Broadway's 'War Paint' Teaches Us to Embrace Risk and Never Settle Actresses Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole share what the first female celebrity entrepreneurs can teach us today.
By Stephanie Schomer •
This story appears in the April 2017 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
In the early 1900s, Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden were considered two of the first female celebrity entrepreneurs in America. They built competing cosmetic empires at a time when women were rarely welcome in the workplace. Now they're subjects of the new Broadway musical War Paint -- and the Tony Award-winning actors who portray them, Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, say their lessons are just as relevant today.
Related: 5 Powerful Rules for Women Entrepreneurs to Live By
Arden and Rubinstein became business titans at a time when women weren't expected to have ambitions. What drove them to create these empires?