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Wikipedia

Stanley Marcus

Harold Stanley Marcus[2] (April 20, 1905 – January 22, 2002) was president (1950–1972) and later chairman of the board (1972–1976) of the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas, which his father and aunt had founded in 1907. During his tenure at the company, he also became a published author, writing his memoir Minding the Store and also a regular column in The Dallas Morning News. After Neiman Marcus was sold to Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Marcus initially remained in an advisory capacity to that company, but later began his own consulting business, which continued until his death. He served his local community as an avid patron of the fine arts and as a civic leader. In a chapter titled "Mr. Stanley" — the name by which Marcus was known locally for decades — in his 1953 work Neiman-Marcus, Texas, Frank X. Tolbert called him "Dallas's most internationally famous citizen" and worthy of being called "the Southwest's No. 1 businessman-intellectual."[3]

Stanley Marcus
Born
Harold Stanley Marcus

(1905-04-20)April 20, 1905
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
DiedJanuary 22, 2002(2002-01-22) (aged 96)
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Education
OccupationFormer CEO of Neiman Marcus
Spouses
  • Billie Cantrell
    (m. 1932; died 1978)
  • Linda Cumber Robinson[1]
    (m. 1979⁠–⁠2002)
Children3
Parents

Marcus introduced many of the innovations for which Neiman-Marcus became known, creating a national award for service in fashion and hosting art exhibitions in the store itself, as well as weekly fashion shows and an annual Fortnight event highlighting a different foreign country for two weeks each year. He established the Neiman-Marcus Christmas Catalogue, which became famous for extravagant "His and Hers" gifts such as airplanes and camels. Marcus prided himself on his staff's ability to provide service and value for each client, often citing his father's dictum, "There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer."

He received the Chevalier Award from the French Legion of Honor,[4] was listed in the Houston Chronicle's list of the 100 most important Texans,[5] and was named by Harvard Business School among the greatest American Business Leaders of the 20th century.[6] The Advertising Hall of Fame notes: "Stanley Marcus was among the most important figures in the history of American retail merchandising and marketing. Through his many innovations, he transformed a local Dallas clothing store into an international brand synonymous with high style, fashion and gracious service."[7]

Personal life and retail career

Marcus was born in The Cedars, Dallas, Texas, the son of Herbert Marcus Sr., who later became a co-founder of the original Neiman-Marcus store with his sister Carrie and her husband, Al Neiman. Stanley was the first of four sons born to Herbert Sr., and his wife, the former Minnie Lichtenstein. The pregnancy indirectly led to the eventual founding of Neiman-Marcus, as Herbert Sr. decided to leave Sanger's, where he was a buyer of boys' clothing, when he deemed his raise insufficient to support a family.[8] Returning from two years spent in Atlanta, Georgia, establishing a successful sales-promotion business, the Marcuses and Neimans used the $25,000 made in the sale of that business to establish their store at the corner of Elm and Murphy. Given that the family's other option for the money was to invest in the then-unknown Coca-Cola Company, Marcus loved to say that Neiman-Marcus was established "as a result of the bad judgment of its founders."[9] In his memoir, Marcus recalled his father as "affectionate" and his mother as even-handed in her attention to each of their children, making sure even into their adulthood to give them equivalent gifts and make sure they were praised equally.[10]

 
Memorial Hall at Harvard College

One of Stanley Marcus's first jobs was as a 10-year-old salesman of Saturday Evening Post, bringing him into the family's business tradition from a young age.[11] He attended Forest Avenue High School, where he studied debate as well as English with teacher Myra Brown, whom he later credited with much of his early interest in books.[12] He began his university studies at Amherst College, but when traditions preventing Jews from joining clubs or fraternities drastically curtailed his social life, he transferred to Harvard College after the first year.[13] At his new school, he became a member of the historically Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau, later rising to become the group's president.

While living in Boston and pursuing his chosen major, English literature,[14] Marcus began a lifelong hobby of collecting rare and antique books. To finance his pursuits, he began The Book Collector's Service Bureau, a mail-order book service, beginning with a letter of introduction sent to 100 homes. The venture proved so successful that for a time Marcus considered entering that line of work full time, concerned that entering the retail business might curtail his freedom of expression in politics and other areas of interest; his father persuaded him that he would always be granted the liberty of his own views, and pointed out that retailing was more profitable and thus would allow him to amass a large book collection that much sooner.[15]

Early years at Neiman-Marcus

After receiving an A.B. degree from Harvard College in 1925, he began his career at the retailer that same year as a simple stockboy organizing inventory, but upon beginning in sales, quickly outstripped other sales staff.[16] He went back to study at Harvard Business School in 1926, leaving after one year to participate in a massive expansion of the retail operation in Dallas.

He married the former Mary "Billie" Cantrell in 1932; she initially worked in the Neiman-Marcus Sports Shop department until she retired in 1936 after the birth of their first child, Jerrie, followed two years later by twins Richard and Wendy.[8] (One year after his wife's 1978 death, he married Linda Robinson, a longtime librarian at the Dallas Public Library, in a marriage that lasted until Stanley Marcus's own death in 2002.) In 1935 the Marcuses commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for them on Nonesuch Road, but rejected the eventual design, which included cantilevered steel beams and terraces swathed in mosquito netting.[17][18] Instead, the couple chose a design by local firm DeWitt & Washburn,[17] whose creation became a Texas Historic Landmark.[18] As of 1937, Marcus was one of only 22 Texans to earn a salary of $50,000 or more, according to the House Ways and Means Committee; his father, Herbert, was another, earning $75,000 as company president while vice president Stanley drew an even $50,000.[19]

Marcus was responsible for a number of innovations at the Dallas retailer. He created the annual Neiman-Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in Fashion, beginning in 1938, which led to the Neiman-Marcus Exposition, a fall fashion show held annually from 1938 to 1970, then periodically thereafter.[20] His department store was the first American haute couture boutique to introduce weekly fashion shows,[21] and the first to host concurrent art exhibitions at the store itself.[22] In 1939, he established the annual Christmas Catalogue, which in 1951 offered the first of its extravagant "His & Hers Gifts," starting with a matching pair of vicuña coats, and going on to include matching bathtubs, a pair of Beechcraft airplanes, "Noah's Ark" (including pairs of animals), camels, and live tigers.[7][16][22][23]

The war years

For all his professional emphasis on glitz and glamour, he made another, very different mark on the American fashion industry when he was asked to join the War Production Board in Washington, D.C. on December 27, 1941, less than three weeks after the United States entered World War II. Ineligible for military service due to his age, he instead helped the war effort by championing the conservation of scarce resources normally devoted to fashion trends. He encouraged men to wear drooping socks (to save much-needed rubber that would normally be used for elastic[13]>) and devised regulations for the manufacture of women's and children's clothing that would enable the nation to divert more textile resources to uniforms and other war-related needs:

We settled on certain prohibitions, such as lengths, sleeve fullness, patch pockets, ensembles, sweeps of skirts, widths of belts and depth of hems. ... The restrictions we put into effect froze the fashion silhouette. It effectively prevented any change of skirt length downward and it blocked any extreme new sleeve or collar development, which might have encouraged women to discard existing clothes.

