Sam Fagin
Sam Fagin was born in Oklahoma City in 1918, the youngest of five children, to parents who had come from Russia. His father owned a clothing store in downtown Oklahoma City, while his mother was a homemaker who raised the family and kept a strict kosher home. He had three brothers and one sister. He remembered little of his grandparents, recalling only his mother's mother, who lived in New York, spoke no English, and once visited when Sam was very young. In 1933, drawn by his mother's sister who owned the New York Bakery on Forest Avenue, the family moved to Dallas, where Sam began his first year of high school.
In Dallas, Sam settled into a predominantly Jewish South Dallas neighborhood centered on Forest Avenue, Park Row, and South Boulevard, and attended a high school that was nearly all Jewish. Unable to afford college, he set out job-hunting during the summer of 1936 and, after being turned away all over downtown, wandered into Neiman Marcus and was hired as a messenger boy for fifty dollars a month. Over the years he rose from messenger to cashier to stock boy, and eventually to selling women's shoes after Herbert Marcus Sr. personally insisted he stay when he considered leaving for a jewelry store. Through handwritten thank-you notes and attentive service, Sam built a devoted clientele that grew to fill three volumes of customer names.
Sam served two and a half years in the Air Force in the South Pacific after being drafted in 1942, having married his wife Freda in November 1941. Their only child, a son named Milton, was born in 1948. Raised Orthodox, Sam attended Hebrew school as a boy and had a small bar mitzvah after his father died a month before the ceremony; he later joined Temple Emanu-El, where his son was confirmed, and remained a member for more than fifty-five years. A Mason for over fifty years, he retired from Neiman Marcus after 54 years of service around 1991 and began volunteering weekly at the Scottish Rite Children's Hospital gift shop, a role he continued for two decades. Reflecting on his life, he took great pride in having built everything on his own.
Full Transcript
today is Saturday November the 3rd my name is Clint Reisner I am the videographer and interviewer in the place of the interview is the 5-star premiere residence and the person I'm going to interview is Sam Fagan Sam at first I would like for you to tell me about the family your parents grandparents when and where were you born and how did you happen to settle in Dallas and what did your parents do for a living I was born in Oklahoma City in 1918 we're both from Russia what I had I had three brothers and one sister I don't remember too much about my grandparents I
remember my mother's my mother's mother lived in New York she couldn't speak English and I was quite young she came to Oklahoma City to visit formed and I could I don't remember too much about her I was just very very young maybe six six or seven years old I did not know either one of my grandfather's I didn't know much about him my father had a clothing store downtown in Oklahoma City and my mother was strictly a housewife and raised five children and she kept a very strict kosher home how did you happen to settle in Dallas Sam my mother had a sister who lived
in Dallas and they owned the New York bakery on Forest Avenue in South Dallas we moved to Dallas in 1933 I started my first year high school as a childhood put it you said you lived in Oklahoma City first then you moved to Dallas right what was your neighborhood like in Dallas it wasn't like Dallas it wasn't we were in a neighborhood mostly Gentiles the Jewish people they were kind of scattered around Oklahoma City we had lots of Gentile neighbors very friendly now this was an Oklahoma school to graduate from junior high but that's the year we moved to Dallas started the first year now
the neighborhood in Dallas was different from the neighborhood in Oklahoma City entirely South Dallas was practically I would say 95% Jewish people I'm forced to ever knew that there's Avenue Park Row South Boulevard okay we went to school Jewish holidays I think would come up they practically I they say didn't have classes because of going to high schooler we were about 97% pupils so there wasn't a need to have any school holidays so at your high school at first I have a new high school it was at one time almost 97% Jewish exactly that's incredible okay beautiful high school with a wonderful auditorium right on
Forest Avenue okay what did you do after high school Sam after high school I didn't have the opportunity to go to college that was a centennial year the Texas centennial 1936 other than caring and younger years paper routes and things like that I had to go find a job that would get him on the streetcar for seven cents and go downtown and I remember go ahead so very well getting off the streetcar over there at Main Street Main Street and wasn't a Kurd in the Buddy types get injured department store and I went in looking for a job and they were not taking applications time
as we were very bad and this was in the middle of a hot summer I remember so distinctly it was it was August the 21st 1936 and the temperature was about a hundred and ten degrees well anyway I went from store to store I went from tights getting all the way down to w8 green there I went went to a Harrison Company I went down the street to dings Kate Wilson I ended up at Lamar Lamar and made an amine in L Sanger Brothers I went into Sanger Brothers and it was the same story everywhere they were not taking applications very very hard to find
across the street going back up where I came from was Ian katakana I couldn't find a job there anyway I was decided to go back catch a streetcar going back to South Dallas and I passed Reynolds Penland and I got to the corner of Main and Irby Street to catch the streetcar to go home and there was a department store they're called Neiman Marcus which I had never heard of before and the door was open and it was a beautiful aroma coming out and I could smell that it was like powder or perfume so I went in the store this was around four o'clock in
