Minding the Store

5. Over the Hump

5 Over the Hump IT WOULD BE NICE TO THINK that all testimonials and public recognitions happen spontaneously, and some do. However, they frequently have to be set in motion by a slight nudge. In 1937, when we were getting ready to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Neiman-Marcus, it occurred to me that it was only fitting that my father be honored on the occasion. I mentioned the idea to two of his banking associates, Fred Florence and Karl Hoblitzelle, and they readily agreed to sponsor a testimonial luncheon in his honor. It made worthy publicity for the store, it paid a well-deserved tribute to one of its founders, and it gave others the chance to say nice things about his contributions to the community, which would have been difficult for us to have voiced. My father was very touched by this honor and expressed great gratitude to both Messrs. Florence and Hoblitzelle for their thoughtfulness , never knowing I had stimulated their action. From the outset, it had been my father's habit to recognize an anniversary of the store with some pronouncement about the fashions of the season, in order to get the fall business moving. In Texas, September was still a hot month, providing little stimulus for the purchases of fall wardrobes. Sometimes we had to wait until mid·October for a "blue norther" to break the succession of hot days. I studied the advertising of our early years carefully, 99 OVER THE HUMP and one day I came across the phrase "presenting a veritable exposition of fashion." This triggered an idea - why not create an event of such importance that we could make it an exposition in fact as well as in words? In discussion with others in the organization , the idea bloomed. We would invite some of our designers to make personal appearances, just as the movie stars did to promote a new picture, we would bring down artisans to perform their work in the store, and we would back all of this up with a great fashion show to dramatize the new fall fashions. There was a movement afoot, begun by Lord & Taylor, to recognize American designers. We decided it was time to bring American and European designers out of the anonymity under which their employers had carefully obscured them, so we established, in 1938, The NeimanMarcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion. For the first year's awards we selected Mr. John, the milliner, Dorothy Liebes, the textile designer, and Germaine Monteil and Nettie Rosenstein, dress designers. They came, and the awards were presented at a gala evening fashion show in the store to a capacity audience of 1,750. The demand for tickets was so great that we were forced to repeat the show four additional nights. Customers came from all parts of the Southwest to see the shows, meet the famous names in fashion, and start their fall wardrobes even though the weather was ninety-eight degrees. We had created a totally new sales promotion device! The following year we honored Hattie Carnegie, Clare Potter, and Elizabeth Arden. In 1940, Mrs. Chase of Vogue returned to Dallas to receive the award, and for the first time we presented the award to a European, Elsa Schiaparelli of Paris. In the years to follow, virtually every well-known and some unknown designers made special trips to Dallas to receive our award, for it came to be recognized as the Oscar of the fashion industry. Obviously it was a great publicity device, and the award presentation stories and pictures were picked up by the press here and abroad. We were very strict in our selection of awardees, insisting that 100 OVER THE HUMP each must have made some contribution to fashion, either in designing, publicizing, or the wearing of fashion in a way that influenced the public. It was on the basis of the latter criterion that we selected Mrs. Howard (Slim) Hawkes as our first fashion consumer awardee, for in 1946 she epitomized the "typical American" look to the fashionables of the country. Later the award was given to Madame Henri Bonnet, the wife of the French ambassador to Washington, for her chic representation of the fashions of France, and then in 1955 to a rising young motion picture actress, Grace Kelly...