Browline glasses

Browline glasses are a style of eyeglass frames which were very popular during the 1950s, especially in America. The name derives from the fact that the bold upper part of the frames frame the lenses in the same way that a human's eyebrows frame his eyes.

History

Browline glasses were invented in 1947 by Jack Rohrbach, then vice-president of Shuron Ltd., an eyeglass company. ["Looking Back": an illustrated history of the American Ophthalmic Industry, by the Optical Laboratories Association] . As of 2008, Shuron is still producing these frames, and is one of the few companies doing so. [ [http://www.shuron.com/ronsir_zyl.htm Shuron Ltd. / Shuron.com ] ]

Browline glasses made up almost half of all the eyeglasses sold during the 1950s. [ [http://www.shuron.com/ronsir_zyl.htm Shuron Ltd. / Shuron.com ] ]

As of 2008, Ray-Ban also makes a very similar frame called Clubmaster, which are sold as sunglasses.

Famous wearers

*Tommy Douglas
*Noah Bennet from the NBC drama "Heroes", though most characters mistakenly identify them as horn-rimmed glasses
*Jiang Qing Mao Zedong's last wife.
*Malcolm X, black liberationist.
*Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of KFC
*D-Fens, the main character of the film Falling Down.
*In JFK, Jim Garrison wears them.
*Michel Foucault, postmodern philosopher.

References

External links

* [http://www.shuron.com/ronsir_zyl.htm Shuron's "Ronsir" line] , one of the last browline glasses lines in production