This is a subscriber-only article.

Save 20% on Entrepreneur+ during our Spring Growth Flash Sale

Use code SPRING20 at checkout.

Subscribe Now

Already have an account?

Sign in
Entrepreneur Plus - Short White
For Subscribers

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 »

Joan Marcus
From left: Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole.

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?