Abraham & Straus
Abraham & Straus, commonly shortened to A&S, was a major New York City department store, based in Brooklyn. Founded in 1865, it became part of Federated Department Stores in 1929.[citation needed] Shortly after Federated's 1994 acquisition of R.H. Macy & Company, it eliminated the A&S brand.[citation needed] Most A&S stores took the Macy's name, although a few became part of Stern's, another Federated division, but one that offered lower-end goods than Macy's or A&S did.
Advance Publications
Samuel Irving "S.I." Newhouse founded Advance Publications. Its properties include Condé Nast (publisher of such magazines as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker), dozens of newspapers across the United States (including The Star-Ledger, The Plain Dealer, and The Oregonian), former cable company Bright House Networks, and a controlling stake in Discovery Communications.
Air Florida
Eli Timoner founder and President of Air Florida
Amerada Hess
Leon Hess chairman of the Board Amerada Hess an oil and chemical company.
American Greeting Cards
Irving I. Stone businessman, and founder-chairman of American Greeting Cards. Stone turned a small family business, Sapirstein Greeting Card Company, into "the world's second-largest maker of greeting cards In the 1930s, rather than merely sell what others had designed, he began what is now the American Greetings Creative Department, which the New York Times described as "one of the biggest art studios in the United States."
Aurora Gasoline company
Max Fisher grew Aurora Gasoline company into one of the largest Chains of gasoline stations in the Midwest which he sold to Marathon Oil.
B.Altman
B. Altman and Company was a luxury department store and chain, founded in 1865 in New York City, New York, by Benjamin Altman. Its flagship store, the B. Altman and Company Building at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, operated from 1906 until the company closed the store at the end of 1989. Branch stores were all shuttered by the end of January 1990.
Barbie Doll created by Ruth Marianna Handler. Barbie Doll and Ken Doll named after her children.
Baltimore Colts
Carroll Rosenbloom lettered as a halfback for the University of Pennsylvania, Later worked in family clothing business, and eventually owned the Baltimore Colts which he later traded for the Los Angeles Rams.
Baltimore Real Estate Developer
Victor Posner startedby taking advantage of the post-World War II demand for housing in America, he developed land and built houses in the Baltimore area, and by 1952, was building more than 1,100 dwellings per year. Multimillionaire with holdings in Sharon Steel, NVF Industries, National Propane Corp. founder of Miami’s Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Barneys New York
The company began in 1923, when Barney Pressman opened his first store in Manhattan with $500 raised by pawning his wife's engagement ring in order to lease a 500-square-foot (46 m2) space at Seventh Avenue and West 17th Street in Manhattan
Baskin and Robbins
Baskin-Robbins is a global chain of ice cream parlors. It has franchises in more than 30 countries with 5800 locations It was founded in 1953 by the merger of two separate ice cream ventures of Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins, who were brothers-in-law. Baskin-Robbins had s creative sampling system—letting people taste the different flavors of ice cream with small, single-use pink plastic spoons until they find the flavor that they want.
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is a Vermont, United States-based company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. . The company was founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who had been friends since their childhood in Merrick, New York. Today, it operates globally as a fully owned subsidiary of Unilever. Cohen has severe anosmia, a lack of a sense of smell, and so relies on mouthfeel and texture to provide variety in his diet. This led to the company's trademark chunks being mixed in with their ice cream.
Bergdorf Goodman
The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son Andrew Goodman.
Block Drug
Leonard Block Chairman Block Drug company a pharmaceutical company, that specialized in dental care products, includiing Polident, Poli-Grip denture adhesive, Dentu-Creme denture toothpaste, Nytol sleeping pill, Tegrin medicated shampoo for psoriasis, Lava hand soaps (acquired from Procter & Gamble) Beano and Sensodyne.
