Pierre Wertheimer

Wertheimer was born 8 January 1888, the second of two sons, to Ernest Wertheimer and Mathilde Wertheimer (née Bollack). His father emigrated from Alsace to Paris in 1870.

Family business

In Paris, the elder Wertheimer purchased an interest in the theatrical make-up company Bourjois. Bourjois, an innovator in these products for the stage, developed the first dry rouge, an improvement over the grease laden face paint customarily used. By 1920, Bourjois had become the largest and most successful cosmetic and fragrance company in France. Not restricted to the European continent, Bourjois was an international enterprise with corporate holdings in America. Their facility in Rochester, New York manufactured and distributed the Helena Rubinstein line of face creams. Maintaining Bourjois as a family business, Pierre Wertheimer and his brother Paul took over the directorship of the company in 1917.

Personal life and death

In October 1910, Pierre Wertheimer married Germaine Revel (1888-1975), a daughter of a stockbroker and a member of the Lazard family of investment bankers. Revel was a great-granddaughter of the founder of Lazard.

They had one son:

Jacques Guy Wertheimer (1911-1996), who was married and divorced to Eliane Fischer, had two sons Alain Wertheimer and Gérard Wertheimer.

Wertheimer died on 24 April 1965 aged 77 in Paris, France.