Monthly Archives: December 2024

Biographical, Culture, Entertainment Industry, History, Strong Women

$64,000 Women

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“That’s the $64,000 question!” This once-common expression, now used primarily by oldies (like me), was a response to a challenging query or conundrum. Its origins trace back to a wildly popular 1950s game show, The $64,000 Question, wherein contestants answered increasingly difficult questions, doubling their winnings with each correct answer. The ultimate reward? Of course, a grand prize of $64,000.

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Television game shows have been a standard component of American TV since its earliest days. The genre began with simple question-and-answer formats like Quiz Kids and Truth or Consequences, which included live studio excitement. The quiz show format hit a golden era in the ‘50s. Such shows grew popular, with their “reality” feel which showcased wits, knowledge and cash.

The $64,000 Question was enormously popular from the get-go.  Starting at 10PM Eastern Time on Thursday nights, the following cultural statistics dropped dramitically on Thursday evenings:  movie theater attendance, other shows’ ratings, crime, car crashes, and long-distance phone calls.  Within a year sponsor Revlon had tripled its sales.

However, the genre faced a major hit from scandal when it was revealed that parts of some episodes were rigged. This led to a decline in popularity.  The Revson brothers, Charles and Joseph, who had co-founded the Revlon cosmetics company that sponsored $64,000 became very involved in influencing production of the shows, especially Charles.  Answers were sometimes provided a priori to some contestants deemed to have “audience appeal” … perhaps based on Nielson Ratings, which began in 1950.

The scandals led to congressional hearings, damage to all game show viewership, and strict regulations. [1]

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Joyce Diane Bauer – born in Brooklyn, NY, on October 29, 1927 – was the eldest of two daughters born to Jewish parents, both lawyers: Morris K. Bauer and Estelle Rapport.  They had hoped for a boy – the name Joseph had been selected.  “Joyce” would do.  She was raised by her highly intelligent parents without any regard to her gender.  With highly accomplished parents, and libraries of books and literature in the house, the expectation of high achievement was implicit: tacit, yet plain to perceive.

Joyce grew up not merely highly intelligent, but ambitious and blessed with a knack for psychology. At 14 or 15 she founded and ran her own ballet school; the first few months were free of charge.  Then they would pay to continue.  Young Joyce would spin stories through those months, dropping a bit of the plot at each session.  At the end of the free-trial the stories had reached such a point of excitement that they encouraged students to continue … and pay tuition.

She graduated high school shortly after turning 16, then earned degrees at Cornell and Columbia:  double BS degrees in Economics and Psychology at Cornell, then a MA and a PhD in Psychology at Columbia.

At 21 years-old Joyce Bauer married a young 23-year newly-minted doctor with a very modest income, as he toiled through his internship.  She’d be married to Milton Brothers MD for 40 years, until his passing from cancer.

When a daughter, Lisa, arrived in 1957 they were again somewhat financially pressed.  Game shows with cash awards were popular, so, she took a swing at landing on $64,000 Question.

Dr Joyce Brothers, America’s psychologist

Clearly bright, with a calm, cheery demeanor, she was selected to compete after rounds of interviews and scoring 100% on a timed, 50 question test of broad general knowledge.

There was one question per week after reaching $4,000 in a single show (or perhaps two shows). [2] Winnings doubled each week, or they could bail with what they had (like Who wants to be a Millionaire).  If they succeeded at $4,000, then that amount was guaranteed until their run ended (also like Millionaire), limiting the risk of attempting difficult questions.

In screening, contestants were required to list subject areas in which they were knowledgeable in a questionnaire. She listed psychology and home economics. Per game rules, these would be avoided.  Charles Revson, co-founder of Revlon which sponsored the show, often meddled in the show’s production.  If he didn’t like a contestant, he pushed for tougher questions.  Joyce should get sports.  Not any sport.  Pick a sport not in the news every day, every week. Boxing.

Her husband, Dr Brothers, however, was a boxing fan.  She thought boxing would fine.  It was agreed.

Joyce was essentially totally ignorant of boxing.  A complete blank.

She spent the three months before her appearance studying every possible aspect of the pugnacious sport. She had access to 20 volumes of boxing history, and her husband’s years of “The Ring” magazine.

She memorized it all. ALL.  The rules. The competitors.  The champions.  The challengers. The knockouts, the TKOs, the judges’ decisions. The locations and dates and result of all important matches.  Joyce could digest and retain mountains of facts.

