A 90-minute documentary that chronicles Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden’s 50-year rivalry in the cosmetics business has debuted at a small film festival in New England, and is scheduled to air on PBS in 2008. “The Powder & the Glory” tells the inspiring story of Arden and Rubinstein who immigrated to the U.S. a hundred years ago with next to nothing and, though they never met, used their competition as a prod to create what is today the more than $200 billion global beauty industry.

The two female entrepreneurs pioneered the beauty business by making the use of cosmetics not only respectable, but fashionable, too. In doing so, Arden and Rubinstein developed advertising and marketing techniques that are still used today—and became cultural icons in the process.

Narrated by Jane Alexander, “The Powder & the Glory,” a film by Ann Carol Grossman and Arnie Reisman, features interviews with people who knew Arden and Rubinstein. Hundreds of archival stills and newsreels give first-hand insight into how the two were influenced by the times—and influential in their own right. Each decade is introduced with a model made up to show how cosmetics have changed through the years from 1900 to the 1960s.