This did not happen with British brushmaker Mason Pearson, a favorite brand of preppies and style conscious folk in the U.S. and other Anglophone  countries.

Mason Pearson, who apparently worked at a company called British Steam Brush Works, was an inventor in what became known as Raper Pearson and Gill. In the late 19th century, Mason Pearson invented a machine to mechanize brush production

In 1885, he invented the rubber-cushion hairbrush. Today’s design is remarkably like the old, and have minor improvements, all in the same sizes of Large Extra, Small Extra, Popular and Junior.

When Ascendia Brands went bankrupt, they sold a number of brands to new owners. One of the most storied brands was Dorothy Gray, which sold, with the Tussy deodorant line, for $1 milllion to KCM Brands LLC, according to Reuters.

While production has resumed on other Ascendia brands like Mr. Bubble that went to new owners, consumers are still asking BrandlandUSA about Dorothy Gray’s Satura cream and Tussy.

We have been unable to find out about KCM Brands LLC, and the return of production. Any ideas?

We have written a number of times to the email address that was on the website, but have not heard back, though we have gotten a form-letter thank you as recently as December.

Dear valued patron,

Thank you for writing to the new Georgette Klinger.  Kathryn and Trevor are working hard to restore the company and start producing products in the near future.  We will let you know as soon as we are back up and running.  We will try our best to respond personally to the emails we receive within 7-10 days.  If you do not hear back, please know that we truly appreciate our clients and look forward to serving you again in the near future.

Best wishes,

Kathryn and Trevor
The new Georgette Klinger
www.georgetteklinger.com

When the company shut down in 2007, it had 11 salons and employed about 300 people. It had long been separated from the family, and was in the midst of a grand expansion plan that failed.

The chain was founded in New York in 1941 by Georgette Klinger, who died in January of 2004. Their Madison Avenue salon was one of those quintessential New York experiences. In the age of glamour, Klinger sold health. The family sold out in 1988; at the time the sales were in $20 million range, according to the Klinger release.

It would seem a likely candidate for revival as opening a salon has very low barriers to entry, as they say in economics land. Getting the formula back into production seems to be more of a daunting an expensive thing, but that too can be done modestly.

We are sure it is a challenging time for any start-up; we wish the children well. We guess fans will still have to wait.

Now on our Top 100 List

If you want to see how much America has lost its innocence, one need only look at the Pfizer Company and its most advertised products.

In the 1960s, one of Pfizer’s best known advertised products was the cologne Hai Karate, made by Pfizer’s Leeming/Pacquin division. The ads featured a nerdy looking guy who had to fight off a woman with karate because of the incredible scent of Hai Karate. Read our post on Hai Karate, with a link to a old commercial. Very funny.

Looking back on it, it was all very innocent. Especially compared to today, when Pfizer’s best known product is Viagra.

Still famous today

Even though Hai Karate is no longer on the shelves, it still gets attention because of those ads and its cult status. It makes a cameo in The Incredibles, and is a running joke on the Bill Bennett Morning in America radio program. Simon Doonan associates it with the disco years in New York. Donny Deutsch this year talked about it on the Today Show.

Just last week, BrandlandUSA reader Gabriel Arregui asked us to put Hai Karate on our list of BrandlandUSA’s 100 Brands to Bring Back. We did. Thank you Gabriel! If we had a bottle, we would send you one.

Leeming/Pacquin History

Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, bought the Leonard Leeming Company in 1961. Leeming made personal care items, and Pfizer turned the company into one of the largest health and beauty aid companies in the nation. The Leeming family was an old Brooklyn socialite name, and the Leeming name was preserved after the merger, though renamed.

The renamed Leeming/Pacquin, the division of Pfizer, was known for brands that included Barbasol, Ben Gay and Visine. The Pacquin brand survived until just recently. The hand cream has recently been discontinued by Johnson & Johnson, which bought the consumer products division of Pfizer in 2006. Today, there is an Internet based effort to bring Pacquin’s Hand Cream back.

Hai Karate $200 million product

At the height of its popularity, Hai Karate was selling over $200 million in product a year, including soap on a rope, shaving cream, talcum powder, cologne and after shave. The cologne came in four scents, including Regular, Oriental Lime, Oriental Spice and Iced Hai. It apparently returned in the 1990s for a time, according to press reports. The bottle said that it “originated on the island of Manhattan five years ago.”

If consumers ever wish to have Hai Karate again, there is some chance they might. Today, according to the records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the trademark for Hai Karate Cologne is now owned by a company called Miner’s International in Surrey, England. The after shave trademark, however, is owned by Hanson Trading of Hong Kong. So we guess that means that if you wanted to give someone a boxed set of Hai Karate on a future Christmas holiday, that might be a bit difficult.

We checked some other cologne brands of the era. They include:

• DaVinci by the Steven Lewis Co. of Hollywood (one of the scents was L.S.D.)
• Cologne Pub
• Aramis
• Chant D’Aromes by Guerlain
• Canoe by Dana
• English Leather
• 4711, The Refreshant Cologne
• Villa d’Est, made by the MEM Company of New Jersey
• Wolff Freres of New York

The Osmotheque website lists of dozens of perfumes by database according to year launched, brand name, type of scent and parent company. At the Osmothéque conservatory, the old scents are stored in a temperature controlled basement inside “metal flasks filled with argon gas.”

The article mentions perfume sleuth Anitra Earle in New York, who found a bottle of Mitsouko bath oil for the Vogue writer. Apparently, Earle has 20,000 names of “perfume widows” who search for “disappeared” scents.

What are some of the notable scents?

1. Tabac Blond by Caron, which was created by Ernest Daltroff in 1919. At the shop, you could bring in perfume bottles and have them refilled.
2. Le Fruit Défendu.
3. Nuit de Chine.
4. Iris Silver Mist by Lutens.
5. Rose Jacqueminot by François Coty.

Popular old scents

1. Woodhue by Fabergé.
2. Rose Barbare by Guerlain.

Vintage Scents, Some Reformulated

1. Cuir de Russie by Chanel, which was released in 1924.
2. Knize Ten by Knize Ten. It is a 1924 scent from the Viennese tailor shop of the same name.
3. Cabochard, by Grés, a scent that dates from 1959.
4. Jolie Madame by Balmain, a 1953 scent.

Revived Perfume Companies

1. Paul Poiret’s Parfums de Rosine. The Poiret parfumerie closed in 1991, but the name was revived by Marie-Héléne Rogeon in 1991 as Les Parfums de Rosine.

Disappeared Scents

1. Iris Gris by Jacques Fath. The perfume was created by Vincent Roubert in 1947, was discontinued in 1954. Replacement iris scents? Vogue recommends Bois d’Iris from Different Company, Iris Poudre by Fréderic Malle and 28 La Pausa from Chanel.
2. Société Colette, a Parisian parfumerie that opened in 1932.
3. Scandal by Lanvin. It was composed by André Fraysse in 1933 and was shut down in 1971.

Where to find old perfumes?

1. Roja Dove, the parfumerie on Harrods fifth floor, has old perfumes from around the world. There one might find disappeared brands like Schiaparelli’s Shocking (recently re-released) and Guerlain’s Liu.