Since the art director of the company was entranced by the soap figurines Gaba made, they were readily used for magazine covers and the like.
The Gaba Girls were life-sized, carved-soap mannequins modelled after well-known New York debutantes for the windows of Best & Co.
Gaba wrote the seminal text "The Art Of Window Display" in 1952,[11] one of the first serious books on the topic in the marketplace.
Cynthia was a 100-pound (45 kg) mannequin who had realistic imperfections like freckles, pigeon toes and even different sized feet.
Gaba would posed with Cynthia around New York City for a Life Magazine shoot[12] with the article humorously showing how lifelike the mannequins had become.
She was given a credit card from Saks Fifth Avenue, a box seat subscription to the Metropolitan Opera House, Cartier and Tiffany sent her jewellery, Lilly Daché designed hats for her, and couturiers sent her their latest fashions, furrieries sent minks.
Cynthia also had her own newspaper column, was invited to the wedding of the former Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson in 1937 and had a successful radio show.
[13] The press reported her death, and Gaba appeared distraught, but since Cynthia's mold was intact, she was to live again.
It wasn't until 1953 that she came back to appear in public on a TV show, but the magic was over, and Cynthia was soon retired for good.
When Lester Gaba was 80 years old, and lived in Manhattan, he died of cancer of the colon at Beekman Downtown Hospital.