Word: levying
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Brooks calls this "parody display." His most obvious example is blue jeans, first mass-produced by Levi Strauss in the 19th century as cheap, durable work pants. This had nothing to do with Veblen's view of fashion as a weapon in class conflict. But when worn faded and threadbare by college students in the next century, a pah" of Levi's flashed the word that one was secure enough to dress like an underpaid ranch hand. The parody was enriched when grimy denims became the uniform of unemployed hippies, and the current irony is that designer jeans...
Haas Jr., 65, chairman of Levi Strauss & Co., rode to the rescue like a cowboy in copper-riveted jeans. Haas did not need a big hat: he had the cattle. Plopping down $12.7 million of the family fortune, he vowed, "We're going to do what we did with Levi's: quality product, concern for people, being part of the community and conducting business with integrity...
...great-grandnephew of the gold rush outfitter Levi Strauss, Haas built the jeans-making firm into a sportswear conglomerate that had $2.8 billion in sales last year. Haas, whose family is an anchor of Bay Area society, quietly serves on corporate and charity boards. In a limited partnership with Son Walter J., 30, and Son-in-Law Roy Eisenhardt, 42, he acquired a team that was a smouldering shambles. Finley lost or traded away its talent. The farm system had gone to seed. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum had fallen into such disrepair that the scoreboard did not always work...
When the elder Haas retires from Levi Strauss next year to indulge his passion for fly-fishing on Oregon streams, Eisenhardt, a Berkeley law professor before he became the team's president, will continue to reflect the family philosophy. Says he: "You wouldn't go into this as a business investment. You do it because you can get a lot of satisfaction out of it." His relationship with Martin is refreshingly tension-free, at least so far. Says Eisenhardt: "Billy is in charge of everything on the field. I'm in charge of everything that...
Eisenhardt and the younger Haas, a former Levi Strauss Foundation officer who is the A's executive vice president, plan to install baseball's first computerized ticket-selling operation, with satellite terminals in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, Fresno and Stockton to cope with the lengthening lines of excited fans. The executives also intend to get athletes involved in community projects, and, as the elder Haas dreams, "win the World Series." October is a long way off, but if the new owners keep their cattle rollin' and their hats on the rack, their phenomenal success with...