Bloomingdales
Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Book of The Month Club
Harry Scherman, Max Sackheim, and Robert Haas founded Book of the month club
Boxing Promoter
Bob Arum, the world’s leading boxing promoter. He staged the Ali-Spinks bout and broke racial barriers by holding the Big John Tate-Gerie Goetzee match in Pretoria South Africa before an integrated crowd.
Breakstone Dairies
Joseph and Ira Bregstein founded New York’s Breakstone Dairies.
Brentano’s Book Store
August Brentano founder of the Brentano’s book store chain.
Brunswick Corporation
John M Brunswick Founder of Brunswick Corporation, manufacturer of Bowling and billiards equipment.
Carnival Corporation
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator, currently the world's largest travel leisure company, with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands.
In 1971 Ted Arison formed Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 with the help of Meshulam Riklis, in which he would make his fortune.
Cartoons Koko, Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman
·
Max Fleischer born Majer Fleischer was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Fleischer became a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios,. He brought such comic characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, and was responsible for several technological innovations, including the Rotoscope, the "Bouncing Ball" song films, and the "Stereoptical Process". By 1914, the first commercially produced animated cartoons began to appear in movie theaters. They tended to be stiff and jerky. Fleischer devised an improvement in animation through a combined projector and easel for tracing images from a live-action film. This device, known as the rotoscope, enabled Fleischer to produce the first realistic animation since the initial works of Winsor McCay
Chicago Yellow Cab Co
John D Hertz Founder of Chicago’s Yellow Cab Co
Citroën
Citroën is automobile manufacturer based in France. André-Gustave Citroën started the company in 1919 and it became the first mass-production automobile company outside the USA.[4] Citroën was the first to create a sales and services network that goes with the automobile.
Colonial Penn Group
Leonard Davis cofounder of Colonial Penn Group (Insurance)
Continental Grain Co
Michel Fribourg owner of Continental Grain Co. the largest exporter of wheat to the USSR.
Davis Petroleum
Marvin H. Davis was an American industrialist. His father founded Davis Petroleum and Marvin ran it well. At one time he owned 20th Century Fox, the Pebble Beach Corporation, the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the Aspen Skiing Company.
Diversified Industries
Ben Fixman grew up on welfare and handouts but rose from junkman to recycling entrepreneur and founded Diversified Industries, a Fortune 500 Company.
Electric Motor
Moritz von JacobiAfter many other more or less successful attempts with relatively weak rotating and reciprocating apparatus Prussian/Russian Moritz von Jacobi created the first real rotating electric motor in May 1834. It developed remarkable mechanical output power. His motor set a world record, which Jacobi improved four years later in September 1838. His second motor was powerful enough to drive a boat with 14 people across a wide river. It was also in 1839/40 that other developers managed to build motors with similar and then higher performance.
A Epstein and Sons, International, Inc
Raymond and Sidney Epstein, A Epstein and Sons, International, Inc construction and engineering company.
Exlax
Israel Matz founded Exlax Co.
Famous Artists talent agency.
Charles K Feldmanwas a Hollywood attorney, film producer and talent agent who founded the Famous Artists Ttalent Agency.
He was born Charles Kenneth Gold, but his parents died when he was 6 and they were adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Feldman.
He would buy story ideas and contract them to unemployed writers to make into a screenplay. He would also negotiate one-picture deals for a star rather than a long-term studio contract, as was the custom, so clients could work at multiple studios simultaneously. Feldman also combined several clients into one package and sold them to a producer or studio as one unit.
In June 1942, Feldman signed Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and John Wayne and presented them to Universal for the movie Pittsburgh along with the script and director as a "package".
Filene’s
Edward Albert Filene was an American businessman best known for building the Filene's department store.
Film Producer
David O. Selznick was an American film producer
screenwriter, and film studio executive. He is best known for producing Gone with the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Fingerhut
Fingerhut was founded in 1948 by William Fingerhut and his brother Manny, selling automobile seat covers. In 1952, the business repositioned itself as a mail order catalog company and diversified its goods to include towels, dishes, and tools. In 1969 the company went public. The Fingerhut family was no longer involved in the business after 1979.
