Veterans Day

In honor of the Veterans of all Wars everywhere The Mehron Blog looks back on a Blog Post from Veterans Day 2009. Originally published on November 11, 2009, here is:

Makeup Artists and Veterans

During World War II wounded Veterans were returning to the United States in record numbers, many with catastrophic injuries that required multiple surgeries with extensive recuperation periods. Others were left with physical scars as well as the emotional scars associated with disfigurement. The Medical Staffs of the Veteran Hospitals were pulling triple shifts just to keep up with the incoming flow of patients that continued to arrive by the plane load from the war theaters in Europe, Africa and Japan. As the war continued Veterans Hospitals counted on Volunteers more and more to tend to the non-medical needs of the patients, of course in the United States as in the rest of the World, the civilian population responded and volunteered to help in whatever way they could with whatever skills they had to offer to ease the pain of the wounded military personnel. Volunteers responded by reading to and writing for the wounded who were unable to read or write because of their injuries, a vital necessity for the wounded to keep in touch with their families. Volunteers helped in any way they could to ease the healing process for the injured returning Veterans.

The Medical Staffs of the Veterans Hospitals were using the best medical techniques that they could to heal the wounded in their care. The physical challenges were significant enough, unfortunately they were not the only challenges in restoring the wounded to health. The returning Veterans whether injured or not were retuning home with the mental scars from the savageries that they encountered in war. The injured Veterans also had the burden of physiological and psychological scars. The Medical Staff constantly under pressure with the sheer volume of injuries did not always have the appropriate time to help the permanently scarred and physically disfigured with their transition back into society. Psychologist and Psychiatrists were at a premium in the Veterans Health System with the enormous volume of injured soldiers whose physical injuries often led to psychological trauma at the sight of their own faces that were disfigured by their wounds.

Everyone on the home front helped in any way they could. The Entertainment Industry became the morale of the troops through the USO which brought entertainment and a taste of home to military personal both home and abroad. The stars of the era used their skills as entertainers and performers to bring a semblance of sanity to a world that was engulfed in the insanity of war. All the Professions and Craftsmen that comprise the Entertainment Industry were utilized to bring entertainment to those that were serving and those that were recovering at home. The Directors, Producers, Choreographers, Musicians, Cameramen, Sound Technicians, and Set Builders all pitched in to bring the best that Hollywood and Broadway had to offer to the troops around the world.

Back home a special skill set that evolved out of the Entertainment Industry became a vital skill in helping to ease the psychically dismembered and psychologically scarred that were recuperating at the Veterans Hospitals around the world. Men like Mehron Melik, who were on the cutting edge of the Makeup Industry saw the opportunity to use their skills. Mehron packed his bag of Makeup and spent his days at Veterans Hospitals on the East Coast showing disfigured Veterans how to use cosmetics to cover the scars and disfigurements that they so detested. One of the magic skills of the Entertainment Industry, Makeup, soon took on a new life at the Veterans Hospitals around the World. The injured and disabled learned from men like Mehron how to apply Makeup to cover the physical ravages of war which in turn gave these Veterans the morale boost they needed to get out and reenter society. Mehron used his Makeup to encourage injured men who didn't want their family to see them, the courage to see them again. Those whose disfigurements would be erased by multiple plastic surgeries were taught to apply Makeup in between surgeries as a transitional tool. Mr. Melik spent years visiting Veterans Hospitals donating his time, skill and Makeup in service to the injured who served their Country.

World War II seems like an eternity to most of us alive today as the last of this Generation is being lost to time, but the lessons remain. Mehron Melik was a forefather of the Makeup Industry that now dominates the Entertainment Industry, he was there through the days of Vaudeville, Burlesque, Silent Films, Talking Films, Technicolor, Television, Color Television and Music Videos. He founded a company by hand making Makeup, and he used those hands to help those in need of his expertise. Mr. Mehron Melik is an example of the unselfish sharing of his skills.

Makeup Artists around the world who wonder what you can contribute when called upon, the answer is easy! Your skill, your artistry, your magical touch are what you can contribute, not only to those injured in war, but also to those touched by tragedy and accidents. The artistry that lies in your hands can change the day for a wounded Veteran, a child disfigured by accident or a warrior battling cancer. The gift in your hands, your ability to envision, your command of texture and color can change a person's life, turning a dreaded day into new beginning. The tools that you use every day to enhance beauty, design body art, create characters, and magically transform one look to another are the tools that are needed to change another person's life in a time of need.