Joyce zoomed easily to the $16,000 level.  Charles Revson did not like her.  He wanted her eliminated.  A boxing historian and expert, Nat Fleischer, was recruited to devise the questions for this round. [3] She was given four questions, each requiring her to name the referees of four famous boxing matches.  No one — No one — expected her to get even one correct, let alone ALL four.  She did.  Start about 12:05 here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqhxN9a8OCg.

When she won the $64,000 grand prize on October 27, 1957, giving the final correct answer to the question (of three that day) “What is Sugar Ray Robinson’s record as a professional?”, she become quite famous.

The show had recently expanded its top award to $128K.  So, after winning the title amount, she returned and did indeed attain the $128,000 maximum winnings.

Dr Joyce Brothers parlayed all of this into an extraordinary career, including, most prominently, as the nation’s de facto national psychologist.

She wrote and was consulted for decades on psychology for all sorts of things.  She wrote columns. 40 years for Good Housekeeping, and about the same for her syndicated column, which was carried by 300 newspapers. She wrote several books. She was on TV often, sharing advice for all, including nearly 100 appearances with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, with whom she developed a warm friendship.  From the Today Show, to Good Morning America and even Conan, she appeared in many popular shows, offering her well-reasoned, practical and informed advice.

She also hosted more than a few TV shows herself, The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show, Consult Dr. Brothers, Tell Me, Dr. Brothers, Ask Dr. Brothers, and Living Easy with Dr. Joyce Brothers.  Here she covered a wide range of topics, such as looking at the future of American football, and the psychology of: football, women’s ever-changing clothing styles, HIV & AIDS, and the rise of school shootings. She made psychology interesting and available.

In one on-air live episode she helped a depressed caller avoid suicide by engaging him for 30-minutes until help arrived.

Sugar Ray Robinson, the best boxer of all time

In March, 1958 she was, famously, the first female on-air broadcaster for a boxing match.  Working for CBS, she contributed color commentary in a big show-down between Carmen Basilio II and Sugar Ray Robinson at Chicago Stadium.   It was highly watched, a brutal 15-round battle, as Sugar Ray re-gained the Middleweight crown Basilo, who had taken it from him the year before.  Her esteem rose even higher. [4]

Coincidentally (ironically?) her $64,000 answer had been about Robinson.

It would be far too lengthy to touch on all of her remarkable achievements.

Dr Joyce Bauer Brothers outlasted her husband by 24 years, passing in 2013, age 85.

“Love comes when manipulation stops and you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you.”
― Dr. Joyce Brothers

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Barbara Anne Hall was born, in Butler, western Pennsylvania on March 12, 1933, also the eldest of two daughters, to Jack and Dorothy Hall.

Raised in nearby Bethel Hill, a few minutes south of Pittsburgh, Barbara took an early liking to the arts in general, and acting in particular.   Her parents were totally supportive. She studied briefly at Pittsburgh Playhouse and later earned a degree at Carnegie Institute of Technology in drama.

She was working as a show-girl in a short-lived revival of the Ziegfeld Follies at the Winter Garden Theater when she and fellow show-girls applied to be on $64,000.

She had previously performed at the very high end night club Copacabana, where she danced with many famous personalities.  Even today she says that dancing with Fred Astaire is one of the brightest highlights of her life.  The Ziegfeld Follies productions also had her appear with famous stars of that era. [5]

Barbara also scored 100% on the general knowledge test. Perky, clearly bright, engaging, and possessing a stage-presence, she was accepted to appear as a contestant, also in 1957.  Even though, with common gender stereotyping of the era, many of the staff were skeptical of a show-girl’s intelligence.

[I suspect that she and the others were actually approached by $64,000 to compete … all of the Ziegfeld ladies were attractive with stage presence.]

She was given difficult topics to choose from; she agreed to Shakespeare. Although she’d studied drama, the bard from Stratford-upon-Avon was not at all in her wheelhouse.  Drama is a wide field; Shakespeare is both very wide and very deep. She spent months studying the creations and life of the greatest Elizabethan writer.

The brilliant Barbara Hall, of course, won the Grand Prize.  She provided the final $64,000 correct answer on June 25, 1957 (coincidentally my parents’ 2nd anniversary … wonder if they watched as I slept?)  — just as the Follies Revival ended, forever, as it turns out.

Trivia: Ed Sullivan was an on-and-off guest host that summer – the regular host, Ed March, was off shooting a movie – and it was Sullivan who asked Barbara Hall the $64K questions.

As $128K was now the top prize, she returned the following week, earning another $32,000.  However, she missed the next week for another $32K.  Nonetheless, $96,000 was an awful lot of money in 1957.