the afternoon and I cosmetic apartment happened to be in the front of the store not in the back where it is now so I asked someone again lady there where was the employment office they said towards the back there so I go back up there to put my application in and the first thing I see it's a sign that says no applications accepted exit 2:30 but anyway they did take my application and Neiman's was a very small specialty store for floors and they hired me because as a messenger boy I was a block of philip morris wrist with the uniform like Philip Mars cigarettes the
collar boys they used to be called in those days they hired me because free the boys messenger boys were going off to college in early September and mr. Ivo I remember so well our superintendent he hired mr. messenger boy and he said your salary will be $50 a month and that was it I came came back to work following Monday and the rest is mobile s history I did work three months as a messenger boy which you did everything you took bank checks upstairs to be okay took packages down to the delivery department just just a general flunky anyway after three months I asked for a race and they gave me a $3 a month race I worked another couple of months and asked for a record for another race and they raised it to $55 a month and they gave me a $2 I'm afraid well eventually I've got different promotions from messenger boy to a cashier from a cashier they put me as a stock boy at the basement in the church ladies shoe department and I was working down there there's a stock boy for about Oh could be maybe three years so one Saturday afternoon after lunch I went upstairs on the floor and that did see mr.
Herbert want to senior his father in those days we work six days a week there wasn't no five-day week no here's I walked up there to mr. Marquez he knew me very well he always called me fakin and Stanley called me Sammy anyway I walked up to mr. Marcos it was in the shoe department there's checking things out and I said mr. Marcos I want to thank you for four or five years of worked here at Neiman Marcus and he said fake it woody what do you mean he would have thanked man I says well I'm going pretty steady with the young lady and I need to advance myself and I'm going dough this was Saturday afternoon and I said I'm going to work Monday morning for a jewelry store he says fake it what are you doing that's another stock boy and the shoe department downstairs he says how much are you making I said $75 a month he said you go back to your work and don't leave the store do you hear from me that's coming from the president mr.
Herbert Marcus senior so I go back to work in about an hour and a half our shoe buyer called me upstairs and said Sam mr. Marcus does not want you to leave the store they want you to come back to work Monday and he wants you to start selling shoes immediately once you have a drawing account of a 150 dollars a month that was doubling my salary he said he'd go home and talk to her fiance your mother he would love to have you come back to work I didn't know what to do though I was supposed to go to work for this Jewish store Monday so I went home and talked to my future wife your mother and she said I don't know what to take it but you've been
there for five years maybe you want to stay and see what happens I came back to work on the following Monday and a hard time explaining the jurors told what happened and the rest is history that's remarkable salmon that it's very remarkable that was a doubling your salary and incredible I never sold she before I never even tried honest you are you ladies foot now practice huh my fiancee hit my mother anyway I didn't know too much about the shoe business so I was study done is turn it off samso over the years you progressed you've got promotions when I stayed in the shoe department
but didn't know too much about shoes so I was study the Vogue magazine and the Harper's Bazaar and the footwear news and get ideas so I started selling shoes and to build up a clientele each customer that I sold a pair of shoes - I have my homework was to sit down I write them a thank-you note for coming in the store and for me waiting on them and selling on a pair of shoes and I built up a clientele because every customer I sold a shoe - they heard from me not only one time but I would send them notices out when we had
we had a sale twice a year so they heard from me when we had a sale twice a year and then I would send them out letters when we had the new spring merchandise coming in and also the new fall merchandise company so they heard from me five times out of the year so the next time they need two pair of shoes they would say well I know mr. fagin at Neiman Marcus and that went on for several years and I built up a wonderful clientele and by word of mouth and just kept getting bigger and bigger and we had quite a few salespeople in those days at one time I'm telling you we hit as many as 16 to 18 salespeople selling women's shoes Neiman Marcus was very well known for their ladies shoe department I developed a very fine clientele ain't one the telephone bring back in the back and if I was there our dancer and I would pick up customers on the phone who I never knew I never waited on before were eventually fantastic customers I waited on Oh I waited oh oh so many celebrities I waited on LBJ's why Lady Bird Johnson she was a customer of mine for about 10 years well you know Sophie Tucker God when you're gone John Wayne that way he don't Ginger Rogers many times always in a fig room with her mother she never came to the shitty part it was always in the fitting room of the women's and the Couture department and mr.
