Word: levying
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When 20-year-old Levi Strauss sailed from Manhattan round Cape Horn to San Francisco in 1850 to seek a fortune in the gold fields, he carried a roll of canvas in his baggage. He intended to sell it to a tentmaker to get enough cash for a grubstake. But when he got ashore, the complaint of a friendly miner gave him a better idea. "Pants don't wear worth a hoot up in the diggins," said the miner. "Can't get a pair strong enough to last no time...
...Levi promptly went into the clothing business. He had a tailor cut a pair of trousers from his canvas roll, and soon the miner was strolling all over town, boasting how strong were these "pants of Levi's." With one satisfied customer, Strauss found he had a steady stream of men who wanted "Levis." In a shop on San Francisco's California Street, he began making dozens of pairs of the waist-high overalls which defied the wear & tear of bronc-riding, gold-mining and plain ordinary living...
Patched Pockets. When Levi Strauss & Co. celebrated its looth birthday last week in its San Francisco factory, it had turned out its 95,000,000th pair of Levis. It reserved a special tailor-made pair for California's Governor Earl Warren, who, as a father of six children, praised the low cost (about $3.50) and durability of Levis. Said he: "I'd probably have gone bankrupt without them." Editorialized the San Francisco Chronicle: "We are unable to think of any influence ... that has radiated outward from San Francisco ... to be compared with Levis...
...influence of Levis spread, they changed a little with the times. "Alkali," a Virginia City miner, insisted on carrying rock specimens that ripped his hip pockets. The local tailor wearied of repairing them, one day seized a hammer and riveted the corners down with square iron nails. When this made Alkali practically rip-proof, Levi Strauss picked up the idea, from then on fastened all his pants' pockets with copper rivets...
Bursting Seams. Old Levi died a bachelor in 1902, leaving the company to his nephews. Blue-eyed, urbane Walter A. Haas, who married one of Levi's grandnieces, became president in 1928 and pushed its expansion. When dude ranches became popular in the '30s, Haas introduced "Levis for Ladies." But Haas really hit the big time when Levis-and similar brass-studded blue-jeans made by many another manufacturer-became a virtual campus uniform for bobby-soxers...