Jack Rothenberg
Jack Rothenberg was born in 1919 in Manhattan, on the Lower East Side. His father left when he was very young, and his mother struggled to support him, working long hours for little pay. With relatives unable to care for him, he spent time in an orphanage and passed through several foster homes before being placed, around age ten, with an Orthodox Jewish family where he stayed for about five years. His mother remained a constant presence, visiting regularly and later taking a room nearby. Living with the Orthodox family, he absorbed conversational Yiddish, which he credited as a lifelong door opener. He grew up in the Bronx and attended James Monroe High School.
As a young man Jack studied music and joined a National Guard band based in the Bronx, choosing it over regular service. When the war came, he was reassigned to a field artillery regiment and later to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, where soldiers preparing to go overseas were supported by orderlies like himself. He recalled that New Yorkers were generous to servicemen, and that a free ticket brought him to his first stage show. He came to Dallas in 1955 following a divorce, wanting to be far from an unhappy situation in New York.
In Dallas, Jack met fellow transplanted New Yorkers who helped him get started in the apparel business, beginning in children's wear and later moving into the more lucrative women's wear, where he eventually found success. His work was seasonal and involved travel, including trips back to New York and even an attempt to establish himself and a newcomers' social club in Toronto. He married three times and had three children, the eldest born in New York and the younger two in Dallas, along with two grandchildren. He observed how Dallas blossomed after liquor became allowable, growing from a quiet city into a lively one. His advice to future generations was simple: be gentle and be curious.
Full Transcript
19 19 New York City huh what do you remember when you were just a little boy I was born actually in in Manhattan and on the lorry what they called a lower east side but my mother was married to a man who left her when I was a very young child and it was a big struggle she moved to New York where she had two younger sisters and you got them to agree to watch me once she went and tried to get a job early she did but after a while these sisters who alternated and take each and we said they didn't want to be
a babysitter they want to go to work themselves they were young enough to have that kind of thoughts and my mother had that through something about taking care of me the upstairs was a neighbor kind of senior citizen she asked if she would watch out for me she said sure but we've got to be too much for this lady and my mother was again confronted with a who's gonna care they care me there was enough of an orphan asylum called a book and hero of the south and she went there and got me placed there I was there for a year and she would come
every Sunday for a visit with a big bag that she struggled with what she thought would be goodies fruit candy so on but they at that time there was the beginning of force the parentage and they thought that I would be better off being a foster child well I went to a five foster parent homes I was a bad kid but it was mostly because I was upset about being with families other than my own right finally I was back to the orphanage sound and they did meet up with a woman who had the youngster about a year younger than me and she want there
was a second marriage for her and she wanted to get somebody who would be a companion for this son well they picked up on me and would you believe I stay with this woman for five years they were all three of the time I was about ten it was an Orthodox Jewish family they were very close to her parents and very often they spoke Yiddish and I was just acute in my presence but to each other not that may need to be mean but there was more comfortable for them but I was kind of a nosy kid night ask the parent that I was saying
with one how did they say that what does it mean and I picked up a little bit on conversational Yiddish which even today has been the door opener many many times now were able to stay in touch with your mom yes I was despite the fact that she worked long hours for small pay she would see me at least two times a week finally she took a room with the of the woman that I was staying with and then she could see me a little bit more than she had how did you know your grandparents no just just slightly it happened that my father was
a very well educated individual I think he was born in Poland that had been at one time under the jurisdiction of of German and Russian needle in both languages he was quite well educated but he was a black sheet of a very wealthy family I met his mother maybe three times she looked down on my mother is being not in her class my father's mother had a brother who subsequently well he was a magistrate in the city in New York and subsequently became president of the Zionist Organization of American that was my claim to any relationship there was very little now after your dad left
did you ever sealing it three times different times the last time I saw and each time was a very brief we had nothing in common to talk about the last time I saw him was in which what Virginia where we had moved and he was trying to he was owning a grocery market store and I had a young son at that time and I brought my son to meet with my dad at that time but again it was very uncomfortable for concern and so we left and that was the end or did you go to high school in New York what do you remember the
name of the high school sure i was living in the bronx in New York you know New York is five boroughs I lived in for them the last one was fat noun from the army but this was in the bronx and i want to change monroe high school yeah now after high school was it on to college to work or the service i was already eligible for selection for the army well as i said i had been studying music and it was in the bronx there was a national guard outfit that had a band that i was able to join i joined the band figuring
it was a lot easier than being a regular member of the national guard my mother had a problem in the store she had man who was a butcher and also helped out as a clerk he left for whatever reason he did and I was in touch with my mother through letters and phone calls and I went out I got permission to get out of furlough and I went out to see if I could be of help and I saw how needed it was for another individual help my mother long hours but there was an opportunity for some for a living to be made to try
and do things right I sent a letter to my commanding officer explained why i was with my mother and i would stay until i was able to get somebody to take my place I figured I did what was right well we finally did get a man I went back his service as soon as I got into the tube and barracks two guys from the MPS got a hold on me you're under arrest why you went AWOL absent without leave i said when i sent a letter today to my commanding officer explaining the situation so there wasn't anything to do without doing it correctly well this
band was part of a regiment of field artillery big big cannon after i got out of the the jail that I was in problem they transferred me to this to one of the companies that comprise this regiment I stayed there until the war broke out I was supposed to be in the service for a year but then Pearl Harbor came and they took us and they brought us the West's least desirable individuals from each company and they put us on a truck going up to way upstate to New York to service God's against any invasion of the enemy from there when Pearl Harbor broke out