— Stanley Marcus[24]

In addition to these restrictions, Marcus recommended to the WPB that coats, suits, jackets and dresses be sold separately "to make them go further."[25] The changes were expected to create a total savings of 100,000,000 yards (91,000,000 m) of fabric to be used in the war effort.[25]

Conscious of the role of the media in fashion promotion, Marcus prompted the members of the National Retail Dry Goods Association to convince their local press outlets to treat women's fashions as a serious subject rather than as an object of ridicule.[25] He solicited nationally famous women to proclaim their support of the new standards; TIME's report on the WPB quoted author Adela Rogers St. Johns predicting, "The overdressed woman will be as unpatriotically conspicuous as though she wore a Japanese kimono."[25]

Marcus addressed the fashion press in national meetings, encouraging editors to reassure women that stores would carry adequate supply of attractive styles, in order to prevent shoppers from flooding the stores or hoarding stock.[25] TIME reported on meetings of "70 fantastic hats," representing the presence of national magazine editors from Ladies' Home Journal and Harper's Bazaar, as well as from newspapers in the urban centers of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, all complying with the WPB's instructions for their coverage of women's and children's fashions.[25]

His work promoting cooperation with the WPB's mandates did not still Marcus's competitive instincts. With the fall of Paris, the traditional fashion capital, New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia began to declare his city the new leader at every opportunity. To this claim, Marcus retorted in the international press, "New York is finished as a manufacturing center. ... They're making clothes in Kansas, Philadelphia and Texas now and they won't give it up. The day is gone when only a New York dress is a good dress."[26]

Faced with increasing shortages in silk and even new synthetics such as rayon, which seemed likely to create long lines of dissatisfied customers seeking a product in inadequate supply, Marcus created the Neiman Marcus Hosiery-of-the-Month Club, which sent two pair of stockings in fashionable shades to each female charge-card customer, with no membership fees. In his memoirs Marcus recalled, "Many women opened charge accounts just to become members of the club, and in a short time we had a membership of over 100,000, extending all over the country."[27]

Taking the helm

In 1950, with the death of Herbert Marcus Sr., Stanley Marcus was elected president and CEO of the company, with Carrie Marcus Neiman as chairman of the board and other family members like Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus and Lawrence Marcus taking on more responsibilities. Neiman died in 1953, in which year TIME proclaimed that Stanley Marcus's "combination of showmanship and salesmanship" had been instrumental in increasing the company's annual revenue from $2.6 million in 1926 to $20 million.[28][29]

Marcus began yet another Neiman-Marcus tradition, the "International Fortnight," in 1957 as a way to attract customers in the lull between the fall fashion rush and the Christmas shopping crunch. The idea was inspired by seeing a store in Stockholm, Sweden,[30] that was having a France-themed sales promotion, leading Marcus to propose to the French government a sponsorship of an even more elaborate event in his own store. The initial Fortnight included concurrent events of art, symphonic music, and film at other locations around Dallas, with an Air France jet bringing "writers, painters, government officials, models, and industry leaders."[31] In the years following, the Fortnight focused on various other countries and added related food service as well as items from the relevant country in every department, ending in 1986 with the Australian Fortnight. Other international traditions introduced at Neiman's included Dallas' first espresso bar, brought by Marcus after World War II.[32]

As a retailer, Marcus believed strongly in making his store into a place where everything a customer needed could be found and, if necessary, brought to the customer's front door. He was said to have helped one customer discover the shoe size of Queen Elizabeth II so as to give the gift of stockings and a pair of shoes,[33] and he ordered that the store stock such items as a set of Steuben plates with the Mexican national crest, "because sooner or later somebody will be going to call on the President of Mexico and need a proper gift."[28] He personally delivered a fur coat to a St. Louis, Missouri, customer who could not make the trip to Dallas.[33] Another story often recounted is that of a shopper who, in searching for a present for his wife, said that he was not sure what to buy, but that he would know it when he saw it. In response, Marcus inquired about the woman's clothing sizes and asked the customer to wait briefly. Taking an oversized brandy snifter from a display, Marcus gathered cashmere sweaters of various colors, arranged them in imitation of a pousse-café, topped with a white angora sweater to simulate whipped cream, and in place of a cherry, garnished the concoction with a 10-karat ruby ring, at a total cost of $25,350, which the customer gladly paid.[5][34][35][36] When one customer decided his Christmas purchases were not sufficiently impressive, Marcus helped to arrange a full duplication of the store's display window, complete with mannequins and lighting, inside the man's home.[28]

Despite his love of such larger-than-life salesmanship, Marcus also maintained the assertion of his father, Herbert, that "there is no good sale for Neiman-Marcus unless it is a good buy for the customer."[37] Stanley Marcus would sometimes persuade the buyer to purchase a lower-priced item that he considered more suitable, as when a man shopping for a mink coat for his 16-year-old daughter was personally steered by Marcus toward a $295 muskrat coat instead, as being more appropriate to her youth.[28] Marcus also routinely insisted customers would be wiser to buy the top quality of a reasonably priced line rather than scaled-down or second-rate versions of an expensive product.[38]

Marcus continued throughout his tenure to hold tightly to his father's assurance that he would be able to maintain and act on his political convictions while running the business. He supported the United Nations in its early years, an unpopular position in Dallas for that time.[22] In the early 1950s he began to explore the ramifications of ending the store's participation in the then-common practice of excluding black customers from shopping in the store, and while his legal advisors cautioned against that step, he offered support for any black entrepreneur looking to establish a quality store and, in 1954, began to hire black staff in some departments.[22]

Moving into the 1960s, Marcus became ever more convinced that his city and his company needed to take action to promote racial equality, both as a moral issue and to reduce the growing civil unrest. In 1968, he announced that Neiman-Marcus's buyers would give preference to companies employing and training significant numbers of minority employees, making his firm one of the first companies in the nation to have such a policy.[39]

Civic leadership

The Marcus family had been among the founders of Dallas' Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue that is today the largest in the Southwest. Stanley Marcus became a leading figure in the temple in the 1950s[40] and a member of the American Council for Judaism despite being largely a secular Jew who once joked that he was afraid to visit Israel "because he might be converted."[22]

Marcus was well known for cultivating the arts and for defending even unpopular political causes. He introduced art exhibits at Neiman-Marcus as well as providing corporate sponsorship of artwork elsewhere in the city, and cultivated an extensive private collection. He helped found the Dallas Opera,[41] helped save the Dallas Symphony from a financial crisis,[41] and served as chairman of the board for the Dallas Museum of Fine Art (now the Dallas Museum of Art).[22][42]

While serving as museum chair, Marcus was once called upon by Fred Florence, then chairman of a major local bank and a fellow Temple Emanu-El leader, to explain his inclusion of "a lot of Communist art" he'd been told would be included in an upcoming DMFA "Sports in Art" exhibit, co-sponsored by Sports Illustrated and United States Information Agency as a fund-raiser for the 1956 Olympic team. Artists represented in the show included four supposed Communist supporters, Leon Kroll, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ben Shahn, and William Zorach.[22][43] Asking Florence to indicate which pieces were being questioned, Marcus dismissed each claim one by one: "I don't know how anybody could think hitting a baseball was communist," Marcus said when shown Shahn's "The National Pastime." His response to Zorach's "Fisherman" was similar, as he shook his head and remarked, "I don't think too many people think fishing is communist either." Marcus followed up by going to local newspapers The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times-Herald and getting the publishers of both to agree that they would not stand for censorship in the arts.[42]

In organizing a 1952 exhibition of abstract art, Marcus lured local leaders to the show by two means. First, he solicited the donation of art from the collections of David Rockefeller and his brothers, along with those from other noted national business leaders. Second, he requested that the donors personally write letters of invitation to their Dallas colleagues, feeling that the otherwise suspect art would benefit from the imprimatur of respected figures known for their fine taste. His efforts were rewarded by a numerous and appreciative turnout for the show.[42]

Marcus also involved himself in issues of civil rights and social justice. One unusual case involved three male students at W. W. Samuell High School who, in 1966, were stopped at the school's front door and ordered to cut their hair in order to be admitted to the school. The young men filed a lawsuit against the Dallas Independent School District, claiming the restriction interfered with their constitutional freedom of expression. Despite not knowing the boys involved, Marcus stepped forward to champion their case before the public, taking out a newspaper ad defending the choice as a simple fashion decision rather than rebellion against authority. Additionally, he offered legal support if needed, noting in a telegram to school board president Lee McShan, Jr., "I don’t like long hair any more than the principal does, but I will fight for the rights of those students to wear hair any way they choose."[44] Though the case was lost and appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court without success, decades letter the men still appreciated Marcus' support. Paul Jarvis, one of the plaintiffs, said of Marcus after his death in 2002: "He was just a nice man and a great contributor to Dallas and to the arts. He wanted to do what was right."[45]