First City Financial Corp
In 1962, Samuel Belzberg founded the provincial trust company, City Savings and Trust in Edmonton which was heavily involved in real-estate development financing. In 1968, he and his brothers Hyman, and William formed Western Realty, and First City Financial Corp as the parent company for City Savings and Trust. In 1970. They sold Western Realty and purchased Far West Financial Corp of California, marking their entrance into the United States. By the late 1980s, First City Financial Corp, now a diversified holding company, had assets of $5.4 billion with operations in Canada and the US. First City was involved in many large investment transactions including Bache Securities before it was sold to Prudential, Gulf Oil, Armstrong World (a large building supply company and Scovill (a manufacturing company which included Yale Locks, Hamilton Beach, NuTone) which they purchased in 1985
Fish Breeder
Herbert Richard Axelrod Tropical fish breeder and a leading expert on tropical fish.
Fleischmann’s Yeast
Charles Louis Fleischmann exhibit at Philadelphia’s 1876 Centenial Exhibition, showed how to make yeast as a product of distilling liquor and was a sensation which led to the success of Fleischmann Co.
Franklin Simon
Franklin Simon was the owner of Franklin Simon & Co., a department store in Manhattan, New York City. The store was founded in February 1902, when Simon partnered with Herman A. Flurscheim.[1]
By 1902 Simon had saved approximately $100,000.[8] In a daring move, Simon and Flurscheim purchased the home of Mrs. Orme Wilson, sister of John Jacob Astor IV, at 414 Fifth Avenue as the site of their new venture, Franklin Simon & Co., a store of "individual shoppes."[9] At that time, Fifth Avenue was primarily a residential street, and Simon's merchant contemporaries derided his choice of location, speculating that the business would be a total failure.[10]
Franklin Simon & Co. opened its doors for business in February, 1902. The venture lost $40,000 during its first year of operation and $28,000 during its second. However, by 1904 Fifth Avenue was coming into its own as a fashion center and the store turned a $16,000 profit. From that point forward, Franklin Simon & Co. remained one of the preeminent Fifth Avenue fashion outlets until its dissolution in the 1970s.
GAP, Banana Republic, Old Navy
The Gap, Inc., commonly known as Gap is an American worldwide clothing and accessories retailer, and is the largest specialty retailer in the United States. Gap was founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris F. Fisher.:There sre 6 divisions - Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Intermix, Hill City, and Athleta.
General Dynamics
Henry and Lester Crown Henry created Material Service with two brothers in 1919, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959. Crown controls family holdings, including large stakes in Maytag, Hilton Hotels, Alltel, Aspen Skiing Company, St Louis Blues Hockey team, New York's Rockefeller Center, and pro basketball's Chicago Bulls. They also hold a 13% stake in the New York Yankees.
Gimbels
The company was founded by a young Bavarian immigrant, Adam Gimbel, who opened a general store in Vincennes, Indiana. After a brief stay in Danville, Illinois, Gimbel relocated in 1887 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was then a boomtown heavily populated by German immigrants. The new store quickly became the leading department store there. In 1894, Gimbels then led by the founder's son, Isaac Gimbel—acquired the Granville Haines store (originally built and operated by Cooper and Conard) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in 1910, opened another branch in New York City. With its arrival in New York, Gimbels prospered, and soon became the primary rival to the leading Herald Square retailer, Macy's, whose flagship store was located a block north. This rivalry was publicized by the slogan "Does Macy's tell Gimbels?"
Gordon Jewelry Corp
Harry Gordon Chairman of the Board Gordon Jewelry corp. acquired by Zales.
Gottex Industries
Leah Gottleib founderof Gottex Industries, world’s most prestigious producer of high fashion swimwear.
Häagen-Dazs
Häagen-Dazs is an American ice cream brand, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in Brooklyn Heights, New York, in 1960. The business has franchises throughout the United States and many other countries around the world.
