Where the two Thomases related?
What were the connections between Harriet Hubbard Ayer, the woman who died in 1903, and the Harriet Hubbard Ayer company that was launched in 1907?
One possible link would be a friendship between Lillian Sefton and Margaret Hubbard Ayer, who appeared in at least one theatrical production together -- Ziegfeld's "Red Feather" (1903). Sefton married Benjamin V. Thomas in 1905, two years before Thomas launched the Harriet Hubbard Ayer corporation.
A second possibility (more remote!) is that Benjamin V. Thomas was, in some way, related to the publisher, Henry T. Thomas, who had been a friend of Harriet Hubbard Ayer. This would not have been a close relationship but could there have been a more distant relationship between the two men, one that might have sparked Benjamin Thomas's interest in the cosmetics business?
We just don't know.
Posted: 01/30/2009
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