Max Factor

Factor, of Polish-Jewish descent, was born in Zduńska Wola to Abraham Faktorowicz (1850/52 – before 1938) and Cecylia Wrocławska. His father, a hard-working grocer, rabbi, or textile mill worker (depending upon the source), could not afford a formal education for his four children.

By the age of eight years, Factor was working as an assistant to a dentist and pharmacist. At the age of nine, he was apprenticed to a wig maker and cosmetician in Łódź. That experience enabled him to gain a position at Anton's of Berlin, a leading hairstylist and cosmetics creator. By the age of fourteen, he was working at Korpo, a Moscow wig maker and cosmetician to the Imperial Russian Grand Opera. He spent the years from age eighteen to twenty-two undertaking his compulsory military service in the Imperial Russian Army, where he served in the Hospital Corps.

Upon his discharge, he opened his own shop in the town of Ryazan, selling hand-made rouges, creams, fragrances, and wigs. He became well known when a traveling theatrical troupe wore Factor's cosmetics to perform for Russian nobility. The Russian nobility appointed Factor the official cosmetics expert for the royal family and the Imperial Russian Grand Opera, an honor which led to him being closely monitored. He married Esther Rosa (whom he called Lizzie) and by early 1904 they had produced three children, Freda, Cecilia and Davis. By 1904, concerned about the increasing anti-Jewish persecution developing in the Russian Empire, he and his wife decided to follow his brother Nathan and uncle Fischel to America. Worried that he would not be released from his royal service, he arranged with the assistance of a friend to take a rest cure at Karlovy Vary. According to another version he escaped with his family through the frosty woods straight into the harbor with a waiting ship. After meeting up with his family they traveled in the steerage class on board the S.S. Moltke III and were processed at Ellis Island on February 25, 1904; he had US$400 in his possession. They settled in St. Louis, Missouri.

Max Factor had six children:

Freda Shore (January 22, 1898 – June 18, 1988)

Cecilia Firestein (October 17, 1899 – May 28, 1984)

Davis Factor (February 2, 1902 – August 31, 1991)

Francis "Frank" Factor (later known as Max Factor Jr.; August 18, 1904 – June 7, 1996)

Louis Factor (August 29, 1907 – December 1975)

Sidney B. Factor (February 14, 1916 – December 15, 2005)

In 2003 Andrew Luster (born December 15, 1963), great-grandson (son of adopted granddaughter), was convicted of multiple sexual assaults involving the use of GHB to render his victims unconscious.

Max Factor's half-brother John (October 8, 1892 – January 22, 1984) was a Prohibition-era gangster and con-artist affiliated with the Chicago Outfit.