Hasbro, Inc. Hassenfeld Brothers-Three Polish-Jewish brothers, Herman, Hillel, and Henry Hassenfeld founded Hassenfeld Brothers in Providence, Rhode Island. Among its products are Transformers, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, Rom the Space Knight, Micronauts, M.A.S.K., Monopoly, Furby, Nerf, Twister, and My Little Pony.
Home Depot
The Home Depot, Inc. is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, headquartered in Cobb County, Georgia. The Home Depot was co-founded by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah(g) in 1978.. Investment banker Ken Langone(g) helped Marcus and Blank to secure the necessary capital.
Imperial Sugar
Isaac H Kempner III One of the owners of Imperial Sugar Company and Chairman of the Board of Sugarland Telephone company
Insty-Prints
Fred Shochet founder of Insty-Prints America’s third largest printing operation.
International Insurance Group
Maurice R. Greenberg President American International Group Insurance company
Leon Israel and Brothers coffee
Sam Israel Jr. Director of Leon Israel and Brothers coffee importers, and Times Picayune Publishing company.
Jacobs Industries
Irwin Jacobs Chairman of the Board Jacobs Industries.
Kaufmanns (Now Macys)
Kaufmann's was founded in Pittsburgh in 1871 by Jacob and Isaac Kaufmann as a small South Side mens store. In 1877, the brothers moved downtown to a location that became known as The Big Store. In the first half of the 20th century the store was owned by Edgar J. Kaufmann.
Kaufman and Broad
Donald Kaufman and Eli Broad created the home builder to capture the homebuilding market in Detroit.
By streamlining the construction process and eliminating basements, offering a carport instead, they could price the houses so the monthly mortgage would be less than the rent for a two-bedroom apartment. Kaufman and Broad named this model the "Award Winner" and priced it at $13,700. After one weekend, seventeen were sold and within two years, Kaufman and Broad had built 600 homes in the Detroit suburbs.
S. Klein’s
Russian-born Samuel Klein founded S. Klein in or around (in the former Union Square Hotel) He positioned itself as a step above regional discount stores of its time (Two Guys, Great Eastern Mills), more fashion aware than E. J. Korvette, and a more affordable option compared to traditional department stores like Macy's, or Abraham & Straus. S. Klein stores were full-line department stores, including furniture departments, fur salons, and full service pet departments.
E. J. Korvette
E. J. Korvette, also known as Korvettes, was an American chain of discount department stores, founded in 1948 in New York City. It was one of the first department stores to challenge the suggested retail price provisions of anti-discounting statutes.[1] Founded by World War II veteran Eugene Ferkauf and his friend, Joe Zwillenberg, E. J. Korvette did much to define the idea of a discount department store. It displaced earlier five and dime retailers and preceded later discount stores, like Walmart, and warehouse clubs such as Costco.
The company failed to properly manage its business success, which led to decline and its 1980 bankruptcy and closure.[2]
L.A. Rams
Robert "Bob" Irsay bought the L.A. Rams and traded the team to Carroll Rosenbloom in exchange for the Baltimore Colts.
Lane Bryant
Lane Bryant Inc. is an American retail women's clothing store chain focusing on plus-size clothing. The company began in 1904 with maternity designs created by Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin. Bryant went to the bank to open an account. The bank officer misspelled her name on the application as Lane instead of Lena. Asked by one of her pregnant customers to design something "presentable but comfortable" to wear in public, Bryant created a dress with an elasticized waistband and accordion-pleated skirt. This would become the first known commercially made maternity dress. The maternity dress soon became the best-selling garment in Bryant's shop.
The LeFrak Organization
Samuel J Lefrak one of the leading builders in New York. The development firm is best known for major development projects in Battery Park City; LeFrak City in Queens; and Newport, Jersey City.
Lerner Shops
Lerner Shops was founded by Samuel A Lerner
Levittown
Abraham Levitt founder of Levitt and Sons which built Levittown communities in Long Island, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
The Limited
Created By Leslie H Wexner The store focused on clothing for younger women.
