I was working on one of my first films in which I had to age a woman using all facial prosthetic appliances; at the same time I was working as a lab apprentice with Ben Nye. Well, I was making my makeup for this film at Ben's lab, and then in the evenings I would go over to George Bau's house and foam my prosthetic appliances.

When I finished the sculptures, I wanted to show Ben and George. But I didn't want to move the sculptures because they were so huge and fragile. I called George and asked him to come over at 6 o'clock, and then I called Ben - I figured I'd give them a half-hour berth - and asked him to come over around 6:30. George shows up at 6, and he comes in and looks at the sculptures, and he says, "Yeah, yeah, okay kid, you can sculpt ... you got a future in the business," and he's looking over the stuff and giving me some pointers, and I forgot that Ben was coming over. I started really getting into this, and then there's a knock on the door, and there's Ben. I said, "Hey, come on in." Now, I lived in a small, one- bedroom apartment - you'd never know that anybody lived there: The walls were covered with head casts and posters of monsters, there was a barber chair in the middle of the living room and the entire kitchen was a prosthetics laboratory - I cooked all my foam-rubber appliances and molds in the oven. I was a real freak. So, I brought Ben, back to the kitchen, and I introduced them. And suddenly at that moment I realized, "Oh my god, here's the head of makeup at 20th Century Fox, and this other fellow is the head of the laboratory at Warner Brothers.

They looked at each other: Ben leaned on his cane, looking at George, and George quietly looked back. There were about 15 seconds of silence, and all of a sudden I thought, "Oh my god, maybe they don't like each other!" And then Ben extended his hand, and so did George. Ben said, "Isn't this something ... after all these years, we've never met until this moment; " It was truly a historic moment.

LR: You're a walking piece of history!

JB: I remember another funny incident from the early years: I was sanding some molds for a film, and the sander that I was using ripped off my thumbnail. I had finished all of the heads for the transformation scene - it was a film called Track of the Moon Beast, in which I had to turn a man into a Komodo lizard. We had a scene that went into a close-up and showed him gradually transforming. Well, I had finished everything except the hands and the feet. But being unable to finish the job, I called my friend John Chambers, who did the makeup for Planet of the Apes, and asked if he knew anyone who could finish the job for me. He said, "Yeah, there's this new kid, I haven't used him yet but everybody says he's really good. You might give him a try." I said "Okay, what's his name?" He said, "Rick Baker." So I called Rick, and he came over and finished the job - it was probably one of his first films. And his hair today is just as long as it was then! Baker has won more Academy Awards for makeup than anyone ever dreamt could be won. (Ed. note: Most recently, Baker received an Academy Award for his makeup artistry for Men in Black.)

LR: You have retail outlets all over the world. What sort of training program do you have to ensure your products are presented and marketed with your chosen standard of quality?

JB: I insist that my sales reps have, before anything, a thorough knowledge of makeup application. I put them through a grueling program to teach them the intricacies of every aspect of makeup artistry.