This greatly eased her financial situation. This might have partially led to her marriage to Lucien Verdoux-Feldon in 1958, a freelance photographer in portraits, often associated with shows and show personalities. Details are scant, but he was likely shooting at the Copa, Winter Garden, and/or the $64,000 studio.

Like all winners, Barbara became quite famous, and as an attractive lady, this suggested a boost to her hoped for acting career.   But it took awhile.

Minor modeling assignments, and one-off bit parts in several TV serials, including Flipper, Man from U.N.C.L.E, and 12 O’clock High kept her career alive, but not really thriving.

As an advertising model, she made quite an impression in the 1960s with a TV ad for Top Brass men’s hair products. Stretched out casually and seductively on a tiger skin, pitching with a Kathleen Turner-type sexy voice, she got a lot of attention.  This time, some big-time attention.

Spotted by scouts for a new TV comedy, she was cast in her career’s most iconic role as Agent 99 (no name ever given to her character) on the comedy spy show Get Smart, created by the teamwork of the brilliant Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.

The show ran from 1965-1970, opening in September, 1965 immediately after the inaugural show of I Dream of Jeannie.  I’m not sure she ever really she escaped the typecast of Agent-99 on a goofy spy show: the smart, svelte and stylish female co-star in a show otherwise full of nitwits and half-wits.  Well, she was always smart and stylish, everywhere she went. [6]

She went on to appear in many TV shows and movies, including numerous appearances on popular comedy variety shows like The Dean Martin Show, The Carol Burnett Show, and even Rowen and Martin’s Laugh-In.  And, coming full circle, The Ed Sullivan Show.

She also won two Emmys for her performances in Get Smart.  In a sort of reunion of note, Barbara Feldon co-starred with Jeannie’s Barbara Eden (the “genie” in Jeannie) in the quirky rom-coms A House Is Not a Home (1964), and The Lonely Guy (1984).  I’d say both were rather typecast, as they played, again, the smart, good looking, sensible women who provided wisdom and calmness in humorous chaotic scenes.

Long cherished by all who saw her perform, now age 91, her life is quiet, very personal, with some writings. She stopped film appearances in 2006, ending with the mystery-comedy Last Request.

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Barbara’s husband, Lucien, turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. That marriage ended after 12 childless years.  She had a 12-year relationship soon thereafter with Burt (aka Cary) Nodella, 9 years her elder, who produced 47 episodes of Get Smart.

“There’s not a day when somebody doesn’t smile and say, ‘Oh, you’re Agent 99!’ I like being in a world that regards me in a friendly way.”  — Barbara Feldon, interview with Toby Kahn, 1983.

Barbara Anne Hall Feldon and Joyce Diane Bauer Brothers – two highly intelligent, beloved, revered, respected and successful women who share a remarkable coincidence: winners of the $64,000 grand prize (roughly $700,000 today).   In the end, Hall-Feldon at $96,000 and Brothers at $128,000 … that’s over a million bucks equivalent in today’s dollars, each.

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Overall, there were only 11 top winners in the 4 years that $64,000 ran (1955-58, inclusive), and only 3 were women (Dot McCullock was the 3rd).  Several of these 11 were tarnished by the scandal, later admitting to investigators and congress that they’d been provided some answers a priori. Both Brothers and Feldon vehemently denied being involved (Brothers breaking down in tears during questioning); producers later verified their innocence in testimony.

These two women were the first to win such a substantial amount on national television, making them trailblazers in a time when quiz shows were dominated by male contestants and hosts.

The $64,000 show was terminated in November, 1958; the other Revlon sponsored show, the more scandalous Twenty-One, sponsored by Geritol (by Pharmaceuticals, Inc), was canceled a month earlier.

Joe Girard (c) 2024

Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com

 

 

Footnotes:

[1]  A smaller part of the scandal was that contestants were coached on how to act and give answers so as to heighten the drama.  Brothers and Hall-Feldon both admitted to receiving this coaching, although Hall-Feldon, as a performer in both drama and stage shows, probably needed much less.

[2] My research suggests that contestants answered six questions valued at $64, $128, $256, $512, $1,000 and $2,000 before advancing to the “one question per week” levels, beginning at $4,000

[3] Fleischer was the editor in chief of The Ring magazine.

[4] Robinson was also, earlier, world champion at the Welterweight level.  He’s often referred to as the greatest boxer of all time.

[5] Ziegfeld Follies:  https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/culture-magazines/ziegfeld-follies
[5a] Winter Garden Theater was a very high-end theater in the center of NYC’s Broadway theater district. For example, Roberts’ and Berstein’s forever famous West Side Story opened there that year, 1957.