Note to Veterans and Their Families: Mehron Makeup was founded in 1927 and has continuously operated since then, due to corporate moves and damaged archives, Mehron Makeup no longer has any photographic records of Mehron Melik at Veterans Hospitals. If any Veteran or Veteran's Family has any photograph of Mehron Melik working with wounded Veterans, Mehron would like to rebuild the Company Archives and ask that you would consider sharing these photographs with the world through Mehron. As the Greatest Generation leaves us behind, many families will be cleaning out buried treasures stored away by parents and grandparents. If you should come upon any correspondence or photograph referencing the work of Mehron Melik or any Makeup Artist with Veterans, please consider preserving that history by sharing it with the Mehron Archives. Many prominent Makeup Artists volunteered at Veterans Hospitals using their skills in the same way that Mr. Melik used his. We know that Jack Dawn, the Makeup Artist for the Wizard of Oz, and a fixture at the MGM Makeup Department spent countless hours at Veteran Hospitals in the San Diego area. Any documentation concerning Makeup Artists and Veterans that can be preserved, Mehron would like to preserve this historical record. You may email the Mehron Blog , or send mail or packages to: Mehron Archives, 100 Red Schoolhouse Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977

USA Memorial Day

Memorial Day in 2010 falls on May 31, 2010. By an Act of Congress in 1968 Memorial Day has been designated as the last Monday in May, replacing the traditional Memorial Day of May 30. The history of Memorial Day dates back to the United States Civil War. Through many transformations, Memorial Day has evolved in the USA as a Day of Commemoration for those who served in the Military to protect and defend the ideals and principals of the United States and its allies around the world.

In recent decades Memorial Day has sadly lost it meaning to many Americans and it is seen as holiday to shop, barbecue and relax away from work for an extra day. In the midst of World War II, the Founder of Mehron Makeup, Mehron Melik found his own private, special way to commemorate Memorial Day by offering his services and his Makeup to the severely disabled and disfigured Servicemen who were returning home from the devastation of an horrific war. The Militarily Hospitals at Home, although Staffed with the best Medical Personnel were overwhelmed by the amount of men who they needed to service. Volunteers from all walks of life pitched in to lend a hand at the Military Hospitals throughout the USA.

The severity of battles and the force of the weapons that the US Servicemen were facing during World War II left many horribly disfigured, the dedicated Medical Personnel put their initial efforts into saving lives, and as many men were saved, there was now a need to acclimate them back into Civilian Life despite the disabilities and disfigurements that war had wreaked on them. Even as the physical damage of war was healed by Medical Professionals, the psychological damage was immense. Many Servicemen could not bear to be seen while being treated because of their disfigurements.

Beginning in 1927 Mehron Melik was creating Theatrical Makeup by hand and practicing the art that is now called, Makeup Artist. Upon learning of the distress that many Servicemen in Military Hospitals were undergoing because of their physical deformities, Mehron and his contemporaries such as Jack Dawn of Wizard of Oz Makeup Fame, volunteered their expertise in Makeup Application to the Servicemen in Veterans Hospitals who were suffering from self esteem issues while their physical deformities were being corrected by the Military Doctors.

During the time of World War II reconstructive surgery was a long and arduous process, often times required multiple surgeries over a prolonged period of time. Makeup Artists and Manufacturers such as Mehron Melik used their Makeup Skills and Makeup to teach the Servicemen how to use Makeup to cover up deformities while they were waiting for the reconstructive process to be completed. Their level of self esteem and willingness to have visitors increased as the Servicemen applied their Makeup and were able to hide the physical scars of war. Hiding the physical scars gave the Servicemen confidence that their deformities had robbed from them. Mehron Melik, Jack Dawn and others like them turned Memorial Day into an all year round event, as they visited Servicemen on almost a weekly basis to show them how Theatrical Makeup could help them rid themselves of the physiological damage of their physical wounds.

In 2010, the United States again finds its Veteran Medical System at the brink with Military Personnel returning home from two theaters of operation with horrific deformities from brutal battles. Medical Assistance for the wounds of war has progressed immensely from World War II till now, however, the same physiological damage and self esteem issues still exist because of the physical scarring of their wounds. If Mehron Melik was still here today, he most certainly would still be paying visits to wounded Veterans bringing them the innovations of Mehron Makeup, such as Airbrush Makeup and the newest Mehron Makeup Foundation for every skin tone, to ease their transition back to a civilian life and cosmetically correct the physical scars that war has left on them.

Every Makeup Artist posses the imagination and the gift of Makeup Artistry to make a difference in the lives of Servicemen returning home and looking forward to the day when their physical scars are vanished by modern medical technology. While they wait, the talented and gifted Makeup Artists throughout the Nation can lend their expertise in the art of Makeup Transformation to change someone's outlook if even for a day, just as the innovators of the Makeup Industry have done in the past.

Makeup Artists and Veterans

During World War II wounded Veterans were returning to the United States in record numbers, many with catastrophic injuries that required multiple surgeries with extensive recuperation periods. Others were left with physical scars as well as the emotional scars associated with disfigurement. The Medical Staffs of the Veteran Hospitals were pulling triple shifts just to keep up with the incoming flow of patients that continued to arrive by the plane load from the war theaters in Europe, Africa and Japan. As the war continued Veterans Hospitals counted on Volunteers more and more to tend to the non-medical needs of the patients, of course in the United States as in the rest of the World, the civilian population responded and volunteered to help in whatever way they could with whatever skills they had to offer to ease the pain of the wounded military personnel. Volunteers responded by reading to and writing for the wounded who were unable to read or write because of their injuries, a vital necessity for the wounded to keep in touch with their families. Volunteers helped in any way they could to ease the healing process for the injured returning Veterans.

