Word: geiss
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...second installment of Catastrophe! No Safe Place, a three-part disaster roundup in which Charles Bronson narrates horrors like the Hindenburg explosion; and The World's Most Spectacular Stunt Man, a special featuring four feats by a Hollywood pro. It could be, cracks PBS Producer Tony Geiss, that public TV may be forced to counter with its own entry in the reality competition: That's Intelligent. -By Martha Smilgis. Reported by Joe Pilcher/Los Angeles and Mary Cronin/New York
...Best & Co. casually asked for a New York exclusive, and ordered 50 Monastics in wool and 50 in faille. Best's ran a full-page ad on the dress, 24 hours later ordered 100 more in each fabric; within days, cheap copies were flooding the market. Says Geiss: "That dress revolutionized the whole dress industry." It also toppled Townley Frocks...
When it came time to work up her winter cruise collection, Claire McCardell started using the same loose lines. Geiss tried to steer her off, arguing that the model had been copied to death. But Claire would not listen. Result: Geiss lost all that he had made on the Monastic dress and, on the verge of a nervous collapse, closed up shop...
...work for Hattie Carnegie, but her dresses were too simple for the rich tastes of the Carnegie carriage trade, and in 1940, after a year and a half, Designer McCardell quit by mutual agreement. Then, after turning out some potboiler designs for a small manufacturer, she heard from Geiss again. He had recovered his health and his nerve, and found a new partner in Adolph I. Klein, a suave, confident ex-salesman who never seems perturbed by the risks of the business. Geiss and Klein needed a designer, and asked Claire's most recent boss how she had done...
Designer McCardell saw to it that they got excitement. Breaking away from the Paris trend, she started designing dresses without shoulder pads. Geiss and Klein had to dash around to buyers assuring them that shoulder pads were available for those who wanted them (most did, since McCardell was at least five years ahead of the field). But Townley, with Klein handling the business side, made money, and has continued to do so ever since...