[6] I Dream of Jeannie became famous for allowing, for the first time ever, a woman’s navel to be shown (regularly) on TV.  Eden’s eye-catching beauty, curvaceous figure, exposed belly button, and penchant for addressing the lead male character, Anthony Nelson, as “Master” probably did a lot to draw males into the audience of this otherwise ridiculous show.

Non-footnoted notes:

  1. In another coincidence, Dr Brothers was also a frequent guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. Probably, more often than Feldon.
  2. The Revsons were co-founders of Revlon with chemist Charles Lachman. So, the name Revlon, with an “L” for Lachman instead of “S” was a nod to his participation.  Charles was largely the businessman in the group, with Joseph (and later another brother Martin) and Lachman focusing on product development and manufacturing.   Perhaps not coincidently, all were Jewish.Sponsoring both Twenty-One and $64,000 was considered a gamble.  The ultimate goal, of course, was to sell cosmetics.  There was concern that black and white broadcasting would not deliver the desired result.  Charles Revson, the more business-oriented of the team, took the chance.
  3. As both Brothers and Hall (Feldon) appeared in mid-1957, I am presuming that this was a conscious attempt to attract and appease audiences. Bright women appearing, often doing well, especially nice-looking, would increase attention from both genders.
  4. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/05/dr-joyce-brothers-47-dies-age-85
  5. Geritol/Pharmaceuticals was also investigated for faulty advertising claims in 1957-58

Feldon, as 99, on set for Get Smart, not gonna get any success holding a pistol that way. Probably hurt yourself. Maybe that was the point. ‘Twas a supremely goofy show.

Feldon, 1970s

 

Feldon ’60s glamor shot

Biographical, Culture, Economics, History

Brotherly Breakdown – II

Brothers Albrecht

Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr (1902-1984) was quite the entrepreneur.  Always from San Francisco, he grew up in a food and service family. His father, Victor Jules Sr, was a longtime waiter at the very high end restaurant in San Francisco’s famous and historic Fairmont Hotel.

Hotel Fairmont, circa 1930s, built 1905-7

In 1934 Victor Junior founded a restaurant with $500 he had borrowed. He called in Hinky Dinks. There he developed his own version of South Seas food and creative “beach” drinks.  He used a lot of rum. It was located across the street from a small discount grocery store his parents had spun up.  The restaurant had tiki torches and faux grass “roofs” and Polynesian themed meals to sell a relaxed atmosphere image: clever marketing.  [1]

In promoting the south Pacific/Polynesian theme, he started the rumor – and encouraged it to circulate – that his missing leg had years before become a shark’s meal.  In reality, he suffered from a congenital condition that required amputation when he was only 6.  He’d never been in the tiki realms.

The model caught on and he soon renamed the restaurants “Trader Vic’s”. Riding a wave of South Pacific themed popularity, he expanded to dozens of restaurants over the decades. The name Trader Vic came from his wife Esther, who couldn’t help but notice his habit of trading restaurant meals and drinks in exchange for restaurant supplies and services.

He’s credited with inventing the sunny warm beach umbrella drink, the MaiTai. [A contemporary and competitor, Donn Beach who ran the similarly themed Beachcomber restaurants, also claims this title.  Vic’s was birthed shortly after Beachcomber, so perhaps a copycat].

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Brothers Karl and Theodore, were born in the heavily industrial city of Essen, Ruhr district, Germany, in 1920 and 1922 respectively, to  Anna and Karl Albrecht, Sr. [2] The cloudy history of Karl Sr says that he had lung issues, perhaps black lung, from working in coal mines, or asthma from working in a bakery.  In any case, he and Anna needed income and founded a small discount grocery store in Essen, in 1913, largely run by Anna.  The business operated on tight cash flow efficiency, with Walmart-like just-in-time inventory and low-cost procurement, to sell at the lowest prices possible.

Albrecht family grocery store, 1930s

During the difficult depression era ‘30s, Anna applied for and obtained a liquor license.  This helped augment grocery sales.  It’s a good business, as it’s said: people drink when they’re happy, and when they’re down.  The ‘30s was a down decade for all.

After the brothers returned from  WWII service – one emerging from a prisoner of war camp, the other with a serious leg wound – they took over running the small family grocery store.  In 1948 they fully inherited the business.

They continued the practice of thrift, efficiency, brutal cost cutting and tight cash flow controls to build an ever more profitable business.  They called it Albrecht Discount.  This logo says Karl Albrecht Groceries, I reckon named after their father.

