Lehigh Valley Textile and Needle Trades Oral History Project
Dublin Core
Title
Lehigh Valley Textile and Needle Trades Oral History Project
Collection Items
Mark Stutz, June 27, 2016
Mark Stutz talks about how his grandfather started in the children’s bathing suit sewing business with one customer. That relationship held for a few decades while that company remained in business. Later, Mark’s father and he ran the business. …
Marty Spiro, June 23, 2016
Marty Spiro talks about being a manufacturer in women’s popular priced sportswear. After about twenty years in business, Marty serendipitously developed a close business relationship with Candy Seward, top buyer at Thalhimers Department Store,…
Marshall Silverstein, July 30, 2013
Marshall Silverstein talks about how he and his brother-in-law joined Marshall’s father-in-law’s business making handbags in Pennsburg, PA. Marshall stayed in that business for 22 years. While running the factory, Marshall and his partner started…
Bruce Sheftel, May 31st, 2017
Bruce Sheftel talks about how his grandfather (Abe), a young immigrant, started as a junkman with his brother-in-law. Later, when Abe’s sons (Milt and Harold) were in the business, they bought textile waste from the many mills that existed up and…
Ronnie Sheftel, May 11, 2016
Ronnie Sheftel talks about how when she came from Brooklyn to Allentown as Milt Sheftel’s wife, she was quickly given opportunities to get involved in the small, tight-knit Jewish community. This was foreign to her life growing up in Brooklyn. …
Irwin and Ellen Schneider, August 10, 2011
Irwin Schneider talks about his father’s journey from being a sixteen year old immigrant textile factory worker, to foreman, to owner of a contract sewing factory. The Schneider business prospered due to hard work and good timing. Irwin joined the…
Irwin and Claire Salitsky, May 26th, 2011
Irwin Salitsky talks about how his father (Barney Salitsky) and his partner (Izzy Weinstein) moved the business from New York to Allentown in 1932 to escape the unions. Irwin was four years old. Irwin’s father and his partner started Clyde Shirt and…
Murray Platt, July 26, 2012
Murray Platt talks about how his father’s family began in New York making women’s shirts, failed due to the unions, and then came in the late 1930s to the Lehigh Valley. Murray’s father, with two partners, established Lehigh Valley Shirt…
Judy Miller, May 31, 2016
Judy Miller talks about growing up in New York and New Jersey then later attending Cedar Crest College in Allentown. While there, she met Mort. Many years later, when their children were older, Judy opened a small outlet store at the family factory.
Mort Miller, May 31, 2016
Mort Miller talks about growing up around his father’s contract sewing business. Later, Mort partnered with his brother-in-law to open their own contract sewing factory. Originally they made women’s underwear, later they switched to making women’s…