Came across this advertisement the other day from the March 21, 1933 Albuquerque Journal:

My first reaction was probably like yours: Mayonnaise as centerpiece of dieting strategy? I actually wrote up a bit about that ludricrous idea, but scratched it after researching my next question: Who was Lilyan Tashman?

A classic movie fan, I don’t remember running into Ms. Tashman’s name/career before seeing this ad the other day. An exhaustive ten second dive into her Wikipedia page reveals Ms. Tashman was primarily a silent film star, and by the ad’s appearance in 1933 was not nearly as well known as before talkies. Still, she did appear in three 1933 films, working with stars like Bing Crosby and Charlie Ruggles and appeared 1934’s “Riptide,” starring big-hitters Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery and Herbert Marshall. You can see her 54 seconds into this trailer for the movie.

It is in 1934 that our story of mayonnaise and Lilyan Tashman takes a sad turn, for in that same year of “Rip Tide” Ms. Tashman died from cancer, age 37. While one is tempted to snark on the irony of mayo-as-diet and early death, Lilyan Tashman’s short life and story was much more interesting and remarkable. Instead of copy/pasting her bio, readers can just go beyond Wiki to find out more here, here, and here.

The role of women in cinema during the “classic” period is a fascinating story of the challenges many actresses/screenwriters (and Ida Lupino as director, too) fought, sometimes overcame, and always led as social vanguard to greater rights and freedom today. I find it a story underemphasized amid all the glamour and stardom. I’m glad I came across a silly mayonnaise ad to find Lilyan Tashman as another player in that relatively untold story.