Albrecht logo, ~1948-60

The goal of high efficiency drove the design of their small grocery stores as they expanded. Laid out in a short simple and intuitive track through the store: get in, get stuff, few selections, pay, get out.  Limited product selection, just the basics, but good quality.  At low cost.  Easy to find and get to, yet usually in low-cost locations.  It was hugely successful.

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Joe Coulombe is one of those successful entrepreneurs whose name and story have been somewhat forgotten.  Born in 1930 in San Diego, he began his career working with Rexall, which ran a huge national chain of drugstores, mostly franchised.  In 1957, at management request, he started a chain of six discount groceries in the LA area, which were called Pronto Markets.  They wanted to challenge 7-Eleven. Tall order. That didn’t quite work out, and, after several years, Rexall told Coulombe to liquidate them. [3]

It looked like Joe had no future with the company.  He felt he had failed in Proto Markets, and once they were sold, then what? Joe went on a Caribbean soul-searching vacation to spend time musing about what to do.  Was his Rexall career over?

When he returned to California he did indeed liquidate the stores.  Financed with loans, he sold the stores to himself.  He was now not just in the discount grocery business, he was in deep.  He and his family had invested thousands of hours in researching the local grocery scene, including market research of neighborhoods.

Coloumbe noted that Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s, competing to see whose knock-off style of a Polynesian “feel” could be more outlandishly over-the-top, were still a rage.  People were looking for a special, out-of-the-ordinary experience in dining. Why not grocery shopping too?

That was something Joe could follow.  First he renamed the stores to Trader Joe’s, blatantly aping Vic’s name.  Then he copied the Polynesian concept.  Wild shirts, décor, unusual specialty products, the whole feel: you’re not in LA anymore, you’re out experiencing the world, and many of our products have special names too!

He stocked his stores with just a fraction of the products as larger grocers did, but they were higher end and had a feel of the exotic.  Shopping was an adventure. A simple layout, yes, but surprises and treats could be found anywhere. A customer could feel special without spending much.  Shopping became an experience.  Often heard: “Look what I found at Trader Joe’s!!” Many of the products were inexpensive: remember Two Buck Chuck?  Not bad either.

Cheap eggs, super cheap brie cheese and wines,  (mostly) healthy foods.  Stores in locations with upper middle- to upper-class customers.  It was genius.

Later in life Joe called it “Equal parts gourmet shop, discount warehouse and Tiki trading post.”

By the late 1970s Trader Joe’s was growing quickly, there were dozens of profitable stores in select markets. It was expanding and it had a bright future.  It became a target.

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By 1960 Albrecht Discount operated some 300 stores across Germany, with total sales of DM90 million annually (about $375 million USD, or $4 billion USD in 2024). It was beginning to expand across Europe.

The Aldi “equator” … Austria is Süd, but goes by Hofer.

But then the brothers had a serious difference of opinion on a business matter.  Younger brother Theo thought they should start selling cigarettes; Karl strongly disagreed.  So, they split the business, each taking about one-half of West Germany, north and south; Theo would own and run cigarette selling stores in the north, Karl non-tobacco stores in the south.  They operated their stores with the same proven model but ran them separately.  One sold cigarettes, the other not.  The only noticeable difference.  [Karl was not anti-smoking; he thought cancer sticks would attract shop lifters].

In 1962 they changed the name of the entire enterprise to Aldi, short for Albrecht Diskont (discount).  Finally, in 1966, they separated legally.  Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd.  Another brotherly “divorce”.  Nonetheless, they remained on good terms, and each business continued to prosper.

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Trader Vic’s and the tiki party ambiance and experience

Trader Vic’s still exists, but it’s rather small after reaching a low ebb in 1960s.  The Tiki fad kind of faded and the locations became less desirable. It shrank to almost nothing and almost faded away completely, but it’s back up to 25 locations worldwide, only 3 in the US: the original in Oakland, Atlanta and Hollywood. [some say 18, whatever]  [4]

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Trader Joe’s indeed became a juicy target.  In 1979 Theo Albrecht, of Aldi Nord, personally bought Joe Coulombe out for a nifty nickel.  As it was a private sale, the price was not disclosed.  Coulombe and his family lived very, very well on that sale. He participated in running the company until 1988.  He passed in 2020.  Trader Joe’s is now owned and operated by Aldi Nord, and no longer a separate possession of the Theo Albrecht family.

Both companies continue the business model of providing a unique shopping experience with both basic and specialty products.  I noticed once that they had their own beer line (actually several, and wines too) called Joe Handler.  I got a chuckle.  Händler is German for Trader.