Presidential connections

Marcus used his public-relations skills once again when Dallas was labeled "City of Hate" following the November 22, 1963, assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. An early supporter of Kennedy's run for the presidency, Marcus had tolerated the closing of several customers' accounts when he announced his support for the candidate in the 1960 elections.[46][47] In fact, he had cautioned that Kennedy's visit be reconsidered in light of the city's earlier poor reception of Adlai Stevenson and Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson.[46] In Kennedy's memory, Marcus arranged to have 500 hand-typeset and bound copies printed of Kennedy's scheduled speech at the Dallas Trade Mart, of which the first copy went to Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline.[48] The following New Year's Day, 1964, Marcus took out a full-page advertorial in The Dallas Morning News titled, "What's Right With Dallas?"[49]

The editorial ad – a Neiman-Marcus tradition introduced by his father in the store's early days – both defended the city against outside critiques and offered more intimate criticisms from one who knew the town and its people well. The message said that Dallas needed to address four areas for community improvement: one, its slum problem; two, its political extremism (called "absolutism" in the text); three, too much attention to physical growth at the expense of "quality" in civic endeavors such as "schools, colleges, symphonies, operas, and museums"; and four, a need to focus less on "civic image" and more on "doing good things and not doing bad things", which he described as "the best public relations."[50] In a 2003 article on the 40th anniversary of the assassination, Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times praised the message as "strik[ing] a perfect balance", though he notes the author met not only with support from some, but from canceled accounts and "anti-Semitic attacks" that only increased after an article in Life reminded readers of Marcus's Jewish heritage.[51]

Following Kennedy's death, Marcus maintained close ties with Johnson and his administration, being considered for diplomatic posts to France and to the United Nations General Assembly while continuing to run his company[52][53] and providing the wedding dresses for both the Johnsons' daughters, personally assisting Luci Johnson in selecting the designer for her own dress and the styles for the bridesmaids' gowns.[54] After Johnson's retirement, Marcus's invitations were among the few the former president and his wife continued to accept.[55] Marcus's own daughter Wendy joined Mrs. Johnson's staff for a time in 1963, working under Mrs. Johnson's personal secretary, Liz Carpenter.[56]

Stepping down

In 1969 Stanley Marcus recommended to the board of directors that the company merge with Broadway-Hale of California in order to have enough capital to expand. Neiman's subsequently became a subsidiary of Carter-Hawley Hale, Inc., and Marcus accepted a position as corporate executive vice president and director of CHH.[57][58] He retired as Chairman Emeritus in 1975, turning over the store to his son, Richard C. Marcus.[41][59]

Running those poor steers back and forth in the heat is ridiculous.... What they ought to do is put the steers in the convention hall and run the delegates.

— Stanley Marcus
On Dallas' efforts to project a Western image for the Republican National Convention,
The New York Times, August 28, 1984[60]

Despite retiring officially from the company, Marcus continued to be closely involved as an advisor even through the final weeks of his life.[61] He established a sideline as a retailing consultant, maintaining regular business hours in his offices at Crescent Court for more than a decade and offering advice locally to luxury car dealership Sewell Corporation and hotelier Rosewood Corporation as well as internationally to such businessmen as Mohamed Al-Fayed of Harrods.[32][59] Called on to consult for Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, the 94-year-old businessman recalled arriving in his customary expensive tailored suit to discover 300 casually dressed employees: "I took off my coat, my necktie and my shirt, down to my T-shirt. And then I said, 'Okay. Let’s talk.' I couldn’t have planned it better. It broke the ice. I was on stage for two hours."[62]

Legacy

 
Cover of 2001 edition of Minding the Store, UNT Press

In addition to writing a weekly column for The Dallas Morning News for 15 years, Marcus was the author of multiple retailing-oriented books, including Minding the Store: A Memoir (1974), the sequel Quest for the Best (1979),[63] and His & Hers: The Fantasy World of the Neiman Marcus Catalogue (1982)[64] He was a close friend of other writers, including Jane Trahey, an author and longtime advertising copywriter who at one time worked for Neiman Marcus, and historian David McCullough. A television presenter for the public broadcasting program American Experience, McCullough said he once asked Stanley Marcus – "one of the wisest men I know" – what single problem or aspect of American life, if given a magic wand, he would change, to which Marcus replied, "I'd try to do something about television." When asked why, he explained, "Because", he said, "If you could do something about television, think how far you could go to solve all the other problems."[65]

Marcus was an avid art collector, as well as amassing a collection of masks from around the world.[22] In 2002, the Sotheby's auction house mounted a sale of works from his estate, calling Marcus "an insightful and forward-looking collector and a generous lender whose contributions to exhibitions helped bring notice to the world of Latin American Art during the 40s, 50s and 60s."[66] The auction house also noted that Marcus had begun collecting at age five (influenced by his parents), but had found his interest in good design vastly deepened by a 1925 graduation trip to Europe, where he visited a famed international exhibition of decorative arts and thus was introduced to the earliest works of Art Deco. The Marcus collections included significant works by Mexican artists Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Rivera's lesser-known friend and colleague Antonio Ruíz; the American sculptor Alexander Calder, and American painter Georgia O'Keeffe. Marcus was friends with Rivera and Tamayo – playing a major role in bringing one of Tamayo's murals to the Dallas Museum of Art – and one of the first board members of the O'Keeffe museum, which honored him at the time of his death with a paid notice in The New York Times that stated "Stanley's generous support, leadership, enthusiasm, friendship and keen artistic judgment were instrumental in the Museum's inception and success. We shall miss him greatly."[67]

Another Marcus contribution to the arts was his own work in the area of photography. Over the course of his adult life, Marcus took thousands of photographs, both of famous and anonymous subjects, which he turned over to granddaughter Allison V. Smith, a professional photographer, upon moving out of his Nonesuch Road home into a smaller residence in the late 1990s.[68] Two years after his death, Smith began making digital scans of the photos and posting them to the sharing site Flickr; despite the fact that their authorship was not identified, within a year the photographs had drawn 10,000 views.[69] For the 100th anniversary of Neiman Marcus, Smith and her mother, Jerrie Marcus Smith, decided to assemble a representative selection of the nearly 5,000 images into a book;[70] titled Reflection of a Man, the 192-page book was published by Cairn Press in October, 2007, and accompanied by an exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art.[68][69]

Southern Methodist University hosts a Stanley Marcus collection at its DeGolyer Library in Dallas, including photographs, correspondence, and clippings. The library also houses a collection of more than 8,000 books donated by Marcus, including 1,100 miniature books, many from the press he founded.[71]

