Jules Montenier

Jules Bernard Montenier (March 23, 1895 – August 20, 1962), of Chicago, Illinois, was an American inventor and a cosmetic chemist.He founded Jules Montenier, Inc., a cosmetics company, and invented Stopette, an antiperspirant that was a longtime sponsor of the CBS game show What's My Line?.This patent dealt with solving the problem of the excessive acidity of aluminum chloride (then, as now, the best-working antiperspirant known to chemistry), by adding a soluble nitrile or a similar compound.This innovation found its way into Stopette antiperspirant/deodorant spray, which Time called "the best-selling deodorant of the early 1950s";[3] a virtually identical patent was granted in the United Kingdom as GB0527439.2,642,313);[5] this was developed in 1947 when Montenier, working with engineers from the Plax Corporation, invented a commercial use for the plastic bottle.Heller said, "I figured once I could get those cameramen and their flowered shirts controlled and fairly immobile, we might be able to let this show emerge.In addition, before the third show, Heller requested an hour rehearsal for the camera crew with mock panelists and contestants.As he signed in, he was identified on-screen as "Dr. Jules Montenier, Creator & Manufacturer of Stopette"; his "line" was "Our Sponsor (For Past Six Years)."It turned out that the purpose of Montenier's visit was to give his belated congratulations to the show for its six years on television.The audience was not given any explanation for this change, but some viewers would have read in the newspapers that Montenier had had his left leg amputated as the result of a car crash at the end of May 1954.Notable markets that were missing the show until the late 1950s included Columbus, Georgia; Tallahassee, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Meridian, Mississippi; and Lexington, Kentucky.[11] In 1956, Jules Montenier, Inc. was sold to Helene Curtis Industries, Inc.,[12] thereby giving the products a national market and thus enabling What's My Line?