Aldi in America (part of Germany’s Aldi Süd) is the fastest growing grocery merchant in America, now at over 2,100 stores.  In 2023 they bought Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s, southern grocers. The “A” is popping up more and more, it seems.

Worldwide Aldi Süd operates over 1,800 stores outside the US, with monopolies (within “Aldi world”) in Australia, Ireland and Italy. In the US Aldi Nord has over 550 stores (Trader Joe’s), plus the entire ALDI  markets in Poland, France and Spain.

Joe Girard © 2024

Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com

 

 

[1] What is a tiki?]

Also: Tiki torches and the mid-century tiki culture mania

[2] Heavily industrial.  Essen was the home of Krupp Steel Works for centuries.  Merged/bought out by Thyssen, now going by Thyssen-Krupp.  The family business and history is deeply documented in William Manchester’s “The Arms of Krupp.”

[3] Rexall drug stores.  The name means King of All.  I remember seeing them all over and in many cities and towns as a kid.  As noted they eventually branched out into many areas, even owing Tupperware for a while.  I can’t remember the last time I saw one. Maybe that’s from overextending. It’s now owned by a Canadian company, McKesson Canaday, and most stores, apparently, are in Canada.

[4] For a cheesy faux jungle, water, central American or Mexican experience one can go to the recently reopened Casa Bonita, in Lakewood Colorado, just west of the Denver city line. Recently purchased, updated and restored by the creators of South Park.

Authors Notes:

A feature of German shopping Aldi brought to the US – a feature I quite like: one must insert a quarter to release a shopping cart from the cart area.  It remains in the cart while shopping and is returned when the cart’s returned to the coral.  I’ve thought for a long time that people who take the time to return their cart to a cart corral or even to the store are of a higher echelon of human beings. It’s 1 euro or 50 euro cents in Germany.  As carrying coins in the US is growing out of fashion, one can get a cart token from inside the store.  Someday we’ll get dollar coins that people actually use.  One can also purchase dummy quarters that attach to a key chain.

Most Aldi stores in Germany have a small central section with deeply discounted random stuff, from sweaters to toasters to blankets … I presume what they find at factory closeouts, or going-out-of-business sales. It’s commonly referred to as “the Aisle of Shame.”

These three stories, sort of connected, are segments within a very interesting book I’ve read, Benjamin Loor’s “The Secret Life of Groceries.”

Many many internet sources  A few here:

https://americangerman.institute/2020/12/the-albrecht-brothers-and-the-rise-of-a-global-retail-behemoth/

“Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way & Still Beat the Big Guys,” Joe Coulombe

Short history of Trader Vic’s and Victor Bergeron.

 

Aldi Süd logo

Aldi US logo

Aldi Nord logo

 

Biographical, Sports

Brotherly Breakdown I

Brothers Dassler

Brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler were born in 1898 and 1900, respectively, in the Franconian town of Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. They were the youngest two of four children born to Christoph and Pauline Dassler.

Only 12 miles from the center of much larger Nuremberg (Nürnberg), near the confluence of the Regnitz River and what would one day become the Main-Danube canal, little Herzogenaurach was then home to fewer than 4,000 residents.  Many labored in the town’s 112 shoe-making enterprises.  Yes, that’s an astounding number. Among them was their father, Christoph.  Through the boys’ youth they absorbed much about the industry from him.

They also watched, and later helped, their mother set up and run a laundry business from the family home.  The shoe business and the entrepreneurial spirit was “in their blood.”

Both brothers served in the Great War to end all wars – fighting in Flanders’ bloody and muddy trenches.  Adi’s service came after completing a four-year apprenticeship in a bakery, which he loathed.

In 1919 the brothers joined forces and began making sneakers in the family home, at Am Hirtengraben 12, convincing Pauline to share business quarters in the house.  Shoes were made in the family’s one bathroom.  Not long after, Adi convinced his parents to give up on the laundry business and go all-family all-in on shoes.

But Rudi was set on being a policeman, a fancy, one supposes, from the war. He left shoe making and struck out into law enforcement.  Adi (“AH-dee”, short for Adolf) remained in the shoe business.

A young Adi Dassler

From youth Adi had been an avid sportsman, participating in a wide variety of sports, most notably track and soccer (Fußball).  He was soon pursuing the athletic shoe market, as well as sandals.

Beginning in 1920 a severe economic crisis walloped Germany.  Clever Adi managed to survive. For example, electric power was inconsistent in these hard times, so  Adi invented his own electric power generator, hooking a dynamo to a bicycle, which powered the mills.  (It was a small operation).