Awards and honors

  • Inaugural inductee, Retailing Hall of Fame (2004)
  • First recipient of the Design Patron award, National Design Awards (2001)[72]
  • Inductee, Advertising Hall of Fame (1999)
  • Honoree, Linz Award (1995)
  • Inductee, Texas Business Hall of Fame (1984)[59]
  • Honorary doctoral degree recipient, North Texas State University (1983)[59]
  • Honorary Fellow, American Institute of Architects (1972)
  • Honorary doctoral degree recipient, Southern Methodist University (1965)[73]
  • Recipient, National Retail Merchants Association gold medal (1961)[59]
  • New York Fashion Designers Annual Award (1958)[59]
  • Chevalier Award, French Legion of Honor, presented on March 27, 1949, by Henri Bonnet, French Ambassador to the United States, "for eminent services to the cause of French industrial and commercial recovery"[4]
  • Elected chairman, American Retailing Federation[30]
  • Listed, "The Tallest Texans", Houston Chronicle - profiles of 100 key figures in the state's history[5]
  • Listed, "20th Century Great American Business Leaders", Harvard Business School[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ David R. Farmer. Stanley Marcus: A Life with Books, TCU Press, 1995, p. 141. ISBN 0-87565-147-X.
  2. ^ "Personal" (column), The Dallas Morning News, November 9, 1905, page 5.
  3. ^ Frank X. Tolbert. Neiman-Marcus, Texas, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953, page 19.
  4. ^ a b TIME Magazine, April 4, 1949. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  5. ^ a b c The Tallest Texans, Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  6. ^ a b Harvard Business School. . Archived from the original on August 6, 2007. Retrieved May 20, 2007. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ a b Advertising Hall of Fame. "Stanley Marcus". Retrieved May 20, 2007.
  8. ^ a b Rose G. Biderman. They Came to Stay: The Story of the Jews of Dallas 1870–1997. 2002, Eakin Press. (ISBN 1-57168-648-7)
  9. ^ Stanley Marcus (1974). Minding the Store: A Memoir, 1993 Plume edition, p. 1.
  10. ^ Minding the Store, p. 17.
  11. ^ Minding the Store, p. 26.
  12. ^ Farmer, p. 3.
  13. ^ a b Richard Reeves, "Stanley Marcus Was a Great American" (column), Universal Press Syndicate, January 24, 2002. Retrieved Nov. 6, 2006.
  14. ^ Minding the Store, p. 35.
  15. ^ Minding the Store, pp. 25–29.
  16. ^ a b , TIME, December 26, 1960. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  17. ^ a b Stephen Fox. "Dallas Modern: A Perspective on the Modern Movement in Dallas", Architecturally Significant Homes Online. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  18. ^ a b Dallas County Historical Commission. Dallas County Historical Markers 2007-06-30 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2008-05-23: "After dismissing Frank Lloyd Wright for his failure to produce a suitable design, Stanley Marcus commissioned Dallas architect Roscoe Dewitt to design this International style residence. ... Completed in 1938 and home to the Marcus family until 1994, the house is a notable example of its style in Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2001."
  19. ^ "22 Texans received salaries of $50,000 or more during year 1937", The Port Arthur News, April 7, 1939, page 5.
  20. ^ Biderman, p. 59
  21. ^ "Stanley Marcus Timeline", Texas Monthly, March 2002
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h William Schack, "Neiman-Marcus of Texas" (article), Commentary magazine, 24:3, 212-222, September 1957.
  23. ^ Neiman Marcus, Historical Timeline. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  24. ^ Maria Halkias. "Retail legend Stanley Marcus reflects on industry at war", The Dallas Morning News, December 25, 2001
  25. ^ a b c d e f (No author.) TIME, April 20, 1942. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
  26. ^ (No author.) TIME, Oct. 25, 1943. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
  27. ^ Marcus, Minding the Store, p. 119.
  28. ^ a b c d (No author.) "Mr. Stanley knows best," TIME, September 21, 1953.
  29. ^ "The 30 Most Famous Harvard Students of All Time". Business Insider.
  30. ^ a b Eric Pace. "Stanley Marcus, the Retailer From Dallas, Is Dead at 96," The New York Times, January 23, 2002. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
  31. ^ Biderman, p. 60.
  32. ^ a b Mark Seal. "Life of a sales-man", Texas Monthly, Vol. 20, Issue 12, December 1992.
  33. ^ a b Ray Suarez and Nancy Koehn. "Retail in America," The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, January 25, 2002 (transcript). Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  34. ^ David G. McComb. Texas, a modern history. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1989, page 181.
  35. ^ Maria Halkias. "Test your Neiman-Marcus knowledge," The Dallas Morning News, September 12, 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  36. ^ Minding the Store, page 86.
  37. ^ Steve Kaufman. "Back to the future: Neiman Marcus turns 100 this week with an eye already on 200," Archived 2013-02-09 at archive.today Visual Merchandising and Store Design Online, November 20, 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  38. ^ Mimi Swartz. "Cheap or chic", Slate, December 29, 2004.
  39. ^ (No author.) TIME, January 19, 1968. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
  40. ^ February 11, 1957. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
  41. ^ a b c Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson. "Tribute to Mr. Stanley Marcus,"[permanent dead link] U.S. House of Representatives, February 5, 2002
  42. ^ a b c Glenna Whitley. "The Soul of Stanley Marcus", D Magazine, April 1995.
  43. ^ (No author.) "Dallas armistice," TIME, March 12, 1956.
  44. ^ Tom Stuckey, Associated Press. "Musicians barred from class – Longhairs promise school rule battle," Indiana Evening Gazette, September 10, 1966, page 14.
  45. ^ Michael E. Young. "In '66, their hair triggered a to-do: Stylish Marcus proved an ally in band's battle to keep long locks," The Dallas Morning News, March 4, 2002.
  46. ^ a b Biderman, p. 269.
  47. ^ Minding the Store, p. 252.
  48. ^ Rebuilding of a City: Stanley Marcus 2008-02-24 at the Wayback Machine, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  49. ^ High-resolution JPEG file of "What's Right With Dallas?" 2008-05-30 at the Wayback Machine from the Marcus Collection, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  50. ^ Stanley Marcus. "What's right with Dallas?" The Dallas Morning News, January 1, 1964, section 4, page 1.
  51. ^ Ralph Blumenthal. "Dallas comes to terms with the day that defined it", The New York Times, November 20, 2003.
  52. ^ HTNS. "Jackie's name enters diplomatic switch rumors," The Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, Ohio, September 2, 1964, page 3: "Should Mrs. Kennedy ... turn down the Paris post an alternative is said to be right at hand. He is Stanley Marcus, of the giant Nieman [sic] – Marcus Department Store in Dallas. Like Mrs. Kennedy, Marcus is at ease speaking French, has visited France regularly for years and has made a steadfast avocation of foreign affairs. Moreover, he is reported to be a friend and booster of President Johnson."
  53. ^ Document 414. Memorandum From Nathaniel Davis of the National Security Council Staff to the President's Special Assistant (Rostow), March 17, 1967. Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, Volume XXXIII, Organization and Management of Foreign Policy; United Nations: "SUBJECT: U.S. Delegation to the UN GA Special Session ... (Incidentally, I understand Stanley Marcus would be happy to serve on the U.S. Delegation next autumn if he were asked again.)"
  54. ^ Frances Lewine. "Luci chooses blends of pink for bridal gowns, flowers", The Gettysburg Times, July 19, 1966, page 8: "Luci had the aid of family friend Stanley Marcus, president of the Neiman-Marcus department store in Dallas, Tex., in picking the bridesmaids' gowns and designer."
  55. ^ Chapter 10, LBJ's Texas White House: "Our Heart's Home". Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  56. ^ "Wendy Marcus joins Mrs. Johnson's staff", The Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1963, section 3, page 5.
  57. ^ Biderman, p. 61.
  58. ^ ImagesFashion.com. . Archived from the original on May 5, 2007. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
  59. ^ a b c d e f "Former Neiman Marcus exec Stanley Marcus dies," Dallas Business Journal, January 23, 2002. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  60. ^ Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations 2007-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, Compilation 1988 by James B. Simpson. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  61. ^ Maria Halkias. Neiman Marcus to Feel Loss of Chairman Emeritus Stanley Marcus", The Dallas Morning News, January 28, 2002
  62. ^ Philosophical Society of Texas. Memorials: H. Stanley Marcus, 1905-2002 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  63. ^ Quest for the Best: Texas A&M University Press, 2001 paperback edition information. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  64. ^ Farmer, p. 101.
  65. ^ David McCullough. "After all we’ve done, think how much more we can do" 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Current, July 21, 1997. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  66. ^ . Archived from the original on June 18, 2004. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
  67. ^ Marcus, Stanley, The New York Times, January 24, 2002. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  68. ^ a b Eric Wilson. "Grandma, Cousin Billy, Christian Dior," The New York Times, January 3, 2008, page G4.
  69. ^ a b Jackie Bolin. "Stanley Marcus' granddaughter shares his gift, and the result is a stunning new book," The Dallas Morning News, F!DLuxe magazine, October 2007, page 27. Online edition posted October 3, 2007, and retrieved 2009-03-21.
  70. ^ Rita Braver. "Shop talk," CBS Sunday Morning, December 16, 2007. (video; related text available as "100 years of luxury: the holidays are Neiman Marcus's time to shine")
  71. ^ Description of collections at the DeGolyer Library 2008-05-04 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  72. ^ Amanda Burden receives Design Patron Award at Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Awards," press release, October 20, 2004 (retrieved 2008-05-23): Ms. Burden joins previous winners Stanley Marcus, hotelier Andre Balazs and Gordon Segal of Crate & Barrel.
  73. ^ TIME, June 11, 1965. Retrieved 2008-06-18.

