In 1980 The Official Preppy Handbook described our then family business with the following statement: “J. Press has catered since 1902 to the ultra-conservatives of the old guard.” However, during my time on the floor I greeted a flock of dedicated customers, hardly old guard, that included Frank Sinatra, Walter Matthau, Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, TV anchor John Chancellor, playwright Edward Albee, Major League Baseball commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Bart Giametti, spy Alger Hiss, arbitrage jailbird Ivan Boesky. Truly a phantasmorgia of Hall of Famers and regular guys.
To read this story and many more, purchase the Threading the Needle book by Richard Press.