By 1923 older brother Rudi was getting burned out as a policeman. One suspects due to low pay and long stressful hours.  Typical of the times. Adi brought him into the business as a partner, which was renamed The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory (Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik), or Geda, for short.

1936 Olympic Stadium, Berlin, from Zeppelin

Geda survived the crisis and steadily grew, with 12 employees in 1927.  It pioneered the spiked athletic shoe: cleats.  In 1928  Germans (Georg Lammers, Lina Radke & Helene Schmidt) won medals (one each for bronze, silver and gold) at the Amsterdam Olympics wearing Geda shoes. Radke set a record in the 800m and was the first to win an event with Dassler cleated shoes. At the 1932 games, in Los Angeles, another German sprinter, Arthur Jonath, earned two medals with Dassler shoes. [1]

Dassler shoes were in demand, especially for sports, and the future looked bright.  But then, 1933 happened.  Hitler took power and the Dasslers joined the Nazi party.  [My estimation is that this was more or less mandatory in order to stay in business, at least at first. Kind of like Oskar Schindler. IMO].

Party membership didn’t stop them from providing track shoes to African-American sprinter Jesse Owens, who shocked the world by winning four gold medals in Dassler cleats at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was a marketing coup, and the Dassler brothers’ business surged.

Jesse Owens, 4 gold medals, 1936, Berlin Olympic Stadium

During World War II, though, the shoe business went on pause: In 1943, the Nazi regime ordered that Herzogenaurach’s shoe factories be repurposed to build weapons for the war. After re-tooling, in 1944, Geda’s factory began rolling out a deadly new anti-tank rocket-launcher, the bazooka. Many of their workers were forced laborers relocated from Nazi-occupied countries.

US troops reached Herzogenaurach in April, 1945. They reportedly prepared to destroy the Geda bazooka factory until Pauline convinced them that they only wanted to make shoes. A US base was soon installed at Herzogenaurach’s airport, and when the American troops realized that Geda had made Jesse Owens’ shoes, they began buying them in droves.  They had penetrated the huge American market.

While the company’s fortunes were improving, a row developed between the brothers. Among several, there are two likely theories. One, that Adolf tried convincing Allied troops to arrest his brother so he could take control of the business.  And two, more likely to me, is that Rudi had become, and remained, too “Nazi” for Adi. Perhaps both, as Adi could have been put-off by Rudi’s deep Nazification.

A third “story” reports that during an air raid Adi and his family jumped into a shelter that Rudi and his were already occupying.  As they entered Rudi reportedly said “the dirty bastards are back again” – referring to the allied air forces.  Adi took this to mean his family.  It could be all 3.  Adi could’ve been already conditioned to expect this type of behavior, even if it wasn’t there.

In any case, neither felt they could ever trust the other again. It developed into a family feud, a schism that lasted their entire lives.

So bad was the split that their children grew up barely knowing of, and having no contact with, their uncle and cousins who lived just a stroll away.

Thus, in 1948, the brothers dissolved Geda. Some associates, at the time, reported that they’d never gotten along very well anyhow. They each then launched their own near identical company: Rudolf launched Puma; Adolf renamed Geda to Adidas.

(“Adi” is a nickname for Adolf; “das” is short for Dassler.  I learned from all this, then, that pronunciation should be with “a” as “ah”, not like the “a” in cat, and the final “s” is indeed pronounced as “s” and not a “z”).

Herzogenaurach is divided north-from-south by the Aurach river, which lazily wanders a few miles further east to meet the Regnitz. The original factory was near the family home not far north of the river.  As Adidas expanded, Adi moved his  operations on the south bank; Rudi’s Puma was on the north bank. The feud between the brothers soon came to characterize the town, with people belonging to either the Adidas or Puma camps. Herzogenaurach’s nickname became “the town of bent necks,” because of the residents’ practice of looking at each other’s shoes to determine allegiance. (Update: [2])

Early on Adidas jumped ahead. They’ve remained well ahead ever since. Maybe it’s because most of the sales and marketing staff went with Rudi’s Puma on Würtzburger Strasse, and the technicians, product developers and cobblers stayed with Adi and his Adidas brand on the south side. Adi retained two-thirds of all current Geda employees.  [3]

The brothers were known to hire away each other’s better employees. Disgruntled employees would sometimes wear the competitors’ shoes to the factory floor, a tacit act of defiance.

“When I started at Puma, you had a restaurant that was a Puma restaurant, an Adidas restaurant, a bakery,” a former Puma CEO said. “The town was literally divided. If you were working for the wrong company, you wouldn’t be served any food, you couldn’t buy anything. It was an odd experience.”