Further reading

  • Tolbert, Frank X. (1953). Neiman Marcus, Texas: the story of the proud Dallas store. New York: Henry Holt.

External links

  • Career Highlights video, from Advertising Hall of Fame
  • Infoplease, Noteworthy Deaths 2002
  • "Farewell to the Merchant Prince", The Dallas Morning News, 2002

stanley, marcus, court, appeals, judge, judge, harold, april, 1905, january, 2002, president, 1950, 1972, later, chairman, board, 1972, 1976, luxury, retailer, neiman, marcus, dallas, texas, which, father, aunt, founded, 1907, during, tenure, company, also, be. For the U S Court of Appeals judge see Stanley Marcus judge Harold Stanley Marcus 2 April 20 1905 January 22 2002 was president 1950 1972 and later chairman of the board 1972 1976 of the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus in Dallas Texas which his father and aunt had founded in 1907 During his tenure at the company he also became a published author writing his memoir Minding the Store and also a regular column in The Dallas Morning News After Neiman Marcus was sold to Carter Hawley Hale Stores Marcus initially remained in an advisory capacity to that company but later began his own consulting business which continued until his death He served his local community as an avid patron of the fine arts and as a civic leader In a chapter titled Mr Stanley the name by which Marcus was known locally for decades in his 1953 work Neiman Marcus Texas Frank X Tolbert called him Dallas s most internationally famous citizen and worthy of being called the Southwest s No 1 businessman intellectual 3 Stanley MarcusBornHarold Stanley Marcus 1905 04 20 April 20 1905Dallas Texas U S DiedJanuary 22 2002 2002 01 22 aged 96 Dallas Texas U S EducationAmherst CollegeHarvard College AB OccupationFormer CEO of Neiman MarcusSpousesBillie Cantrell m 1932 died 1978 wbr Linda Cumber Robinson 1 m 1979 2002 wbr Children3ParentsHerbert Marcus father Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus mother Marcus introduced many of the innovations for which Neiman Marcus became known creating a national award for service in fashion and hosting art exhibitions in the store itself as well as weekly fashion shows and an annual Fortnight event highlighting a different foreign country for two weeks each year He established the Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalogue which became famous for extravagant His and Hers gifts such as airplanes and camels Marcus prided himself on his staff s ability to provide service and value for each client often citing his father s dictum There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it s a good buy for the customer He received the Chevalier Award from the French Legion of Honor 4 was listed in the Houston Chronicle s list of the 100 most important Texans 5 and was named by Harvard Business School among the greatest American Business Leaders of the 20th century 6 The Advertising Hall of Fame notes Stanley Marcus was among the most important figures in the history of American retail merchandising and marketing Through his many innovations he transformed a local Dallas clothing store into an international brand synonymous with high style fashion and gracious service 7 Contents 1 Personal life and retail career 1 1 Early years at Neiman Marcus 1 2 The war years 1 3 Taking the helm 1 4 Civic leadership 1 5 Presidential connections 1 6 Stepping down 2 Legacy 3 Awards and honors 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksPersonal life and retail career EditMarcus was born in The Cedars Dallas Texas the son of Herbert Marcus Sr who later became a co founder of the original Neiman Marcus store with his sister Carrie and her husband Al Neiman Stanley was the first of four sons born to Herbert Sr and his wife the former Minnie Lichtenstein The pregnancy indirectly led to the eventual founding of Neiman Marcus as Herbert Sr decided to leave Sanger s where he was a buyer of boys clothing when he deemed his raise insufficient to support a family 8 Returning from two years spent in Atlanta Georgia establishing a successful sales promotion business the Marcuses and Neimans used the 25 000 made in the sale of that business to establish their store at the corner of Elm and Murphy Given that the family s other option for the money was to invest in the then unknown Coca Cola Company Marcus loved to say that Neiman Marcus was established as a result of the bad judgment of its founders 9 In his memoir Marcus recalled his father as affectionate and his mother as even handed in her attention to each of their children making sure even into their adulthood to give them equivalent gifts and make sure they were praised equally 10 Memorial Hall at Harvard College One of Stanley Marcus s first jobs was as a 10 year old salesman of Saturday Evening Post bringing him into the family s business tradition from a young age 11 He attended Forest Avenue High School where he studied debate as well as English with teacher Myra Brown whom he later credited with much of his early interest in books 12 He began his university studies at Amherst College but when traditions preventing Jews from joining clubs or fraternities drastically curtailed his social life he transferred to Harvard College after the first year 13 At his new school he became a member of the historically Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau later rising to become the group s president While living in Boston and pursuing his chosen major English literature 14 Marcus began a lifelong hobby of collecting rare and antique books To finance his pursuits he began The Book Collector s Service Bureau a mail order book service beginning with a letter of introduction sent to 100 homes The venture proved so successful that for a time Marcus considered entering that line of work full time concerned that entering the retail business might curtail his freedom of expression in politics and other areas of interest his father persuaded him that he would always be granted the liberty of his own views and pointed out that retailing was more profitable and thus would allow him to amass a large book collection that much sooner 15 Early years at Neiman Marcus Edit After receiving an A B degree from Harvard College in 1925 he began his career at the retailer that same year as a simple stockboy organizing inventory but upon beginning in sales quickly outstripped other sales staff 16 He went back to study at Harvard Business School in 1926 leaving after one year to participate in a massive expansion of the retail operation in Dallas He married the former Mary Billie Cantrell in 1932 she initially worked in the Neiman Marcus Sports Shop department until she retired in 1936 after the birth of their first child Jerrie followed two years later by twins Richard and Wendy 8 One year after his wife s 1978 death he married Linda Robinson a longtime librarian at the Dallas Public Library in a marriage that lasted until Stanley Marcus s own death in 2002 In 1935 the Marcuses commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for them on Nonesuch Road but rejected the eventual design which included cantilevered steel beams and terraces swathed in mosquito netting 17 18 Instead the couple chose a design by local firm DeWitt amp Washburn 17 whose creation became a Texas Historic Landmark 18 As of 1937 Marcus was one of only 22 Texans to earn a salary of 50 000 or more according to the House Ways and Means Committee his father Herbert was another earning 75 000 as company president while vice president Stanley drew an even 50 000 19 Marcus was responsible for a number of innovations at the Dallas retailer He created the annual Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in Fashion beginning in 1938 which led to the Neiman Marcus Exposition a fall fashion show held annually from 1938 to 1970 then periodically thereafter 20 His department store was the first American haute couture boutique to introduce weekly fashion shows 21 and the first to host concurrent art exhibitions at the store itself 22 In 1939 he established the annual Christmas Catalogue which in 1951 offered the first of its extravagant His amp Hers Gifts starting with a matching pair of vicuna coats and going on to include matching bathtubs a pair of Beechcraft airplanes Noah s Ark including pairs of animals camels and live tigers 7 16 22 23 The war years Edit For all his professional emphasis on glitz and glamour he made another very different mark on the American fashion industry when he was asked to join the War Production Board in Washington D C on December 27 1941 less than three weeks after the United States entered World War II Ineligible for military service due to his age he instead helped the war effort by championing the conservation of scarce resources normally devoted to fashion trends He encouraged men to wear drooping socks to save much needed rubber that would normally be used for elastic 13 gt and devised regulations for the manufacture of women s and children s clothing that would enable the nation to divert more textile resources to uniforms and other war related needs We settled on certain prohibitions such as lengths sleeve fullness patch pockets ensembles sweeps of skirts widths of belts and depth of hems The restrictions we put into effect froze the fashion silhouette It effectively prevented any change of skirt length downward and it blocked any extreme new sleeve or