Lillian Greneker

Lillian Louise Lidman was born in Savannah, Georgia, the daughter of William F. Lidman and Louise Anderson Lidman.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36625077/obituary_for_louise_lidman/|title=Lidman|date=January 11, 1955|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=October 2, 2019|page=22|via=Newspapers.com}} Her parents were immigrants from Sweden. The Lidman family moved to Chicago when Lillian was young. She attended a Swedenborgian boarding school in Ohio.{{Cite web|url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/5390|title=Collection: Papers of Lillian Louise Lidman Greneker, 1890-1990|website=HOLLIS for Archival Discovery|access-date=2019-10-01}}

As a young woman, Lillian Lidman was a musical performer on the stage, touring with a stock company out of Chicago.{{Cite journal|last=York|first=Allen|date=May 10, 1918|title=The Workshop Players|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lG9FAQAAMAAJ&q=Lillian+Lidman&pg=RA13-PA14|journal=The Music News|volume=10|pages=14}} She also designed costumes for theatre.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WtsyAQAAIAAJ&q=Lillian+Lidman&pg=PA444|title=The Centennial of the State of Illinois: Report of the Centennial Commission|last=Commission|first=Illinois Centennial|date=1920|publisher=Illinois State Journal Company, State Printers|pages=444|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/masqueofillinois00rice_0|title=The masque of Illinois / presented by the Illinois Centennial commission, October fourth and fifth, nineteen hundred and eighteen, eight-fifteen P.M., Coliseum, Illinois State Fair grounds, Springfield|last=Rice|first=Wallace|publisher=Jeffersons Print. Co.|others=State Library of Pennsylvania|pages=[https://archive.org/details/masqueofillinois00rice_0/page/17 17]}} After she married, she lived in the New York area, and designed and built several houses in Mount Kisco, New York.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/obituaries/l-l-greneker-95-made-mannequins-with-movable-parts.html|title=L. L. Greneker, 95; Made Mannequins With Movable Parts|last=Cook|first=Joan|date=February 6, 1990|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 1, 2019|page=D25}} After her husband asked her to create lightweight poseable mannequins for a theatre lobby display, she patented her designs,Lillian L. Greneker, "Display Form" (1939), US Patent application; US27765739A patent granted 1940.Lillian L. Greneker, [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2165475 "Display Structure"] (1938), US Patent application; US2165475A patent granted 1939.Lillian L. Greneker, [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2165476 "Display Head"] (1939), US Patent application. US2165476A patent granted 1939. including one with colleague Cora Scovil,Cora L Scovil and Lillian L Greneker, [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2081071A/en "Ornamental object and method of making the same"] (1936), US Patent application; US2081071A patent granted 1937. and formed the Greneker Corporation with Edgar Rosenthal in 1937, to produce mannequins.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-CsxDwAAQBAJ&q=Lillian+Greneker&pg=PT156|title=Visual Merchandising: The Image of Selling|last=Strege|first=Gayle|date=2017-07-05|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781351537452|editor-last=Iarocci|editor-first=Louisa|language=en|chapter=The Store Mannequin: An Evolving Ideal of Beauty}}{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@joannharris_53598/the-evolution-of-the-mannequin-2bd7740f851c|title=The Evolution of The Mannequin|last=Harris|first=Jo Ann|date=2019-03-04|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=2019-10-01}} She built mannequins with rubber waists, to allow cinching into a "wasp" silhouette as well as more natural positioning. "Many claimes to 'firsts' in mannequin art are credited to Mrs. Greneker," explained a 1939 newspaper account.{{Cite news|title=Window Ladies Adopt Wasp Waists|last=Taylor|first=Matilda|date=September 19, 1939|work=Women's Wear Daily|page=II-28}}

She talked about her work with host Adelaide Hawley on an early television program, "The Lady Means Business", in 1946.{{Cite news|title=Lillian Greneker on Video Show Tomorrow|date=May 14, 1946|work=Women's Wear Daily|page=94|via=ProQuest}} In 1951 she left the Greneker Corporation{{Cite news|title=Mrs. Greneker Sells Interests|date=March 16, 1951|work=Women's Wear Daily|page=2}} and founded Lillian Greneker Inc., adding other display items and theatrical props to her product line.{{Cite news|title=Lillian Greneker Heads New Firm|date=May 1, 1951|work=Women's Wear Daily|page=61}} Greneker's company moved to Los Angeles after World War II.{{Cite web|url=https://companyweek.com/company-profile/greneker|title=Company Profile: Greneker (Los Angeles, CA; mannequins)|website=Company Week|access-date=2019-10-01}}

