I was there then, in college and then law school. My father thought I should work part-time, so I had two jobs selling clothes.
I first worked, for the first 3 years, at the "Campus Shop" of the Carrollton Avenue branch of a top-notch department store, Gus Mayer. I made $1.25/hour. That shop was leased to a man who had a similiar shop at Blach's in Birmingham, where I lived. My father knew the guy and that is how I got the job, as his son-in-law ran the New Orleans branch. Actually, that shop was not too great, as we mainly sold to college guys and did not have many good brands. We sold a lot of Haspel poplin suits, seersucker, plus madras and "batik" (anyone remember it?) sport jackets. The stuff mainly went for $35-$60; our priciest suit was about $65. We carried shirts by Sero, Aetna (inexpensive), and Lacoste (maybe our top line). Lacoste was made in France and was expensive, $9, because we had other knit shirts for around $5. I remember that the boss wanted to sell the no. 1 cologne of the time, Canoe, but their representative visited the shop, inspected the other brands and decided we were not good enough.

My next job, for two years, was at the Madison Shop in Rubenstein Brothers, which was probably then (and now) the city's leading men's full-service store. I got $1.50/hour and a 20% discount on clothing. You reached the Madison Shop by riding in a madras walled elevator. That shop was the 2nd or 3rd best "Ivy" shop in town. We sold suits by Grieco (Southwick-about $110-125), H. Freeman & Son (about $105), Joseph Greif (about $85) and also a 4-piece (with two trousers and a reversible vest) piece of junk $45 suit by H.I.S., which we mainly sold to high school locals.  We carried Gant shirts, trousers by Corbin and Jefferson, and Burlington Gold Cup socks. Ties cost either $2.50 (unlined) or $3.50 (for the lined ones). We had very nice sweaters-Alan Paine, Pringle and Cox Moore (a huge selection of crew neck shetlands for $12 and lambswool v-necks for $16). Rubenstein Brothers was run by a man I thought of as the elderly Mr. Rubenstein (probably 45), his 2 or 3 old-maid sisters, and his son David, whom we called "the little jerk." David owns the store now. A couple of years ago, Martin Greenfield told me that David still is a "little jerk." I do not remember  that I ever saw him, but I have read that at the same time I was working at Rubenstein Brothers a man named Lee Harvey Oswald spent several weeks, directly across Canal Street from the store, at the corner of Royal Street, passing out pro-Castro leaflets. I remember Mr. Rubenstein giving a speech to the assembled sales staff the day President Kennedy was shot and the store closing early. I had heard the news on the radio driving downtown after class to go to work. The announcer who broke the news to me, on the Tulane radio station, was my fraternity brother, Jerry Springer.

Now, I know that $1.25-$1.50/hr. does not sound like much money, but Arnaud's had a businessman's lunch (Shrimp Remoulade, Trout Menuiere and a Creme Caramel for $1.25). I usually went to simpler places, instead, and got red beans and rice for $.60. When I was flush, I would add the GREAT Italian sausage to the red beans and rice, for an extra $.40. A bottle of local beer (Regal, Jax, Dixie, or Falstaff) was $.25. Fancy places cost a lot for dinner. Brennan's, Galatoire's, Antoine's or Commander's Palace would set me back about $16, for dinner for two, with a modest bottle of wine.

The best Ivy shop in town was Terry & Juden, which also sold Southwick. It also carried Alden shoes. I could not really afford it and my "splurges" consisted of buying from the J. Press traveling representative when he came to town 3-4 times a year.
Porter-Stevens carried Norman Hilton suits ($150-way out of my range). There were a number of other trad shops in town-Stagg, Ltd. and Gentry (which also sold gift items).
Haspel was a local manufacturer and there was one small shop, Claude's, run by a Black guy, that got its irregulars and sold the suits for about $22, instead of the usual $39.95-$45. That little place was really just a lean-to and was only open irregularly, when he could get some stock.

Last edited by Jerrysfriend (2007-10-10 19:29:51)