collar development which might have encouraged women to discard existing clothes Stanley Marcus 24 In addition to these restrictions Marcus recommended to the WPB that coats suits jackets and dresses be sold separately to make them go further 25 The changes were expected to create a total savings of 100 000 000 yards 91 000 000 m of fabric to be used in the war effort 25 Conscious of the role of the media in fashion promotion Marcus prompted the members of the National Retail Dry Goods Association to convince their local press outlets to treat women s fashions as a serious subject rather than as an object of ridicule 25 He solicited nationally famous women to proclaim their support of the new standards TIME s report on the WPB quoted author Adela Rogers St Johns predicting The overdressed woman will be as unpatriotically conspicuous as though she wore a Japanese kimono 25 Marcus addressed the fashion press in national meetings encouraging editors to reassure women that stores would carry adequate supply of attractive styles in order to prevent shoppers from flooding the stores or hoarding stock 25 TIME reported on meetings of 70 fantastic hats representing the presence of national magazine editors from Ladies Home Journal and Harper s Bazaar as well as from newspapers in the urban centers of New York Boston and Philadelphia all complying with the WPB s instructions for their coverage of women s and children s fashions 25 His work promoting cooperation with the WPB s mandates did not still Marcus s competitive instincts With the fall of Paris the traditional fashion capital New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia began to declare his city the new leader at every opportunity To this claim Marcus retorted in the international press New York is finished as a manufacturing center They re making clothes in Kansas Philadelphia and Texas now and they won t give it up The day is gone when only a New York dress is a good dress 26 Faced with increasing shortages in silk and even new synthetics such as rayon which seemed likely to create long lines of dissatisfied customers seeking a product in inadequate supply Marcus created the Neiman Marcus Hosiery of the Month Club which sent two pair of stockings in fashionable shades to each female charge card customer with no membership fees In his memoirs Marcus recalled Many women opened charge accounts just to become members of the club and in a short time we had a membership of over 100 000 extending all over the country 27 Taking the helm Edit In 1950 with the death of Herbert Marcus Sr Stanley Marcus was elected president and CEO of the company with Carrie Marcus Neiman as chairman of the board and other family members like Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus and Lawrence Marcus taking on more responsibilities Neiman died in 1953 in which year TIME proclaimed that Stanley Marcus s combination of showmanship and salesmanship had been instrumental in increasing the company s annual revenue from 2 6 million in 1926 to 20 million 28 29 Marcus began yet another Neiman Marcus tradition the International Fortnight in 1957 as a way to attract customers in the lull between the fall fashion rush and the Christmas shopping crunch The idea was inspired by seeing a store in Stockholm Sweden 30 that was having a France themed sales promotion leading Marcus to propose to the French government a sponsorship of an even more elaborate event in his own store The initial Fortnight included concurrent events of art symphonic music and film at other locations around Dallas with an Air France jet bringing writers painters government officials models and industry leaders 31 In the years following the Fortnight focused on various other countries and added related food service as well as items from the relevant country in every department ending in 1986 with the Australian Fortnight Other international traditions introduced at Neiman s included Dallas first espresso bar brought by Marcus after World War II 32 As a retailer Marcus believed strongly in making his store into a place where everything a customer needed could be found and if necessary brought to the customer s front door He was said to have helped one customer discover the shoe size of Queen Elizabeth II so as to give the gift of stockings and a pair of shoes 33 and he ordered that the store stock such items as a set of Steuben plates with the Mexican national crest because sooner or later somebody will be going to call on the President of Mexico and need a proper gift 28 He personally delivered a fur coat to a St Louis Missouri customer who could not make the trip to Dallas 33 Another story often recounted is that of a shopper who in searching for a present for his wife said that he was not sure what to buy but that he would know it when he saw it In response Marcus inquired about the woman s clothing sizes and asked the customer to wait briefly Taking an oversized brandy snifter from a display Marcus gathered cashmere sweaters of various colors arranged them in imitation of a pousse cafe topped with a white angora sweater to simulate whipped cream and in place of a cherry garnished the concoction with a 10 karat ruby ring at a total cost of 25 350 which the customer gladly paid 5 34 35 36 When one customer decided his Christmas purchases were not sufficiently impressive Marcus helped to arrange a full duplication of the store s display window complete with mannequins and lighting inside the man s home 28 Despite his love of such larger than life salesmanship Marcus also maintained the assertion of his father Herbert that there is no good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it is a good buy for the customer 37 Stanley Marcus would sometimes persuade the buyer to purchase a lower priced item that he considered more suitable as when a man shopping for a mink coat for his 16 year old daughter was personally steered by Marcus toward a 295 muskrat coat instead as being more appropriate to her youth 28 Marcus also routinely insisted customers would be wiser to buy the top quality of a reasonably priced line rather than scaled down or second rate versions of an expensive product 38 Marcus continued throughout his tenure to hold tightly to his father s assurance that he would be able to maintain and act on his political convictions while running the business He supported the United Nations in its early years an unpopular position in Dallas for that time 22 In the early 1950s he began to explore the ramifications of ending the store s participation in the then common practice of excluding black customers from shopping in the store and while his legal advisors cautioned against that step he offered support for any black entrepreneur looking to establish a quality store and in 1954 began to hire black staff in some departments 22 Moving into the 1960s Marcus became ever more convinced that his city and his company needed to take action to promote racial equality both as a moral issue and to reduce the growing civil unrest In 1968 he announced that Neiman Marcus s buyers would give preference to companies employing and training significant numbers of minority employees making his firm one of the first companies in the nation to have such a policy 39 Civic leadership Edit The Marcus family had been among the founders of Dallas Temple Emanu El a Reform synagogue that is today the largest in the Southwest Stanley Marcus became a leading figure in the temple in the 1950s 40 and a member of the American Council for Judaism despite being largely a secular Jew who once joked that he was afraid to visit Israel because he might be converted 22 Marcus was well known for cultivating the arts and for defending even unpopular political causes He introduced art exhibits at Neiman Marcus as well as providing corporate sponsorship of artwork elsewhere in the city and cultivated an extensive private collection He helped found the Dallas Opera 41 helped save the Dallas Symphony from a financial crisis 41 and served as chairman of the board for the Dallas Museum of Fine Art now the Dallas Museum of Art 22 42 While serving as museum chair Marcus was once called upon by Fred Florence then chairman of a major local bank and a fellow Temple Emanu El leader to explain his inclusion of a lot of Communist art he d been told would be included in an upcoming DMFA Sports in Art exhibit co sponsored by Sports Illustrated and United States Information Agency as a fund raiser for the 1956 Olympic team Artists represented in the show included four supposed Communist supporters Leon Kroll Yasuo Kuniyoshi Ben Shahn and William Zorach 22 43 Asking Florence to indicate which pieces were being questioned Marcus dismissed each claim one by one I don t know how anybody could think hitting a baseball was communist Marcus said when shown Shahn s The National Pastime His response to Zorach s Fisherman was similar as he shook his head and remarked I don t think too many people think fishing is communist either Marcus followed up by going to local newspapers The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald and getting the publishers of both to agree that they would not stand for censorship in the arts 42 In organizing a 1952 exhibition of abstract art Marcus lured local leaders to the show by two means First he solicited the donation of art from the collections of David Rockefeller and his brothers along with