The Cosmetics Baron You've Never Heard Of: E. Virgil Neal and Tokalon

Who was the real E. Virgil Neal, cosmetics and perfume baron contemporary of Helena Rubinstein, Elizabeth Arden and Richard Hudnut: entrepreneur extraordinaire? snake-oil salesman? philanthropist? criminal and traitor? Who was Emma, the wife who performed hypnotism demonstrations with him in Pennsylvania mining towns under his alias Xenophon LaMotte Sage? What happened to E. Virgil's second wife Harriett Meta Meister, who helped him create Tokalon, the cosmetic boxes, perfume flagons and products of which are still sold on the Internet? Was his beautiful and charming only child Xen a changeling? This book explores the adventures of E. Virgil Neal, founder of Tokalon: his origins in post-Civil War Missouri; education and professorship at the Central Business College, Sedalia, MO, and at Peirce College, Philadelphia; authorship of banking and accounting tomes; gigs as hypnotist and personal magnetism guru; hucksterer of health nostrums in Syracuse, NY, and in the USSR; his glory days in his chateau in Nice, as husband of the lovely Renee; the dark days in Europe during World War II; and his relationship with underworld figures, downfall and demise. The book also examines what made Tokalon profitable and long lived in the highly competitive environment of the perfume and cosmetics world.