This is the story of one of the most powerful,

controversial and ruthless self-made men in

American business history. Charles Revson

started with one bottle of nail polish and a

fine ear for female fantasy and built an empire

-the Revlon Company-worth millions from

them. Revson became as legendary as the com-

pany he built. He was a man who combined

the same glittering contradictions expressed

in his famous campaign. He was fire; he was

ice-even to the women who slept with him.

Marketing genius, power broker, firer, hirer,

flatterer, hypochondriac, adoring husband,

philanderer, skinflint and big spender, Revson

became the subject of several novels and hun-

dreds of gossip columnists words. But the

glamorous, cutthroat cosmetics industry-a

world of top models, big spending, and fierce

competitiveness, for formulas and campaigns

-the bright and beautiful life reported along

the city s chicest grapevines, was only part of

the tale. Revson fired and hired top executives

with a devastating, high-speed revolving door

technique that earned him a reputation as the

world s richest son of a bitch.