Browse Items (34 total)

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…

Stan Miller talks about how his father, a young immigrant, got started in manufacturing children’s pajamas in New York City, and later moved the production to Allentown. The sales office of the company remained in New York and was run by Stan’s…

Marc Malkovsky talks about helping his dad cut samples in the basement for the business while Marc was still in high school. A few years after college, Marc joined his father in the business. Together, they embraced the Internet and incrementally…

Robert Levine (three generations in Allentown) talks about how S. Levine & Sons business was started by his grandfather, a peddler in scrap metal originally and later in textile scrap. Robert’s father and his father’s three brothers entered the…

Marty Krasnov talks about how his father got into the furniture slipcover manufacturing business as well as how the company got the “SureFit” name. During World War II, the firm switched from making slipcovers for furniture to making parachutes for…

Maxine, the younger sister, talks about being influenced by the women’s movement in the 1970s. From that, Maxine returned to school, became a registered nurse and, later, a nurse practitioner. Maxine enjoyed a fulfilling career working with a local…

Kathy Katzman talks about living in New York, Philadelphia and Boston before she married Seth. Their first home together was in Schuylkill-Haven Pennsylvania, a community of 2,000. They then moved to Lebanon, Pennsylvania, still very small, and…

Seth Katzman shares fond memories growing up in Allentown during the 1950s and 1960s. While attending Brandeis University Seth decided that rather than pursue his original plan to attend medical school, he would instead take over his father’s…

Larry Hirsch talks about how his father got started in the apparel business with his grandfather. Larry’s grandfather was a skilled tailor who would make the patterns from the drawings or sketches of their clients. They started making young girl’s…

Jim Hartzel talks about how his mother, Goldie Hartzell, went from being a worker in a clothes factory to being the forelady, later a silent partner in the business and finally an owner of a contract sewing business with her son, Jim. Goldie and…