Literary Guild
Harold Guinzburg cofounder of the Literary Guild a competitor of the Book of the Month Club.
Loehmann’s
Loehmann's was an American retail company which started as a single store in Brooklyn, New York and grew to a chain of off-price department stores in the United States. The chain was best known for its "Back Room", where women interested in fashion could find designer clothes at prices lower than in department stores. While the largest portion of its client base was historically women, the chain also offered shoes, accessories, and men's clothing.
Loew’s Theaters
Lawrence and Preston Tisch started out in real estate, and bought Loew’s for all the real estate which it owned. They tore down many centrally located old theaters to build apartments and hotels reaping millions in profits. They bought a major share in CBS and large holdings in Lorillard Tobacco Company.
Lord and Taylor
Albert D Lasker is known as the father of modern advertising. He devised a copywriting technique that appealed directly to the psychology of the consumer. The agency was the first to not only sell space for advertisements but actually write the ads. He is also credited as the creator of the soap opera genre, and using radio and television as media driven by advertising.
Los Angeles Rams
Robert "Bob" Irsay bought the L.A. Rams and traded the team to Carroll Rosenbloom in exchange for the Baltimore Colts.
Carroll Rosenbloom lettered as a halfback for the University of Pennsylvania, Later worked in family clothing business, and eventually owned the Baltimore Colts which he later traded for the Los Angeles Rams.
Macys
Founded by R. H Macy (Quaker) (g) but developed into the famous store by Isidor and Nathan Straus. They established a reputation for having the lowest price, and created the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade
Maidenform Bra Co.
William Rosenthal Founder of Maidenform Bra Co.
Manischewitz Foods
Hirsch Manischewitz founded Manischewitz Foods
Marks and Spencer
The company was founded by a partnership between Michael Marks, a Polish Jew born in Slonim, who had migrated to Leeds, England in the early 1880s, and Thomas Spencer, a cashier from the English market town of Skipton in North Yorkshire.
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in London, England, that specializes in selling clothing, home products and food products.
Maryland Cup Corp.
Joseph Shapiro founder of Sweetheart Cup Corp which was the forerunner of Maryland Cup Corp.
Material Service
Henry and Lester Crown Henry Crown created Material Service with two brothers in 1919, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959. Crown controls family holdings, including large stakes in Maytag, Hilton Hotels, Alltel, Aspen Skiing Company, St Louis Blues Hockey team New York's Rockefeller Center, and pro basketball's Chicago Bulls. He also holds a 13% stake in the New York Yankees.
Mattel Toys founded by Elliot Handler and Harold Matt
Matson
MCA - Music Corporation of America
Jules C. Stein cofounded MCA. He arranged one-night bookings, rather than having bands seek engagements for whole seasons which was then the norm. He signed Guy Lombardo and other leading bands of the day. Stein's organization by the mid-1930s represented more than half of the nation's major bands, including those of Ted Weems, Isham Jones and Benny Goodman.
In 1937, MCA opened an agency in Hollywood and began to represent such stars as Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Eddie Cantor, Ingrid Bergman, Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny. By the mid-1940s, it was estimated that half of the movie industry's stars were being represented by MCA.
Meyer Emporium
Sidney Myer (born Simcha Myer Baevski was a Russian-born Jewish-Australian businessman and philanthropist, best known for founding Myer, Australia's largest chain of department stores.
Sidney and Elcon Myer both worked in Slutzkin's underclothing business in Flinders Lane, Melbourne; later they established a small drapery shop in Bendigo. This proving to be quite successful, Myer took his goods, stockings, laces, etc., from door to door, and, in spite of knowing little English, sold his wares. He then bought a cart and travelled through country towns. The business was later moved to Pall Mall, Bendigo, where it prospered, other shops were added, and later the Bendigo business of Craig Williamson and Thomas was bought.
