Browse Items (34 total)

Leonard Bloch talks about his father’s reluctant start in the needle-trade business. A few years after Lenny’s father started the business, Lenny’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As a result, rather than go to college, Lenny joined the…

Lenny Abrams talks about his father working in a men’s shirt factory, losing his job during the Great Depression, working as a Union Agent representing the workers in their quest for better pay and work conditions, and then opening his own factory…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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 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…

Esther Halperin talks about how she became a successful sewing contractor due to financial necessity. Esther’s husband died suddenly, leaving her with two children to support. Esther decided to operate her husband’s factory in Slatington even though…

Dolores Delin talks about her close relationship with her grandmother and how she encouraged Dolores to be independent and resilient. Those traits were very important later in Dolores’s life when she opened an up-scale women’s clothing store in…