Tova Beverly Hills Founder Tova Borgnine, Who Sold Millions Of Fragrance Units On QVC, Dies At 80

Tova Borgnine, founder and CEO of Tova Beverly Hills, the first brand to sell perfume on QVC, died Saturday from natural causes. She was 80.

Long before direct-to-consumer brands became central players in the beauty industry, Borgnine was a master at selling beauty products directly to consumers. When high-end department stores declined to pick up her merchandise, she sold it through catalogs depicting the glamorous lifestyle of Beverly Hills—according to Tova Beverly Hills, Burt Reynolds’ Arabian Stallion and a $117 million Concorde jet were available alongside the brand’s products in the catalogs—and toll-free telephone calls prior to launching on home-shopping television in 1991 with QVC. In its premiere on the network, 10,000 units of Tova Beverly Hills’ Signature eau de parfum were snapped up in under 10 minutes.

Over 12 million bottles of the fragrance, which was originally introduced in 1982, five years after Borgnine started her company, have been purchased by QVC customers to date. Tova Beverly Hills has regularly generated annual beauty product sales of $15 million to $20 million. Although it’s best known for fragrance, the brand was founded with skincare and extended to a number of product categories during its history, including color cosmetics, haircare, body care, men’s and jewelry.

Surmounting enormous skepticism about her ability to sell Tova Beverly Hills’ fragrances via television, Borgnine flourished on QVC because she could rivetingly capture them with her words. A spokeswoman for QVC says, “Tova was a beauty icon, an accomplished businesswoman, and a true visionary with incredible talent and passion. She was one of the pioneering brands to have sold fragrance through our live video commerce platforms 30 years ago and has been captivating and inspiring QVC customers around the world ever since. We are so honored to have known and loved her.”

Michele Uram, COO of Tova Beverly Hills, says television shopping gave Tova Beverly Hills a broad reach for its accessible products. Signature is priced at $69 at QVC. “Tova has always felt that every person should be able to enjoy the benefits of luxury quality beauty products at a price that’s attainable,” says Uram. On QVC, she continues, “Customers could feel the emotion of the products and what they were going to make you feel like when you wear them. That’s a very difficult thing to do. Tova was one of the most amazing storytellers. She literally takes you on a journey when she speaks about her story and memories of her life.”

Borgnine’s life is certainly memorable. Born Tove Traesnaes in Oslo on Nov. 17, 1941, she emigrated from Norway to the United States at the age of 7. In the brand’s recounting, her translator mother Aase arrived in the country with $70 and a determination to succeed. She impressed upon her daughter that, in the U.S., “It be done,” a dictum that influenced Borgnine’s trajectory.

While attempting to begin a career as an actress and model in New York, Borgnine discovered cosmetology and makeup, and decided to study with makeup artists to bolster her beauty bona fides. She went on to open a beauty boutique on the New Jersey shore named Tova’s Touch. Uram says it was an early retail partner of Neutrogena.

Borgnine sold the business and moved to Las Vegas, where she noticed visiting celebrities and showgirls could be helped by a local destination for makeup. They had largely been ordering makeup from New York. She established makeup concessions at Caesar’s Palace and the International Hotel to cater to them. Movie star Merle Oberon was a client, and Borgnine was a huge admirer of her immaculate skin. She pestered Oberon for her beauty secret repeatedly. Oberon succumbed to the pestering and spilled it was face mask based on an Aztec recipe with Mexican cactus. In 1975, Borgnine secured the rights to distribute it.

“Tova was one of the most amazing storytellers.”

By then, Borgnine had become the fifth and final wife of Ernest Borgnine, and relocated to Beverly Hills. Borgnine was her third husband. She met the actor, who died of kidney failure in 2012, on a blind date arranged by comedian Marty Allen. Ernest Borgnine was instrumental in the rise of Tova Beverly Hills. The company secured the distribution rights to the cactus mask—the brand dubbed it Cactine Face Masque—as he was filming in Mexico.

Ernest Borgnine furthered his wife’s business by mentioning it to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. The resulting piece headlined “Ernest Borgnine’s Wife Discovers Facelift In A Jar—All The Stars Use It” was reprinted in several newspapers and led to a windfall of around $56,000 from customers wanting the mask even though it hadn’t been produced. Within 12 weeks, Borgnine completed the packaging, manufactured the product and had it shipped to the eager customers.

Because traditional retailers weren’t as eager about Borgnine’s products, she got creative to draw an audience to them. On top of catalogs, toll-free phone calls and eventually QVC, Uram says she threw a party at The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles that featured a raffle. Attendees had to provide their contact information to participate in the raffle, and Tova Beverly Hills employed the information to stay in touch with them. In addition, the company trained beauty counselors to cultivate relationships with loyal customers to keep them connected to it.

Tova Beverly Hills was such a hit on QVC that the network acquired it in 2002 for a reported seven-figure sum. At the time, Signature was QVC’s bestselling fragrance. It’s formulated with 28.5% botanical oils, and has notes of bergamot, jasmine absolute, lavender, sandalwood and musk. Ruth Sutcliffe Heagney, fragrance designer and founder of The Scent Guru Group, points out the scent was concocted by deceased perfumer Robert Gaudelli. “I used to say he was the king of musk,” shares Sutcliffe Heagney. “The musk formulation was recognizable, iconic and a true classic.”

Six years post-QVC acquisition, in an article in The New York Times entitled “After Selling The Company, Remorse,” Borgnine compared selling Tova Beverly Hills to “giving up a child.” She said, “In a massive corporate structure you have bureaucracy that you must be able to get through. All of the products are the same as when I created my company; I’m in on every strategy meeting, but now there’s a collective voice. That’s a luxury, but you’ve also got to be able to let go.”

Borgnine couldn’t let go and ultimately regained control over Tova Beverly Hills. In advance of her death, Uram says she made sure there was a succession plan in place. Uram will be assuming leadership of the brand and is busy prepping for its future. She divulges skincare products are in the pipeline. “Cactus is still very untapped for products, and it’s something we are a leader in,” says Uram.

At an age in which retailers were far more dominant than they are currently, Uram emphasizes just how extraordinary it is that Borgnine built a sizable beauty company without selling to them. She says, “In today’s landscape, where the majority of the business is driven and owned by multibillion-dollar global entities, she has not only continued to survive, but her business and her following has grown without massive marketing, without the massive reach of stores and without using third-party distribution to different types of marketplaces.”