In 1911 he purchased the business of Wright and Neil, Drapers, in Bourke Street, near the General Post Office, and a new building was completed and opened in 1914. The Doveton woollen mills at Ballarat were purchased in 1918, and in 1921 a new building fronting on Post Office Place, was added at Melbourne. These became the Myer chain of department stores. The Myer Emporium grew with the purchase of such old established businesses as Robertson & Moffat, and Stephens & Sons.
Monumental Properties
Joseph Meyerhoff founder of Monumental properties, Inc. one of Baltimore’s largest investment companies
National Record Mart founded by Hyman Shapiro
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., originally Neiman-Marcus, is an American chain of luxury department stores owned by the Neiman Marcus Group, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Herbert Marcus Sr., a former buyer with Dallas' Sanger Brothers department store, had left his previous job to found a new business with his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, A.L. Neiman, then employees of Sanger Brothers competitor A. Harris and Co.The store, established on September 10, 1907, was lavishly furnished and stocked with clothing of a quality not commonly found in Texas. Within a few weeks, the store's initial inventory, which was bought in New York by Carrie was completely sold out. Oil-rich Texans, welcoming the opportunity to flaunt their wealth in more sophisticated fashion than was previously possible, flocked to the new store. In spite of the Panic of 1907 set off only a few weeks after its opening, Neiman Marcus was instantly successful, and its first several years of operation were quite profitable.
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy
manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1978. Marx made many toy vehicles first in tin, then plastic etc.
Newhouse chain of Newspapers
Samuel J Newhouse Owner of Newhouse chain of newspapers magazines, TV and Radio stations, and Random House
New York Medical College and Touro College
Dr. Mark Hasten, as a mechanical engineer at General Mills and chief design engineer invented and designed the products and machines that produced the bendable straw, Cheerios, Pringles and Bugles.
New York Times
Adolph Ochs was the publisher who made the New York Times one of the world’s leading newspapers
Norton Simon Inc
Norton Simon founder of Norton Simon Inc. producers of soft drinks and other foods.
Occidental Petroleum
Dr. Armand Hammer Chairman of Occidental Petroleum, and a leading figure in trade between the US and USSR trade.
Ohrbach’s
Ohrbach's was a moderate-priced department store with a merchandising focus primarily on clothing and accessories..
Olympia & York
Albert and Paul Reichmann, builders of 20 million square feet of office space in Canada, and the largest holders of office space in New York.Over time, through successful projects in Toronto and New York, O&Y became the largest property development and management firm in the world in the 1980s, and the Reichmanns one of the world's richest families.
Pauker Brothers sportswear
Ben Pauker founder of Pauker Brothers sportswear.
Pearle Vision
Dr. Stanley Pearle, founded Pearle Optical in 1961 with a single store in Savannah, Georgia. In 1981 Pearle began offering franchises. More than 40 years and 675 company and franchise stores later, Pearle Vision remains a trusted household name with locations across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Pearle Vision is wholly owned by Luxottica Group, the Milan-based NYSE-listed leader in premium fashion, luxury and sports eyewear.
Pep Boys
Pep Boys was founded by Emanuel (Manny) Rosenfeld, Maurice L. (Moe) Strauss, W. Graham (Jack) Jackson, and Moe Radavitz.
Petrie stores
Milton Petrie founded Petrie stores, women’s clothiers
Mr. Potato Head
The Story of Mr. Potato Head’s Jewish Roots
As you’re peeling potatoes to make latkes, imagine that the decade is the 1950s, and you’re safeguarding your spuds from kids trying to stick little plastic face pieces with pushpins into them. If you’re guessing this was the precursor to the mustachioed, bulbous figure known as Mr. Potato Head, you’d be right. And who do you think was behind it but a trio of Polish Jews?
In 1952, Polish-Jewish immigrant brothers Henry, Herman and Hillel Hassenfeld saw a good future in the latest creation of Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner, a Jew of Romanian descent.
