Merle Norman Comes Home

   Merle Norman created her renowned cosmetics company in a garage laboratory in Santa Monica in 1931, and moved into an elegant Streamline Moderne building on Main Street in Ocean in 1935.
   The building, which bears her name, has been faithfully preserved, but the latest Merle Norman Cosmetics Studio is located across town, on Montana Avenue, in a terra cotta Spanish style building.
   Attending the new studio’s ribbon-cutting on September 20 was Mae Laborde, one of Merle Norman’s original customers, several Merle Norman executives, Santa Monica Mayor Michael Feinstein, and Chamber of Commerce President Linda Tisherman.
   The company’s CEO Arthur Armstrong said, “Santa Monica is very important to us. It’s where we started. We had a studio in Santa Monica up until 2000. We’ve wanted someone to fill that void.”
   Gina Jacoby, owner of the Montana studio, went to work in the salon of a friend when she was 13. She opened her first Merle Norman Cosmetics Studio in Studio City.
   For the opening, a classic 1932 Maybach Zeppelin automobile, owned by board chairman J.B. Nethercutt, was parked at the curb.
   At 729 Montana, Merle Norman Cosmetics Studio is open seven days a week, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.