The Nethercutt-Richards family is an American family prominent in the fields of cars and cosmetics.

Notable members

* Merle Norman (1887-1972) - founder of

Merle Norman Cosmetics Merle Norman Cosmetics Inc. or simply known as Merle Norman, is an American multinational cosmetics company that manufactures skin care and makeup products founded in 1931 by Merle Norman. The company is known for pioneering the "try before you ...

* J.B. Nethercutt (1913-2004) - founder of The Nethercutt Collection * Jack Nethercutt II (born 1936) - former racing driver * Helen Richards-Nethercutt (born 1952) - autism awareness activist

Cars

The family has over 250 prestigious and exotic vehicles housed mostly at the 10 story-tall

Nethercutt Collection The Nethercutt Collection is a multi-storied museum and car collection complex located in Sylmar, California. It was founded by J.B. Nethercutt in 1971 and its centerpiece is the prestigious automobile collection of the Nethercutt-Richards family ...

complex, which has been described as one of the greatest collections in the world by several media publications. The car collection notably contains the Bugatti Dubos and the

Twenty Grand Twenty Grand (1928–1948) was an American thoroughbred race horse. Owned and bred by Helen Hay Whitney's Greentree Stable, Twenty Grand was a bay colt by St. Germans out of Bonus. Racing career Trained at age three by James G. Rowe, Jr. ...

Duesenberg. The collection holds a record 6

Best of Show Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation, ...

titles at the

Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. It is widely considered the pinnacle event of its kind and one of the most prestigious car events i ...

. Jack Nethercutt II raced professionally from the 1950s to 1960s, most notably in the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and ...

series.

Business

Merle Norman founded

in 1931 by opening her first studio in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. The company expanded to a

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and th ...

chain A chain is a wikt:series#Noun, serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression (physics), compression but line (g ...

and encompassed dozens of studio outlets across the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawai ...

, most of which were owned by women. The company further expanded to thousands of outlets throughout North America, Europe, and Asia becoming a centi-million dollar operation. In 1969, the company went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

on the

American Stock Exchange NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was kno ...

and sold 400,000 shares at $25. In 1974, the family bought back all the public stock and the company reverted to being

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

.https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6305&context=ylj They owned an independent

chemistry laboratory Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properti ...

in the 1970s and a luxury restaurant near the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas cit ...

in the 1990s.

Philanthropy

The family has donated several million to charities, medical institutions, veterans, and churches. In 1985 J.B. Nethercutt donated $1 million to the town of Kenora, Canada for a new emergency department. In 1986, the family donated several million which led to the construction of the six-story Merle Norman Pavilion at the

UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center is a hospital located within the city of Santa Monica, California. The hospital was founded in 1926, and is a member of the UCLA Health. The hospital is also known internationally for operating its Rape Treatmen ...

. In 2007 the Nethercutt Emergency Center was opened at the hospital. Helen Richards-Nethercutt has funded research for

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

programs. They have donated to the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

Historic Estates

* Merle Norman House (built 1935),

Mediterranean Revival Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonia ...

ocean view estate in

that became a Santa Monica Historic Landmark. * San Sylmar (built 1971),

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

tower estate in

Sylmar, Los Angeles Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and is the northernmost neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles. Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to the 18th century and t ...

that was one of the

largest houses in the United States This is a list of the 100+ largest extant and historic houses in the United States, ordered by area of the main house. The list includes houses that have been demolished, houses that are currently under construction, and buildings that are not cu ...

at 60,000 square feet.

References

External links

The Nethercutt Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nethercutt-Richards Family American families Business families of the United States