Hassenfeld Brothers (later renamed Hasbro, and now the world’s third largest toy company) sold the first Mr. Potato Head as a kit of facial parts. It came with a Styrofoam head and instructions that suggested using real vegetables and fruits instead. After parents complained about rotting vegetables and new government safety regulations restricted toys with sharp pieces, Hasbro began selling the plastic potato body in 1964.
Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on television, and it sold more than a million units in its first year. The next year Mrs. Potato Head was introduced, followed by Brother Spud and Sister Yam, along with cars, trailers and other accessories.
Mr. Potato Head has become an American cultural staple. And it all started with vegetables in a Brooklyn kitchen.
Irwin Mark Jacobs (born October 18, 1933) is an American electrical engineer and businessman. He is a co-founder and former chairman of Qualcommwhich developed the OmniTRACS system was deemed one of the world's most "technologically advanced two-way mobile satellite communications and tracking systems". He pioneered these systems which use the communication bandwidth more efficiently than the older fixed time-sliced TDMA technology. Its Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) has been adopted as one of two digital standards (the other being Global System for Mobile Communications [GSM]) used in the next generation of cellular telephones in North America at the time.
Random House Publishing
Bennett Cerf, Elmer Adler, Donald Klopfer were the founders of Random House publishing
RCA
David Sarnoff President of both RCA and NBC during their formative years. Also responsible for creating commercial radio broadcasting, a working Television, and commercial Television.
Albert and Paul Reichmann, builders of 20 million square feet of office space in Canada, and the largest holders of office space in New York.
Rich’s Department Store (Atlanta Geogia)
The retailer began in Atlanta as M. Rich & Co., a dry goods store, in 1867 The sole proprietor was Mauritius Reich (Anglicized to Morris Rich), a Hungarian Jewish immigrant Rich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's. Many of the former Rich's stores today form the core of Macy's Central, an Atlanta-based division of Macy's, Inc., which formerly operated as Federated Department Stores, Inc.
Ronson Corporation
Louis Aronson founded the Ronson Corporation which produced cigarette lighters
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue is the successor of a business founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. On September 15, 1924, Horace Saks and Bernard Gimbel opened Saks Fifth Avenue New York
Nathan Cummings was founder of Consolidated Foods, which later became known by one of its product lines, Sara Lee Corporation.
Seagram, Ltd
Samuel Bronfman founder of distillers Corporation Seagram, Ltd
SEARS
Richard Sears (g) and Alvah C. Roebuck (g) created the company bearing their names. After the Panic of 1893, Roebuck left the company and Julius Rosenwald bought Roebucks half of the business. Rosenwald worked exceptionally well with Richard Sears, and under Rosenwald’s leadership, the company sales rose from $750,000 in 1895 to $50 million in 1907
Shell Oil company
Marcus Samuel founded the Shell Oil company . Samuel realized the potential of the oil market during a prospecting trip to the Caucasus in 1890. In 1891, he secured a nine year exclusive deal with the Rothschilds, to sell Bnito's kerosene east of Suez. Samuel had commissioned the design and construction of a safer generation of tanker, safe enough to transit the Suez Canal. The first of which was Murex, that set sail from West Hartlepool for Batum where it acquired its load of kerosene. The ship transited the Suez Canal on 23 August, and proceeded onward to his storage facilities in Singapore and then Bangkok, for retail distribution. Samuel then built ten additional ships, also named for seashells. In 1895, he received a concession in the Kutei region of east Borneo, where oil was discovered in 1897
Melvin Simon was an American businessman and film producer, who co-founded the largest shopping mall company in the United States, the Simon Property Group
Simon and Schuster Publishing company
Richard Simon and M.M. Schuster founders of Simon and Schuster Publishing company.
Charles Emil Smith (born Schmidoff) was a real estate developer and philanthropist in the Washington Metropolitan Area He founded the Charles E. Smith Co. and developed the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia.
