Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
Estee Lauder was born in Corona, Queens] New York City the second child born to Rose Schotz and Max Mentzer.[8][9] Her parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants on the mother's side her grandmother was from Sátoraljaújhely and her grandfather from Gelle (now Holice, Slovakia),while her father had Czech-Jewish ancestry. Lauder's claims of descent from European aristocracy were discredited in a biography, Estée Lauder: Beyond the Magic (1985) by Lee Israel; her New York Times obituary observed 'she was a New Yorker and not an aristocrat at all', notwithstanding 'the mythmaking that is so much of the magic of the beauty industry'] Her 'favourite story was that she had been brought up by her Viennese mother in fashionable Flushing, Long Island, in a sumptuous home with stables, a chauffeured car and an Italian nurse.'
In actuality, her mother Rose emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1898 with her five children to join her husband, Abraham Rosenthal.[8] But, in 1905, she married Max Mentzer, a shopkeeper who had also immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. When their daughter was born, they wanted to name her Eszti, after her mother's favorite Hungarian aunt, but decided at the last minute to keep the name "Josephine", which they had agreed upon. However, the baby's nickname became "Estee", the name she would grow up using and responding to. Eventually, when she launched her perfume empire with her husband, she added an accent mark to make her name look French and began pronouncing it the way her father had in his Hungarian accent.
Estee Lauder was born in Corona, Queens] New York City the second child born to Rose Schotz and Max Mentzer.[8][9] Her parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants on the mother's side her grandmother was from Sátoraljaújhely and her grandfather from Gelle (now Holice, Slovakia),while her father had Czech-Jewish ancestry. Lauder's claims of descent from European aristocracy were discredited in a biography, Estée Lauder: Beyond the Magic (1985) by Lee Israel; her New York Times obituary observed 'she was a New Yorker and not an aristocrat at all', notwithstanding 'the mythmaking that is so much of the magic of the beauty industry'] Her 'favourite story was that she had been brought up by her Viennese mother in fashionable Flushing, Long Island, in a sumptuous home with stables, a chauffeured car and an Italian nurse.'
In actuality, her mother Rose emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1898 with her five children to join her husband, Abraham Rosenthal.[8] But, in 1905, she married Max Mentzer, a shopkeeper who had also immigrated to the United States in the 1890s. When their daughter was born, they wanted to name her Eszti, after her mother's favorite Hungarian aunt, but decided at the last minute to keep the name "Josephine", which they had agreed upon. However, the baby's nickname became "Estee", the name she would grow up using and responding to. Eventually, when she launched her perfume empire with her husband, she added an accent mark to make her name look French and began pronouncing it the way her father had in his Hungarian accent.