those from other noted national business leaders Second he requested that the donors personally write letters of invitation to their Dallas colleagues feeling that the otherwise suspect art would benefit from the imprimatur of respected figures known for their fine taste His efforts were rewarded by a numerous and appreciative turnout for the show 42 Marcus also involved himself in issues of civil rights and social justice One unusual case involved three male students at W W Samuell High School who in 1966 were stopped at the school s front door and ordered to cut their hair in order to be admitted to the school The young men filed a lawsuit against the Dallas Independent School District claiming the restriction interfered with their constitutional freedom of expression Despite not knowing the boys involved Marcus stepped forward to champion their case before the public taking out a newspaper ad defending the choice as a simple fashion decision rather than rebellion against authority Additionally he offered legal support if needed noting in a telegram to school board president Lee McShan Jr I don t like long hair any more than the principal does but I will fight for the rights of those students to wear hair any way they choose 44 Though the case was lost and appealed all the way to the U S Supreme Court without success decades letter the men still appreciated Marcus support Paul Jarvis one of the plaintiffs said of Marcus after his death in 2002 He was just a nice man and a great contributor to Dallas and to the arts He wanted to do what was right 45 Presidential connections Edit Marcus used his public relations skills once again when Dallas was labeled City of Hate following the November 22 1963 assassination of United States President John F Kennedy An early supporter of Kennedy s run for the presidency Marcus had tolerated the closing of several customers accounts when he announced his support for the candidate in the 1960 elections 46 47 In fact he had cautioned that Kennedy s visit be reconsidered in light of the city s earlier poor reception of Adlai Stevenson and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson 46 In Kennedy s memory Marcus arranged to have 500 hand typeset and bound copies printed of Kennedy s scheduled speech at the Dallas Trade Mart of which the first copy went to Kennedy s widow Jacqueline 48 The following New Year s Day 1964 Marcus took out a full page advertorial in The Dallas Morning News titled What s Right With Dallas 49 The editorial ad a Neiman Marcus tradition introduced by his father in the store s early days both defended the city against outside critiques and offered more intimate criticisms from one who knew the town and its people well The message said that Dallas needed to address four areas for community improvement one its slum problem two its political extremism called absolutism in the text three too much attention to physical growth at the expense of quality in civic endeavors such as schools colleges symphonies operas and museums and four a need to focus less on civic image and more on doing good things and not doing bad things which he described as the best public relations 50 In a 2003 article on the 40th anniversary of the assassination Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times praised the message as strik ing a perfect balance though he notes the author met not only with support from some but from canceled accounts and anti Semitic attacks that only increased after an article in Life reminded readers of Marcus s Jewish heritage 51 Following Kennedy s death Marcus maintained close ties with Johnson and his administration being considered for diplomatic posts to France and to the United Nations General Assembly while continuing to run his company 52 53 and providing the wedding dresses for both the Johnsons daughters personally assisting Luci Johnson in selecting the designer for her own dress and the styles for the bridesmaids gowns 54 After Johnson s retirement Marcus s invitations were among the few the former president and his wife continued to accept 55 Marcus s own daughter Wendy joined Mrs Johnson s staff for a time in 1963 working under Mrs Johnson s personal secretary Liz Carpenter 56 Stepping down Edit In 1969 Stanley Marcus recommended to the board of directors that the company merge with Broadway Hale of California in order to have enough capital to expand Neiman s subsequently became a subsidiary of Carter Hawley Hale Inc and Marcus accepted a position as corporate executive vice president and director of CHH 57 58 He retired as Chairman Emeritus in 1975 turning over the store to his son Richard C Marcus 41 59 Running those poor steers back and forth in the heat is ridiculous What they ought to do is put the steers in the convention hall and run the delegates Stanley Marcus On Dallas efforts to project a Western image for the Republican National Convention The New York Times August 28 1984 60 Despite retiring officially from the company Marcus continued to be closely involved as an advisor even through the final weeks of his life 61 He established a sideline as a retailing consultant maintaining regular business hours in his offices at Crescent Court for more than a decade and offering advice locally to luxury car dealership Sewell Corporation and hotelier Rosewood Corporation as well as internationally to such businessmen as Mohamed Al Fayed of Harrods 32 59 Called on to consult for Amazon com s Jeff Bezos the 94 year old businessman recalled arriving in his customary expensive tailored suit to discover 300 casually dressed employees I took off my coat my necktie and my shirt down to my T shirt And then I said Okay Let s talk I couldn t have planned it better It broke the ice I was on stage for two hours 62 Legacy Edit Cover of 2001 edition of Minding the Store UNT Press In addition to writing a weekly column for The Dallas Morning News for 15 years Marcus was the author of multiple retailing oriented books including Minding the Store A Memoir 1974 the sequel Quest for the Best 1979 63 and His amp Hers The Fantasy World of the Neiman Marcus Catalogue 1982 64 He was a close friend of other writers including Jane Trahey an author and longtime advertising copywriter who at one time worked for Neiman Marcus and historian David McCullough A television presenter for the public broadcasting program American Experience McCullough said he once asked Stanley Marcus one of the wisest men I know what single problem or aspect of American life if given a magic wand he would change to which Marcus replied I d try to do something about television When asked why he explained Because he said If you could do something about television think how far you could go to solve all the other problems 65 Marcus was an avid art collector as well as amassing a collection of masks from around the world 22 In 2002 the Sotheby s auction house mounted a sale of works from his estate calling Marcus an insightful and forward looking collector and a generous lender whose contributions to exhibitions helped bring notice to the world of Latin American Art during the 40s 50s and 60s 66 The auction house also noted that Marcus had begun collecting at age five influenced by his parents but had found his interest in good design vastly deepened by a 1925 graduation trip to Europe where he visited a famed international exhibition of decorative arts and thus was introduced to the earliest works of Art Deco The Marcus collections included significant works by Mexican artists Rufino Tamayo David Alfaro Siqueiros Diego Rivera and Rivera s lesser known friend and colleague Antonio Ruiz the American sculptor Alexander Calder and American painter Georgia O Keeffe Marcus was friends with Rivera and Tamayo playing a major role in bringing one of Tamayo s murals to the Dallas Museum of Art and one of the first board members of the O Keeffe museum which honored him at the time of his death with a paid notice in The New York Times that stated Stanley s generous support leadership enthusiasm friendship and keen artistic judgment were instrumental in the Museum s inception and success We shall miss him greatly 67 Another Marcus contribution to the arts was his own work in the area of photography Over the course of his adult life Marcus took thousands of photographs both of famous and anonymous subjects which he turned over to granddaughter Allison V Smith a professional photographer upon moving out of his Nonesuch Road home into a smaller residence in the late 1990s 68 Two years after his death Smith began making digital scans of the photos and posting them to the sharing site Flickr despite the fact that their authorship was not identified within a year the photographs had drawn 10 000 views 69 For the 100th anniversary of Neiman Marcus Smith and her mother Jerrie Marcus Smith decided to assemble a representative selection of the nearly 5 000 images into a book 70 titled Reflection of a Man the 192 page book was published by Cairn Press in October 2007 and accompanied by an exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art 68 69 Southern Methodist University hosts a Stanley Marcus collection at its DeGolyer Library in Dallas including photographs correspondence and clippings The library also houses a collection of more than 8 000 books donated by Marcus including 1 100 miniature books many from the press he founded 71 Awards and honors EditInaugural inductee