Spiegel Catalog
Spiegel was an American direct marketing retailer founded in 1865 by Joseph Spiegel, son of a Rabbi Spiegel published a catalog, like its competitors Sears and Montgomery Ward, which advertised various brands of apparel, accessories, and footwear, as well as housewares, toys tools, firearms and electronics.
SPORTS AGENT
Bob Woolf was one of the first sports agents, he "ushered in the era of the millionaire sports celebrity" as the agent for athletes including Carl Yastrzemski, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, and Julius Erving.
STARBUCKS
Three partners met while they were students at the University of San Francisco English teacher Jerry Baldwin(g), history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker(g) were inspired to sell high-quality coffee beans. They created 6 stores. About 10 years later, they sold the company to Howard D Schultz who expanded to more than 30000 outlets all over the world.
STERN’S
Stern Brothers was founded in 1867 by Isaac, Louis and Benjamin Stern, sons of German Jewish immigrants. In that year, they began selling dry goods in Buffalo, New York. Stern's was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The chain was in business for more than 130 years.
In 2001, Stern's parent company Federated Department Stores opted to retire the Stern's brand. Most of the stores were immediately converted to Stern's corporate sibling Macy's, with others liquidated and reopened as Bloomingdale's.
Talent Agents
Joyce-Selznick, Ltd
Myron Selznick, son of film executive Lewis J. Selznick and brother of renowned producer David O. Selznick. He set himself up as a talent agent. Partnered with Frank Coleman Joyce, the brother of actress Alice Joyce, they formed Joyce-Selznick, Ltd., the first Los Angeles talent agency. The agency became so successful that 20th Century Fox wound up banning him from their lot out of a concern that he was inflating too many actors' salaries.
Lewis Robert Wasserman
Lewis Robert Wasserman was an American talent agent and studio executive, described as "the last of the legendary movie moguls" and "arguably the most powerful and influential Hollywood titan in the four decades after World War II. He started working as a cinema usher
before dropping out of high school, rose to becoming the president of MCA and led its takeover of Universal, during which time Wasserman “brought about changes in virtually every aspect of show business.”
Tea Merchant
Kalonymus Ze’ev Wissotzky – the most successful tea merchant in Tsarist Russia
Teddy Bear
Morris and Rose Michtom, created the Teddy
Bear.
Taking inspiration from a cartoon of President
Teddy Roosevelt showing a little bear mercy while hunting, Morris and his wife
Rose created the Teddy
Bear and turned it into an American icon.
Toni Home Permanent Company
Irving B. Harris with his brother Neison, co-founded the Toni Home Permanent Company, which was sold to the Gillette Safety Razor Co.
Tootsie Roll Created by Leo Hirshfield. After financial difficulties was taken over by Bernard D Rubin & Co
Triangle Publications
Walter Hubert Annenberg was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, the Daily Racing Form and Seventeen magazine. He was appointed by President Richard Nixon as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he served from 1969 to 1974.
Tropical Fish
Herbert Richard Axelrod Tropical fish breeder and a leading expert on tropical fish.
Unican Security Systems Ltd. was a Canada-based company created by Aaron Fish in the 1960s. In 2000,
The company had over $800 million in sales annually and was the largest maker of key blanks and key copying machines in the world.
United Brands
Eli Black born (Elihu Menashe Blachowitz)merged AMK with United Fruits and renamed the result as United Brands company a conglomerate which controlled Baskin Robins Ice Cream, and United Fruit Company, and Chiquita Banana
Yellow Cab Chicago
John D Hertz Founder of Chicago’s Yellow Cab Co
Bob Woolf was one of the first sports agents, he "ushered in the era of the millionaire sports celebrity" as the agent for athletes including Carl Yastrzemski, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, and Julius Erving.
The Washington Post
Katharine Meyer Graham was an American newspaper publisher of, The Washington Post, newspaper.
Ziff-Davis magazines
Ziff-Davis magazine empire was founded by William Bernard Ziff Sr. that included titles such as Popular Aviation, PC Magazine, and Car and Driver.