Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Mary LaskerMary Lasker
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

neither did Conde Nast because they were used to selling expensive patterns. And the designs that people who buy things in department stores evidently for larger prices were different from what should be sold in chain stores, and it took us a long time to turn the thing around and design the right kind of dresses.

Q:

You wasn't in competition then with something like Butterich?

Lasker:

No, no. We were really only selling in the chain stores, and then later we sold in competition with Butterich and then Gimbel's and the other stores. I got a fraction of a percent on every pattern that was sold in these chains, and gradually I got to have a fairly decent income from this.

Q:

What sort of royalty did you pay to the movie stars?

Lasker:

Nothing at all; they got just publicity.

Q:

And whom did you use in that capacity?

Lasker:

Oh, all kinds of people, like Irene Dunne and Betty Furness, some that are still...

Q:

Gloria Swanson?

Lasker:

No, not then. She had passed her great fame as a movie





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help