical Makeup, FX Makeup, Beauty Makeup and Special Request Makeup for the producers, directors and stars of Broadway. Mehron congratulates all Tony Award Nominees for the perfection that they bring to live theater which is an important part of the human culture.

Makeup from Oz to Avatar

In August of 1939 Mehron Makeup was in the midst of its twelfth year of operations. On August 17,1939 at the Lowes Capitol Theater located at 1645 Broadway in New York City, The Wizard of Oz opened only blocks away from Mehron Melik's Theatrical Makeup Company. The Lowes Capitol Theater was a showcase for MGM Film releases in New York City. Attendees of the Lowes Capitol Theater were treated to a stage show along with an MGM release. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney appeared in the stage show that was presented during the run of The Wizard of Oz at this landmark theater that opened in 1919, one of the few Theater Palaces that predates the foundation of Mehron Makeup.

In 2009, as The Wizard of Oz celebrates the 70th Anniversary of its release Mehron is entering their 83rd year in the production of high quality Theatrical Makeup. In 1939 the Wizard of Oz was a ground breaking event in the world of film, from the Special Effects to the Makeup, The Wizard of Oz established loftier goals for the Movie Industry. In 2009, seventy years after its New York City release, The Wizard of Oz remains a timeless movie classic. Filmed with an unheard of budget at the time The Wizard of Oz was a Technicolor challenge for the Makeup Artist, Jack Dawn, who would later head the MGM Makeup Department. The Theatrical Makeup Industry was meeting the new challenges presented by Hollywood in the 1920's through the 1930's, men like Jack Dawn and Mehron Melik found their roles interchangeable during this infancy stage of film makeup. Makeup Artist also became Makeup Manufacturers and Makeup Manufacturers were also Makeup Artists. During this time of Makeup experimentation the men who were contemporaries often shared ideas and helped each other solve problems.

Mr. Dawn encountered his share of problems during the extravagant production of the Wizard of Oz including the almost fatal poisoning of the original Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen by the aluminum powder that was used as his makeup for his role as the Tin Man. Mr. Ebsen was mysteriously replaced in the role of the Tin Man by Jack Haley, who like most of the other cast members at the time did not know why Buddy Ebsen was replaced. In consultations with his contemporaries Mr. Dawn came upon the solution to create the aluminum look for the tin man by mixing the aluminum powder with a paste so that Mr. Hailey would not breathe in the dust and become ill in the same way as Mr. Ebsen. It was also suggested that Jack Hailey have a layer of Clown Makeup applied as a foundation to protect his skin before the application of the aluminum paste that Mr. Dawn had created after consulting with other Makeup Men throughout the country. Unlike 2009 when Shrek the Musical needs a particular green for their favorite Orge, all they did was call Mehron and have it made, the Makeup Inventors of 1939 found and made their own makeup solutions.

An American axiom that rings true for the Film Industry is that necessity is the mother of invention. Seventy years after the creation of the American Film Classic, The Wizard of Oz, James Cameron needed to invent technology in order to put his vision on film. Avatar, scheduled for release in December 2009 will be the first fully three dimensional film ever released. Tired of waiting for three dimensional film technology to catch up with his vision, Mr. Cameron invented his own three dimensional camera equipment to finally film the idea that has been in his mind for fifteen years. Avatar is already being proclaimed as the new milestone in film making, just as seventy years ago, The Wizard of Oz raised the bar of achievement in the industry, in 2009 Avatar is expected to do the same.

In 1927 Mehron Melik handcrafted a Theatrical Makeup that set the bar of achievement for Theatrical Makeup, for over eight decades Mehron has been raising that bar with new innovations in color, ingredients, pigmentation and durability in the quest for the safest, most colorfast, vibrant, easy to apply and easy to remove Theatrical Makeup. Mehron Makeup was 12 years old when Jack Dawn worked on The Wizard of Oz, and was already producing a quality line of specialty makeup for theatrical productions, Circuses, Opera, Dance, Vaudeville, Burlesque and film. James Cameron's Film Avatar not only sets a new bar for future filming, it also sets a new bar for a Makeup that can provide the coverage that a three dimensional presentation will require. Mehron has already begun to meet the new challenges that future film techniques will demand of Theatrical Makeup with their 2009 introduction of the naturally based, full coverage Air Brush Makeup, LUX Airbrush Makeup, currently available in over a dozen dynamic colors. Unlike 1939, if the film industry needs a new color, new product or a solution, Mehron Makeup is only a phone call away ready to produce the product that is needed just as they have from the release of The Wizard of Oz through the coming release of Avatar.

A Lifetime of Makeup

Think about all the Makeup Brands that you know. Now think about who you suppose runs those companies. How and where they produce their makeup. What ingredients they use to produce their Makeup and where they buy their ingredients. I'll bet you imagined a lot of Corporate names when thinking about Makeup Brands, and pictured Corporate Directors from all walks of Corporate life sitting behind desks with spread sheets. When you pictured their ingredients didn't you think of boats from China delivering cheap imported knock off ingredients. There is a Makeup Company run in a different way. There is still a Makeup Company in the USA run as a Family Business, because it is a Family Business. Mehron Makeup, Leaders in Theatrical Makeup since 1927, is guided by a second generation of the Melik Family. Martin Melik (Pictured with Paradise Makeup AQ), the son of the founder, Mehron Melik, is still the hands on President of Mehron Makeup.

Martin did not climb the Corporate ladder of a fertilizer company and suddenly find himself as the head of a Theatrical Makeup Company. Martin Melik has lived Theatrical Makeup. As he recently told an interviewer in the October 2008 Issue of Global Cosmetic Industry Magazine, " My personal recollections do not go back as far as silent films and vaudeville. Those were the days of my Dad's era. My early memories only go back to the late 50's and early 60's, when, as a youngster, I delivered packages of makeup supplies backstage to nearly every Broadway theater, many mid-town 24 hour drug stores, the Metropolitan Opera, and occasionally to Madison Square Garden when Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus or Ice Capades were in town." As you can see from this small quote the leader of Mehron has lived Makeup his entire life and knows the importance of delivering a quality product to the Performing Arts Community, a Community which has responded with a brand loyalty to Mehron for over eighty years.

You will be hard pressed to find a Family Makeup Company like Mehron where the integrity of their product is watched over by the founding family. In this age of quick profit corporations at any expense, Mehron is a Company that stills lives the dreams envisioned by their founder over eighty years ago, a dream of producing the most sought after theatrical makeup on the planet.