The Medical Staffs of the Veterans Hospitals were using the best medical techniques that they could to heal the wounded in their care. The physical challenges were significant enough, unfortunately they were not the only challenges in restoring the wounded to health. The returning Veterans whether injured or not were retuning home with the mental scars from the savageries that they encountered in war. The injured Veterans also had the burden of physiological and psychological scars. The Medical Staff constantly under pressure with the sheer volume of injuries did not always have the appropriate time to help the permanently scarred and physically disfigured with their transition back into society. Psychologist and Psychiatrists were at a premium in the Veterans Health System with the enormous volume of injured soldiers whose physical injuries often led to psychological trauma at the sight of their own faces that were disfigured by their wounds.

Everyone on the home front helped in any way they could. The Entertainment Industry became the morale of the troops through the USO which brought entertainment and a taste of home to military personal both home and abroad. The stars of the era used their skills as entertainers and performers to bring a semblance of sanity to a world that was engulfed in the insanity of war. All the Professions and Craftsmen that comprise the Entertainment Industry were utilized to bring entertainment to those that were serving and those that were recovering at home. The Directors, Producers, Choreographers, Musicians, Cameramen, Sound Technicians, and Set Builders all pitched in to bring the best that Hollywood and Broadway had to offer to the troops around the world.

Back home a special skill set that evolved out of the Entertainment Industry became a vital skill in helping to ease the psychically dismembered and psychologically scarred that were recuperating at the Veterans Hospitals around the world. Men like Mehron Melik, who were on the cutting edge of the Makeup Industry saw the opportunity to use their skills. Mehron packed his bag of Makeup and spent his days at Veterans Hospitals on the East Coast showing disfigured Veterans how to use cosmetics to cover the scars and disfigurements that they so detested. One of the magic skills of the Entertainment Industry, Makeup, soon took on a new life at the Veterans Hospitals around the World. The injured and disabled learned from men like Mehron how to apply Makeup to cover the physical ravages of war which in turn gave these Veterans the morale boost they needed to get out and reenter society. Mehron used his Makeup to encourage injured men who didn't want their family to see them, the courage to see them again. Those whose disfigurements would be erased by multiple plastic surgeries were taught to apply Makeup in between surgeries as a transitional tool. Mr. Melik spent years visiting Veterans Hospitals donating his time, skill and Makeup in service to the injured who served their Country.

World War II seems like an eternity to most of us alive today as the last of this Generation is being lost to time, but the lessons remain. Mehron Melik was a forefather of the Makeup Industry that now dominates the Entertainment Industry, he was there through the days of Vaudeville, Burlesque, Silent Films, Talking Films, Technicolor, Television, Color Television and Music Videos. He founded a company by hand making Makeup, and he used those hands to help those in need of his expertise. Mr. Mehron Melik is an example of the unselfish sharing of his skills.

Makeup Artists around the world who wonder what you can contribute when called upon, the answer is easy! Your skill, your artistry, your magical touch are what you can contribute, not only to those injured in war, but also to those touched by tragedy and accidents. The artistry that lies in your hands can change the day for a wounded Veteran, a child disfigured by accident or a warrior battling cancer. The gift in your hands, your ability to envision, your command of texture and color can change a person's life, turning a dreaded day into new beginning. The tools that you use every day to enhance beauty, design body art, create characters, and magically transform one look to another are the tools that are needed to change another person's life in a time of need.

Note to Veterans and Their Families: Mehron Makeup was founded in 1927 and has continuously operated since then, due to corporate moves and damaged archives, Mehron Makeup no longer has any photographic records of Mehron Melik at Veterans Hospitals. If any Veteran or Veteran's Family has any photograph of Mehron Melik working with wounded Veterans, Mehron would like to rebuild the Company Archives and ask that you would consider sharing these photographs with the world through Mehron. As the Greatest Generation leaves us behind, many families will be cleaning out buried treasures stored away by parents and grandparents. If you should come upon any correspondence or photograph referencing the work of Mehron Melik or any Makeup Artist with Veterans, please consider preserving that history by sharing it with the Mehron Archives. Many prominent Makeup Artists volunteered at Veterans Hospitals using their skills in the same way that Mr. Melik used his. We know that Jack Dawn, the Makeup Artist for the Wizard of Oz, and a fixture at the MGM Makeup Department spent countless hours at Veteran Hospitals in the San Diego area. Any documentation concerning Makeup Artists and Veterans that can be preserved, Mehron would like to preserve this historical record. You may email the Mehron Blog , or send mail or packages to: Mehron Archives, 100 Red Schoolhouse Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977