Retailing Hall of Fame 2004 First recipient of the Design Patron award National Design Awards 2001 72 Inductee Advertising Hall of Fame 1999 Honoree Linz Award 1995 Inductee Texas Business Hall of Fame 1984 59 Honorary doctoral degree recipient North Texas State University 1983 59 Honorary Fellow American Institute of Architects 1972 Honorary doctoral degree recipient Southern Methodist University 1965 73 Recipient National Retail Merchants Association gold medal 1961 59 New York Fashion Designers Annual Award 1958 59 Chevalier Award French Legion of Honor presented on March 27 1949 by Henri Bonnet French Ambassador to the United States for eminent services to the cause of French industrial and commercial recovery 4 Elected chairman American Retailing Federation 30 Listed The Tallest Texans Houston Chronicle profiles of 100 key figures in the state s history 5 Listed 20th Century Great American Business Leaders Harvard Business School 6 See also EditHistory of the Jews in DallasReferences Edit David R Farmer Stanley Marcus A Life with Books TCU Press 1995 p 141 ISBN 0 87565 147 X Personal column The Dallas Morning News November 9 1905 page 5 Frank X Tolbert Neiman Marcus Texas New York Henry Holt and Company 1953 page 19 a b The furrowed brow TIME Magazine April 4 1949 Retrieved 2008 05 22 a b c The Tallest Texans Houston Chronicle Retrieved 2008 05 23 a b Harvard Business School 20th century Great American Business Leaders Archived from the original on August 6 2007 Retrieved May 20 2007 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a author has generic name help a b Advertising Hall of Fame Stanley Marcus Retrieved May 20 2007 a b Rose G Biderman They Came to Stay The Story of the Jews of Dallas 1870 1997 2002 Eakin Press ISBN 1 57168 648 7 Stanley Marcus 1974 Minding the Store A Memoir 1993 Plume edition p 1 Minding the Store p 17 Minding the Store p 26 Farmer p 3 a b Richard Reeves Stanley Marcus Was a Great American column Universal Press Syndicate January 24 2002 Retrieved Nov 6 2006 Minding the Store p 35 Minding the Store pp 25 29 a b The Man Who Sells Everything TIME December 26 1960 Retrieved 2008 05 22 a b Stephen Fox Dallas Modern A Perspective on the Modern Movement in Dallas Architecturally Significant Homes Online Retrieved 2008 05 23 a b Dallas County Historical Commission Dallas County Historical Markers Archived 2007 06 30 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 2008 05 23 After dismissing Frank Lloyd Wright for his failure to produce a suitable design Stanley Marcus commissioned Dallas architect Roscoe Dewitt to design this International style residence Completed in 1938 and home to the Marcus family until 1994 the house is a notable example of its style in Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmark 2001 22 Texans received salaries of 50 000 or more during year 1937 The Port Arthur News April 7 1939 page 5 Biderman p 59 Stanley Marcus Timeline Texas Monthly March 2002 a b c d e f g h William Schack Neiman Marcus of Texas article Commentary magazine 24 3 212 222 September 1957 Neiman Marcus Historical Timeline Retrieved 2008 05 23 Maria Halkias Retail legend Stanley Marcus reflects on industry at war The Dallas Morning News December 25 2001 a b c d e f No author In the Stretch TIME April 20 1942 Retrieved August 6 2007 No author New York Bah TIME Oct 25 1943 Retrieved 2007 08 06 Marcus Minding the Store p 119 a b c d No author Mr Stanley knows best TIME September 21 1953 The 30 Most Famous Harvard Students of All Time Business Insider a b Eric Pace Stanley Marcus the Retailer From Dallas Is Dead at 96 The New York Times January 23 2002 Retrieved 2008 06 18 Biderman p 60 a b Mark Seal Life of a sales man Texas Monthly Vol 20 Issue 12 December 1992 a b Ray Suarez and Nancy Koehn Retail in America The News Hour with Jim Lehrer January 25 2002 transcript Retrieved 2008 05 23 David G McComb Texas a modern history Austin TX University of Texas Press 1989 page 181 Maria Halkias Test your Neiman Marcus knowledge The Dallas Morning News September 12 2007 Retrieved 2008 05 06 Minding the Store page 86 Steve Kaufman Back to the future Neiman Marcus turns 100 this week with an eye already on 200 Archived 2013 02 09 at archive today Visual Merchandising and Store Design Online November 20 2007 Retrieved 2008 05 24 Mimi Swartz Cheap or chic Slate December 29 2004 No author Time to Get Involved TIME January 19 1968 Retrieved 2007 08 06 Temple in Texas February 11 1957 Retrieved 2008 06 18 a b c Hon Eddie Bernice Johnson Tribute to Mr Stanley Marcus permanent dead link U S House of Representatives February 5 2002 a b c Glenna Whitley The Soul of Stanley Marcus D Magazine April 1995 No author Dallas armistice TIME March 12 1956 Tom Stuckey Associated Press Musicians barred from class Longhairs promise school rule battle Indiana Evening Gazette September 10 1966 page 14 Michael E Young In 66 their hair triggered a to do Stylish Marcus proved an ally in band s battle to keep long locks The Dallas Morning News March 4 2002 a b Biderman p 269 Minding the Store p 252 Rebuilding of a City Stanley Marcus Archived 2008 02 24 at the Wayback Machine DeGolyer Library Southern Methodist University Retrieved 2008 05 23 High resolutionJPEG file of What s Right With Dallas Archived 2008 05 30 at the Wayback Machine from the Marcus Collection DeGolyer Library Southern Methodist University Dallas Texas Retrieved 2008 05 23 Stanley Marcus What s right with Dallas The Dallas Morning News January 1 1964 section 4 page 1 Ralph Blumenthal Dallas comes to terms with the day that defined it The New York Times November 20 2003 HTNS Jackie s name enters diplomatic switch rumors The Chronicle Telegram Elyria Ohio September 2 1964 page 3 Should Mrs Kennedy turn down the Paris post an alternative is said to be right at hand He is Stanley Marcus of the giant Nieman sic Marcus Department Store in Dallas Like Mrs Kennedy Marcus is at ease speaking French has visited France regularly for years and has made a steadfast avocation of foreign affairs Moreover he is reported to be a friend and booster of President Johnson Document 414 Memorandum From Nathaniel Davis of the National Security Council Staff to the President s Special Assistant Rostow March 17 1967 Foreign Relations 1964 1968 Volume XXXIII Organization and Management of Foreign Policy United Nations SUBJECT U S Delegation to the UN GA Special Session Incidentally I understand Stanley Marcus would be happy to serve on the U S Delegation next autumn if he were asked again Frances Lewine Luci chooses blends of pink for bridal gowns flowers The Gettysburg Times July 19 1966 page 8 Luci had the aid of family friend Stanley Marcus president of the Neiman Marcus department store in Dallas Tex in picking the bridesmaids gowns and designer Chapter 10 LBJ s Texas White House Our Heart s Home Retrieved 2008 05 23 Wendy Marcus joins Mrs Johnson s staff The Dallas Morning News December 10 1963 section 3 page 5 Biderman p 61 ImagesFashion com Retail Pioneer Stanley Marcus Passes Away Archived from the original on May 5 2007 Retrieved May 20 2007 a b c d e f Former Neiman Marcus exec Stanley Marcus dies Dallas Business Journal January 23 2002 Retrieved 2008 05 23 Simpson s Contemporary Quotations Archived 2007 05 04 at the Wayback Machine Compilation 1988 by James B Simpson Retrieved 2008 05 23 Maria Halkias Neiman Marcus to Feel Loss of Chairman Emeritus Stanley Marcus The Dallas Morning News January 28 2002 Philosophical Society of Texas Memorials H Stanley Marcus 1905 2002 Archived 2007 09 29 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2008 05 23 Quest for the Best Texas A amp M University Press 2001 paperback edition information Retrieved 2008 05 23 Farmer p 101 David McCullough After all we ve done think how much more we can do Archived 2006 09 27 at the Wayback Machine Current July 21 1997 Retrieved 2008 05 23 Sotheby s To Offer Property From The Estate Of Stanley Marcus Fall 2002 Archived from the original on June 18 2004 Retrieved May 20 2007 Marcus Stanley The New York Times January 24 2002 Retrieved 2008 05 23 a b Eric Wilson Grandma Cousin Billy Christian Dior The New York Times January 3 2008 page G4 a b Jackie Bolin Stanley Marcus granddaughter shares his gift and the result is a stunning new book The Dallas Morning News F DLuxe magazine October 2007 page 27 Online edition posted October 3 2007 and retrieved 2009 03 21 Rita Braver Shop talk CBS Sunday Morning December 16 2007 video related text available as 100 years of luxury the holidays are Neiman Marcus s time to shine Description of collections at the DeGolyer Library Archived 2008 05 04 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2008 05 23 Amanda Burden receives Design Patron Award at Cooper Hewitt s National Design Awards press release October 20 2004 retrieved 2008 05 23 Ms Burden joins previous winners Stanley Marcus hotelier Andre Balazs and Gordon Segal of Crate amp Barrel Kudos TIME June 11 1965 Retrieved 2008 06 18 Further reading EditTolbert Frank X 1953 Neiman Marcus Texas the story of the proud Dallas store New York Henry Holt External links EditCareer Highlights video from Advertising Hall of Fame Infoplease Noteworthy Deaths 2002 Farewell to the Merchant Prince The Dallas Morning News 2002Portal Biography Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Stanley Marcus amp oldid 1095596079, 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