The rivalry between the brothers – and companies – never let up, although Adidas quickly took the lead, as mentioned.

In 1954, the West German football team wore a new type of Adidas shoe that was half the weight of other models and had removable and changeable spikes. They won that year’s World Cup in an exciting final, defeating heavily favored Hungary 3-2. The game was played in rain and mud; the Germans were able to change out their cleats at halftime to a more aggressive stud. This rocketed Adidas to further prominence.

The game was not without controversy that remains today.  That’s below. [4]

World’s largest sports equipment companies, by annual sales.

Adidas would also go on to pioneer the tracksuit, and its soccer balls have been used in every World Cup since they introduced the Telstar, in 1970.

Adidas and Puma have since become the world’s second and third largest sportswear brands, respectively (Nike is by far the first).

The family feuds are now over.  The brothers are long gone. Adolf died in 1978, Rudi in 1974.  Descendants from each now have no concern about which to support.  Frank Dassler, grandson of Rudi, who wore Pumas for decades, later worked as chief legal counsel for Adidas.  Both companies have since gone public and are no longer governed by the founding families.   The hatchet is buried, along with the brothers.

 

 

Joe Girard © 2024

Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com

 

Many sources, just a few here

https://www.adidassler.org/en/life-and-work/chronicle

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/oct/19/rivalry-between-adidas-and-puma

https://www.dw.com/en/the-town-that-sibling-rivalry-built-and-divided/a-2074427

Notes

I skipped using the company logos, not sure if fair trade applies here.

Rudolf actually named one of his sons Gerd.  He originally copied his brother and named his company Ruda.  That was awkward and soon gave way to Puma.

Adidas was originally near the family home, east of Rudi’s Puma and north of the river.  It expanded rapidly and moved to a more spacious location south of the river.  Knowledge of the precise location seems to have been lost.

Footnotes:

[1] pictorial history of some Adidas track and sports shoes. https://www.designboom.com/design/adi-dasslers-first-shoes-an-exhibition-by-adidas/

[2] Update.  Since the original publication, I’ve found that they were probably not on opposite sides of the river.  The river splitting the city was just a metaphor of the split in loyalties.  As the business expanded, Geda moved to a larger building, near the family home on the north side, but not far from the river.  Rudi founded Puma on the north shore, west of the family home.  Adi stayed and Adidas stayed near the family home, but, as they expanded, moved to the northern end of the town.  HQ is at Adi-Dassler-Strasse 1.

[4] 1954 world Cup. Hosted by Switzerland.  Hungar was eavily favored. They had crushed Germany in the group stage, 8-3.
In the championship match, played in Bern, Hungary apparently scored the equalizer right near the final whistle, in the 87th minute, but it was waived off for offside by the linesman.  Photo and video evidence suggests this was incorrect, but not conclusively.  After a minute of consultation, the head referee, who had originally signaled goal, agreed with his linesman, negating the goal.  A German player with a good view on the sideline confessed he thought this was an error.
Germany is also alleged to have injected its players with vitamin C at halftime, and some go further saying they also injected amphetamines.
Shortly afterward, many German players came down with jaundice – vitamin C is normally good for the liver, but over consumption affects liver chemistry and  its bilirubin, which can cause this outcome.

All observers agreed that the Germans played with as much pep in the second half as in the first, while the Hungarians, worn down by the weather and rugged play, did not.  A little chemical boost at half-time?

Until 1970, when FIFA adopted the bright white and black Adidas Telstar ball for the World Cup hosted in Mexico, official soccer balls were brown and made from stitched leather.  This was not good for poor conditions, as in 1954, for the ball was not sufficiently water resistant and it was difficult to see on a muddy wet pitch.  It wasn’t bright and contrasting, however for rain and mud: the white color was mostly for TV.  (Remember? Black and white TV, brown not so good, bright white with small black pentagons, better).

[3] Smit, Barbara.  The Enemy Brothers who Founded Adidas & Puma and the Family Feud that forever change the Business of sport.  (p31)

1954 World Cup Ball

Adolf Dassler, family plot

Credit, by Jdassler – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link  … I assume the name in the photo credits is a descendant or from a branch of the Dassler family tree. I did find a Joanne Dassler, but the relationships are not detailed. She seems to manage the data at familysearch.com, wikitree.com and Geni.com and the like for the family, but has set her own privacy to the top (red) level. I think I found her on Facebook, but she has not responded.

1970 Adidas Telstar Ball, World Cup