Greneker invented the Fingertip, a thimble with various gadget attachments, in the 1930s.{{Cite web|url=http://blog.modernmechanix.com/small-utility-tools-are-attached-to-finger-tips/|title=Small Utility Tools Are Attached To Finger Tips|date=July 1937|website=Modern Mechanix|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-01}}{{Cite news|title=Chores Made Easy by Fingertip Tools|date=March 9, 1937|work=The New York Times|page=25}} When her mannequin factory in Pleasantville, New York, was converted for defense use during World War II, she invented a disposable self-sealing gas tank for planes and submarines.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hvzQ92AETsC&q=Lillian+Greneker&pg=PT29|title=Women Invent!: Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World|last=Casey|first=Susan|date=1997|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=9781569765111|language=en}}Lillian L. Greneker, [https://patents.google.com/patent/US2343292 "Destructible Form"] (1943), US Patent application; US2343292A patent granted 1944.{{Cite news|url=http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83008557/1965-10-14/ed-1/seq-32/#date1=01%2F01%2F1725&index=0&date2=12%2F31%2F2015&searchType=advanced&SearchType=prox5&sequence=0&words=Greneker+Lillian&proxdistance=5&to_year=2015&rows=20&ortext=&from_year=1725&proxtext=Lillian+Greneker&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1|title=The Versatile Mrs. Greneker; Her Rope Trick was a World War II Secret|last=Wolfinger|first=Florence|date=October 14, 1965|work=Patent Trader|access-date=October 2, 2019|page=32|via=NYS Historic Newspapers}} In 1978, she received one more patent, an update to her thimble concept.Lillian L. Greneker, [https://patents.google.com/patent/US4177698 "Finger Fit Implement"] (1978), US Patent application; US4177698A patent granted 1979.

Lillian Greneker exhibited her sculptures in New York in the 1950s.{{Cite news|title=Art Show to Aid Two U. N. Groups|date=June 3, 1956|work=The New York Times|page=109}} She worked on a new design for theatrical sets in the 1950s, to make lightweight papier-mâché dimensional backdrops.{{Cite news|url=http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn2001062038/1955-08-04/ed-1/seq-2/|title=Papier Mache Taking Place of Stagehands|last=Taylor|first=Bertram|date=August 4, 1955|work=Chappaqua Sun|access-date=October 2, 2019|page=2|via=NYS Historic Newspapers}} In 1970 she was credited as production designer on a horror film, Guru, the Mad Monk.{{Cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/20920|title=Guru, the Mad Monk (1970)|website=AFI Catalog|access-date=2019-10-01}}

Lillian Lidman married Claude Pritchard Greneker, a theatre publicist, in 1921. She was widowed in 1949,{{Cite news|title=C. P. Greneker Dies; Shuberts' Aide, 68|date=April 8, 1949|work=The New York Times|page=25}} and she died in 1990, aged 94 years, at an actors' nursing home in New Jersey.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36625181/lillian_lidman_greneker_1990/|title=Deaths Elsewhere|date=February 8, 1990|work=Detroit Free Press|access-date=October 2, 2019|page=18|via=Newspapers.com}} Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard, and include plays and poems she wrote, photographs, and clippings.

Her house in Mount Kisco is now known as the Greneker Retreat, and the gardens are open once a year for tours.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gardenconservancy.org/open-days/garden-directory/the-greneker-retreat|title=The Greneker Retreat : Garden Directory|website=The Garden Conservancy|language=en|access-date=2019-10-01}}{{Cite web|url=https://abcnymoms.com/westchester-county-open-days/|title=Tour Private Gardens During the Westchester County Open Days|date=2019-06-27|website=ABCNY Moms|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-01}} The Greneker mannequin company remains in operation, based in Los Angeles, though the manufacturing now occurs in China.{{Cite news|url=https://thecurvyfashionista.com/plus-size-mannequins-greneker/|title=Where are the Plus-Sized Mannequins? Greneker is Here to Help!|last=Barr|first=Elizabeth|date=October 2018|work=The Curvy Fashionista|access-date=October 1, 2019}} In 2018, a Greneker mannequin nicknamed "Starman" was seated behind the wheel of an Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster and launched into space by SpaceX.{{Cite web|url=https://insights.retailenvironments.org/2018/02/14/greneker-mannequin-takes-flight-spacex/|title=Greneker mannequin takes flight with SpaceX|date=2018-02-14|website=Shop! Insights Center|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-01}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0340195}}
• [https://greneker.com/ Greneker] company website

{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography|portal2=|portal3=}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greneker, Lillian}}

Category:1895 births

Category:1990 deaths

Category:20th-century American inventors

Category:20th-century American people

Category:American designers

Category:American inventors

Category:American women civilians in World War II

Category:American women inventors

Category:People from Mount Kisco, New York

Category:People from Savannah, Georgia

Category:20th-century women inventors