Herbert Marcos sister Carrie Neiman she was always in the woman she took care of the woman she watched the women shop and I would bring up shoes to the fig room and the customers usually liked the selection but Carrie dinner would say mr. fagin that's not the right shoe for that particular outfit that I'm missing so was purchasing go down and find something else and that's how they built their business it was this phenomenal I had the best customers I waited I picked up a phone call one time and who was it mr. dan Gerber Gerber's baby food I had never met her but I talked to her many times on the phone just picking up that phone call at one time I developed a verified customer she called me one time in the later years and she's a mr.
fagin be in Dallas next week I want you to be fair Hotel I want you to send me some shoes handbags scarfs etc well I got a clutch the merchandise sent it to the hotel too old for her when she arrived and it was merchandise in the vicinity of four or five thousand dollars when I was talking to her I said by the way mrs. Gerber are you flying in DFW or you could be coming into a Love Field says oh no said Mr Fang in my chauffeur will be driving me to Dallas that's Oh wonderful well after I said heard the merchandise several days later was to stand to call me he said Sam Sammy he said miss miss Gerber really loved your selection she didn't keep everything but she kept quiet quite a bit of the bunch of guys that you sent her and that's how I developed my clientele just it just kept growing and growing and growing and I had all these socialites in Dallas I would go Margo
parola waited on Annette Strauss our mayor she's a customer of mine before she became there for years I had a fabulous clientele he kept getting bigger and bigger I had three volumes of customers names that's incredible Sammy certainly offered quality service and it paid off for you didn't well number one services that was the reason what Neiman Marcus that was the main thing I tell you I remember when Neiman Marcus had their Diamond Jubilee over 75 years they opened up in 1907 this was in 1982 they came to me he says Sam you ought to be able to be mobile oh the big wheels because
you're the senior salesman here in the store and this summer so we'll be up there with here it's the senior buyer and your wife is invited also we we had we had cocktails telling the Fairmont Hotel it was a black-tie affair 1982 1982 we got to the hotel after parked the car went down to have a cocktail before dinner and I see mr. Stanley talking to lady Marie Johnson tell my wife I says freedom I'm gonna introduce you to Lady Bird Johnson so we got up there backfires Stanley saw me as a semi and Freda how are you I said miss Johnson I want you to meet my wife Rita Fagan she says mr.
fagin your husband has been taking care of you for so many years is this the ticket such good care and I liked everything about his selection of shoes I said thank you and me out of a clear sky I say miss Johnson are you still wearing size 7 triple-a shoes just oh no mr. Feigin my feet are getting older my feet are getting wider I'm wearing 7mm shoes miss Johnson that's even better because we always have a better selection of EE shoot there wasn't help of triple-a inquietude and a few days Stanley called me he said Sam miss Johnson was thrilled that you remembered her shoe side I said it was you taught me all that mr.