and got to be real serious three transferred individuals like myself who came from a field artillery unit to Fort Hamilton in bro New York why there they needed men to act as orderlies for individuals who was stationed there just prior to going overseas while though we're getting prepped up for it but we made beds we clean the floors but the best thing of all was we were free at night and we could go into New York what you wanted to New York and I'm from New York so I was pretty comfortable but people then were very generous to my military people the first drama show
that I've ever seen was his result of a free ticket given to me in New York all kinds of things were made easy for us when did you come to Dallas 55 in 55 was it a culture shock for you to come to dallas from being from New York no because essentially I'm individual there was a divorce between my van present wife and I went out to dallas texas because as far away from New York and what I thought was an unhappy situation there I bumped into a fellow on the swimming pool University Park who I sort of looked at because his speech was full
of New York expressions and sounds and I introduced myself to him because I didn't know anybody there and we're in the pool and he was kind enough to sort of take me other's way to get started me on and he introduced me to a fellow who sold women's who is also from the art but sold children's where is it go speak to him he might be able to help you get into the apparel business and you can find a way of eating regularly well I did and this fella really guided me he was an embroiderer essentially but he did things are dresses children's justice that
really made them quite attractive and I began to acquire a clientele but the one thing I didn't like was the fact that it was on the roads six days a week and I had no chance to get established here I had met some people in New York I went back to visit some family and the offseason you know the apparel business is seasonal and you when the season is is over for you it's because the ones that you sold it to want to sell what you sold to them so either you're successful and you could do things that you'd like to do or you're not
successfully just stay put I was both at first I wasn't so successful later things got a little bit more successful and I went back to New York to visit family drove it took me two and a half days to go from here to there which I wasn't used to driving big lengths I met some people at Grossinger's who a Jewish individuals from Canada from Toronto who was pleasant speaking with him knowing them for the storage mistake they said he ever get a chance come up to Toronto and we'll show you the town and it will be something nice to visit well I said thank you
and so on a couple of visits later when I can't was back in New York and had driven there it was a rainy day I was in the barbershop and I said gee what am I going to do it myself I think I go up try and go up to Toronto and these people that I admit additionally were very hospitable a little bit and I liked what I saw there was a beautiful city had all kinds of culture and I said gee maybe I could get established here and I wouldn't have to travel if I could get some good selling lines to put it simply
and act as a representative and try and get Adam franchise by Canadians here while I went back to New York and I did manage to get a cup of what I thought were good lines I introduce them to some of the people that I picked up from the the yellow pages in Toronto they liked what they saw but they couldn't budge they're very very careful which was understandable but meanwhile my capital was going through him I had to do something well there are a lot of what they called newcomers people who came from from overseas to Toronto because they heard of its reputation I said
gee maybe I could establish some sort of a club where these newcomers could meet each other and have a chance to get settled I just started that there's something like that and I borrowed some money from my mother and I used it to and get me as some newspaper exposure and to get an individual's some individuals who would act on my behalf recognizing the hopefulness this would be towards these newcomers getting established in toronto well for the time being i did a few things right and when I opened up there were like six hundred people there and I gotten four men for musicians to play
music that is danceable which would be a helpful way for these individuals to meet possibly to get start and so on this one fine for a few months but these newcomers didn't have much money and they couldn't afford even the very modest prices that I was asking and so it blew apart and I went back to New York and picked up some lines again in children's wear I had a reputation for being a productive individual and that stood me in good stead for a friend of mine here at Dallas transplanted New Yorker said we said Jackie he says you know it takes as much effort
to sell her jewels were dressed as it does a ladies wear and there's more money to be made from ladies wear because the selling price is more food for thought and I did decide to get started in the lady's hand of it I wanted a so called junior salesman took to kind of learn the ropes I did that for about six months and then I started to do what I did initially when I wanted to get establishment childrenswear I said called I checked on the ads that appear the Women's Wear Daily to see who was interested in getting representation here and I put together a
few lines got some draw and that's how I got the establish it was a big struggle big struggle but my stomach said hey we got to continue and I had a son at that time so that was an additional incentive now you were married three different times and you have three children where were your kids born my eldest child was born in New York the other two were born here okay so one of them from your first wife the other tool from my third or third one now in your lifetime there's been so much advancements in technology is there something that came along what it
did that you went wow how did we ever get along without that was there like an invention that really amazed you we're just living in down i came to dallas in 1955 when it was dry city and the city of dallas was really nothing too exciting to me I had in New York opinion of coming to dollars a cowboy sitting on a fence post in front of Neiman Marcus you know that sort of thing well of course that was silly but when I came it was a dry city and very relatively uninteresting what made dollars bloom was when Luca became allowable so on I mean
but just before that they give you an idea there was one Chinese restaurant the whole city of Dallas think of how many oriental restaurants there are today I'll give you then Dallas just bloom when the advent of liquid currently I enjoy living in the city of dallas now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions you know World War two the Kennedy assassination the moon landing something good in 69 of course the tragedy of 911 is there something that really stood out that affected you that you know exactly where you were when it happened when I was in the women's apparel business I
became successful with one line it's a seasonal activity and it allowed me to travel and enjoy what kind of a life I had being by myself I was already divorced and I and I enjoyed the opportunity to do that okay Jackie had the three children and two grandkids what advice you want to leave to the next generation be gentle be curious that's as good as I can say it you did a great job man it's a shame I couldn't get you to talk