Stan if I couldn't remember a customer's name well and I knew him so well if I couldn't get their name well I'm waiting on them I would take off their shoes as soon as I saw their shoe size we can go there named pink uh me just like that that's my thing I've caught most of a honey in this matter because I knew them so well but I remember customers shoe size is so very well well Sam what a remarkable working career you have had it's incredible let's go to what were your Jewish affiliations during your childhood our ditch a family belong to a synagogue
oh yeah I know clover saying that we belong to me to the Orthodox very Orthodox my mother was strictly Orthodox kept a very kosher home and whenever we would get a new young rabbi if he wasn't married he would be living in a room with the faders because my mother kept kosher and it was my job as a little boy to walk with the rabbi to the synagogue downtown and I couldn't even turn the light on in his room I had to go next door get the Gentile girl turn the switch off the rabbi anyway I went to Hebrew school in Dallas after regular school
elementary school every day I would catch the streetcar and go down we called it hater is the religious school learning for your bar mitzva I went down there for many years I had three brothers they all had their Bar Mitzvah and I was supposed to have two the big one because I was the baby of the family well my father passed away a month before my bar mitzvah and it was a small bar mitzvah so I had to learn my speech to that game and learn newer and also being an Orthodox we were not able but weren't supposed to ride to town supposed to walk
to the synagogue well my father had a sister who lived about two or three blocks of the synagogue downtown and we would go and stay with her the night before services following day I was still young not belong to synagogue and what was the name of that senator I wasn't married yet I got married well you didn't join the Jewish synagogue were statements that you're a synagogue but my wife was raised up in camp Texas folks to Cedar Creek Lake which was not a link at that time because it was a man-made in later years but the man sat on one side the woman said
on the other and the rabbi talked a lot Jewish understand so we got away from that what was the name of that synagogues [Music] I'm trying to think it was called a good Asaka okay a good ass awesome and anyway after we were married well let me go back we got married a month before Pearl Harbor November the 9th of 1941 and in six months I was drafted my wife kid my birthday was in April and she gave me a going-away birthday and also a going-away party to join the army and I was drafted I had to go we all did I was putting the
Air Force and I was gone two and a half years I didn't see it for two and a half years matter of fact the first first anniversary I was out the South Pacific after I cut back from the service we had our first child first son our only child Milton he was born in November of a second 1948 where did you meet your wife here in Dallas I met my wife in Dallas to her brother I belong to a Jewish young fraternity called it was it was it was a junior Binet breath and under 21 we were all members of that even my wife's brother
who I did not know sister at the time we became 21 our Jewish B'nai B'rith fraternity they formed another fraternity called a Oh de Mayo de Lune I'm Dallas aza Timothy but ain't breath I was in the ACA that was a junior chapter of the bidet breath that's right a Z a anyway I met my wife through her brother she says you always meeting the same at the corner drugstore we always met at the corner drugstore in those days why don't you invite him over to the house and go with him to your meetings on Sunday so we did we did that one time he
invited me over to the house and I just said hello to her that was it that was too well anyway I was on vacation I guess it might have been the year over with vacation from Neiman's could have been the year 1940 my mother had sent me to the grocery store to get a few groceries and while I'm shopping I see freedom barcia she was hitting their shopping also we spoke and I said by the way there's a certain being about mother once I can't find she asked me what it was not told her and she said here it is so I carried you I
carried her package of groceries home she lived just about a block from where my mother lived and I was on vacation so after I took her up to her house and put her package on the front porch I said would you like to go play miniature golf this afternoon beautiful miniature golf course across from the Fair Park musical where the musical is right now yes we walked from her house about eight blocks to Fair Park we played we played the game of golf and on the way back we was talking and I said would you like to play golf again tonight and she said yes
and that's how we started our romance we played two games of miniature golf and we start going together I would take her to Jewish dances and we got engaged I think it's September of 41 and what was her name her name was freedom and for EDA freedom Fayed and where did you lived here in Dallas at that time she was staying with her well I was away she stayed with her folks now you were married before you went into the service what year did you get married 41 November one month before the war broke out I was a 3/8 but then the or got so
bad early war I was put in classification of 1/8 which meant I was drafted right away we all had to go now getting your wife belong to a synagogue she was raised at a small town see they blow - didn't have a cent I'm very very stay with the only Jewish can be there but anyway I'm trying to think here after the war it was really hard to find apartments and houses terrible couldn't find a place to live so estate was here folks for a short time so I add the paper for a apartment anyway my son was born in 48 he went to have
a private fine arts school for about when he started going there when he was three years old there's a small school before he went to kindergarten how many children do you have I just had to watch one son well what sister she had a younger sister had seven she had all of the children her younger sister had five girls and two boys I had lots of nieces and nephews and her other sister her older sister had two daughters and her brother was a picture there of her brother's handsome young men he was killed during the war in Germany her older brother we joined temple Emmanuel
in South Dallas at that time before the big temple was built here on Hillcrest we joined that in 1950 about 1956 he was about seven or eight years old we met members of a temple emanu-el for way over fifty-five years my son was confirmed template manual there's also confirmed there do you have grandchildren nieces and nephews I have three brothers have children the sister Sam you have seen a lot of changes in Dallas we have talked about a few of those changes that you lived in the forest Avenue area and you have what significant changes have you seen in Dallas how has the city really
changed a lot in terms of what it was when you were living on Forest Avenue as compared to today dark it was just a small it was just a small big city up around maybe two or three hundred thousand people when I moved here in 1933 okay in 33 the Dallas Jewish community would you say it was more cohesive then than it is today or not well a little bit closer in those days we are now we have more synagogues now more temples but it's different generations the older generation it was so different during my time I consider myself being a second generation I was
considered by folks as the first generation I would be a second generation my son would be a third generation and his grandchildren are not would be a fourth or fifth it seems like nowadays they're all catered all these the temples the synagogue's are catered to thee and looking forward to the fourth and fifth generation of youngsters it's just changed a lot like the churches of Dallas have all changed also so there were a lot of Jewish businesses on Forest Avenue then even though Sears right well yes cleaners that we had drugstores we had bakeries we had lots of a South Dallas was really a wonderful
place to live a great place in since it went it went black in 1956 when the school changed to Madison and they also changed the name of it forced to have a new Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard beautiful homeless I think just recently it took they had a bus tour from the Retirement Center here I didn't go because I I'm a volunteer I'll tell you in a minute and they went all over Dallas we're talking about South Dallas Forest Avenue Park Road and South Boulevard which is all black and how very well-kept the homes are on those streets beautiful lawns are manicured they're beautiful
homes on South Boulevard Park Row and Forest Avenue and the black people who are living there now taking great care great care so you have fond memories of those days yes we had across the street from the high school yeah a real bear Stan xxx root beer stand we had the big stands up there on colonial with the Nickelodeon's just a different era I'm quite old now so things have just really changed but I'm sure it's all for the good they don't want to hear about the good old days the young people we did a lot of walking in our day we didn't have cars
and you had better public transportation I'm sure have good transportation Dallas transit was very well used to ride the streetcar for seven cents you could buy five tokens for 30 cents which would be 6x it was very good Sam who are your role models in life who would you consider us a role model our role models it's a great interest by being and also his father would not let me leave the store I don't know what what I would have done or what would have happened to me if I going to work for their jewelry store I don't know I have been transferred to another
city like my brother-in-law he worked for sale jewelry and then he was transferred to Omaha Nebraska as bad as your the sales there so I don't know what it would have been and I've been a Masonic Mason for over 50 years I'm a life member and I told my wife that when I retired from him and Marcus I want to do some volunteer work the Scottish Rite hospital Children's Hospital here at Dallas she said I think you should when I retired from Neiman's in 1990-1991 I think I had surgery in 1992 I started volunteering to the skies right Hospital I called them and told them
I wanted to go to volunteer office until I want to be a volunteer and this is wonderful mr. Magee would love to have you we'll send you an application and you fill it out and we'll need three references they're very particular this kind of Smythe hospital all their volunteers who they want well I received the application on a Friday morning I filled it out and it come to the bottom of the application that one there are no three references who I would give us references my number one reference was Talia Marquez my second reference I've known the family that weighed on her for years happened to be the mayor of Dallas Annette Strauss my third my third reference she worked with me at Neiman's and she was in the public relations was Nancy Brinker I put them I put that application in the mail Friday afternoon around 4 o'clock and Monday morning about love o'clock the phone rang and they said mr.
fagin come on down we want you to volunteer great so we're doing orientation they said we're gonna put the retail man in the gift shop and I've been in the gift shop I received by twenty-year p.m. last April and I've been in the gift shop helping out for the last 20 years once a week and it's just a great Hospital they all know me and you don't call the president of the hospital mister you call him by his initial you call them JC we call them Bob it's just a family hospital and it could be a nicer place to be a volunteer I love it I'm still volunteer there I still go there every Tuesday I'm very talked about - every Tuesday Sam what are you most proud of in life well I guess what I'm really proud of I've done mostly everything
on my own I'm very emotional when I break up it's okay Sam I did not have a college education when I came back from the service I did go to SMU for one semester I didn't get a chance to finish because my mother was in a very serious automobile accident get back to work but I'm proud that whatever I did I didn't on my own and I remember so well when Mimi Marquez first sold the store to Carter Holly Hale from California great people they had the Broadway stores in the West and they don't want a lot of bookstores and I met them all and
every time we have a different store opening of course I was there and they kept telling me Sam you ought to write a book we'll publish it for you I said well my wife said I keep telling to write a book they can't get around to her we Richard marques came to the house like I said one time and told my wife if she wanted they wanted her to go along with me when we started open store but all expenses paid and when he opened up a lot of stores when three in Chicago San Francisco I remember so distinctly she was the mayor of San
Francisco when we opened up the store there yeah I remember when she cut the ribbon when this tour will put up on a Monday morning and I talked her like I'm talking to you right now that was Diane Feinstein and we always had big gave us at these store openings around the country Palo Alto and in Florida everywhere and all the big wheels that owned the store they do Sam Fagan they say well you're a legend you're a legend I went to I took my wife to the hospital when we first moved here for AI something about her eye and who do I see in
there some vendor this used to sell their shoes he says Sam you're a legend young woman but I'm proud of the fact that I did work with Nina's they were very good to me I worked for them for 54 years plus every time I spoke about their time with they said no you can't retire I wanted to retire and I'm a 65 and they wouldn't let me so I worked till I was 72 so I get sent me to I retired because my wife and I would like to travel we well lots of Cruces in different places and we joined I was married to my
sweet we'll have for 67 years on Oster seven several years ago the same that's okay Sam the concluding question of this interview we have covered a lot of material use I would say indeed you are a legend and I am very honored to have had the opportunity to talk with you this morning is there anything you would like to add before closing people just been good to me every city that we went to put up a Neiman Marcus store they would have some reporter there interviewing me like I would get some sort of a celebrity and it ever write up in the paper if Sam
Fagan the years he's been with Neiman Marcus I don't know much else to say things have changed so much I go down to them store ever just very occasional nothing's is saying like it used to be and I don't expect it to me to say I remember when Phil Miller was our president of Neiman's that was mayor's name she was the mayor of Dallas for two years anyway we had a cocktail party 25 year party once a year so we got a cocktail Oh cocktails old second floor at Neiman's one year and buy back that one who was manager of North Park store he said
Sam he says I know you gonna retire one of these days soon and you live over here not too far from the store on North Park you live under lunch we would love to have you work part-time whenever you were tired so I said [ __ ] I appreciate the offer but if if and when I retire there's only one place I would work and that would be downtown downtown Neiman Marcus and when I said that Phil Miller grabbed me and hugged me and he says to Bob acting mother Mac another store he says Bob don't you know that Sam's card only knows one way to go
and that's to get on the expressway never forget I've got a clipping here I wanted to show you this was written after before this before I retired April the 4th 1988 and it's here call me Neiman's goal insane let me get in closer I see it now yeah I mean let me focus no I got it now hold it a little higher there where are you down here right okay all right move over I want to get this this is a very important ok I see it now I've got it all right now what is his Neiman's golden salesman and what year was this okay
great I got it they came out with a new magazine called living well and the cover of it is a picture here you'll see picture here of me and my wife I'm sitting there on the sofa can you see us right there yes I've got it hey there's a write-up in there do you I'll show you that I lose my balance sometimes that's not use okay now this was a picture of my wife and I that was in our calendar here nineteen in 1952 picture got it they want a picture but before and after we moved here see here my son was four years old
his son was four years old 15:52 born 48 and then the other pictures now I got an individual shot at each of you that's good your son and then you and then this was up here when I received my little Oscar here this is the lifetime achievement award mr. Sam Fagan and mr. Fagin has received numerous awards from Neiman Marcus where he provided 54 years of devoted service many prominent Dallas socialites including Lady Bird Johnson have recognized him and the Duchess of Windsor was a client of his he was once told by his store director that your what were famous far referring to Neiman Marcus he was told by a client that in the finest traditions of Neiman Marcus mr.
fagin you have been minding the store with the greatest dedication and devotion I congratulate you Sam magazine Park City's in the head I'm not there go write up about me it's about Neiman Marcus hundred years but for some Stanley and then looky here not a picture of me they never write but they're gonna picture me in this I didn't so much sense that coming okay okay one final step mister I want to thank you tremendously for sharing this opportunity with a Dallas Jewish Historical Society this legendary magnificent interview regarding your history with Neiman Marcus in your life would you like to make the final statement Sam well I appreciate the fact that you came to see me and interviewed me I went to work with name is I was 18 years old and I'm now 94 so open God will be good to me and give me at least six more years well I want to thank you very much for this opportunity and and you have truly been blessed and I'm again very honored to be with you this morning Sam