Ode to Marshall Field's, and others

Forums: Business And Marketing, Carson Pirie Scott, Marshall Fields, Department Stores, Department Store Loss
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http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/30C2CA9F04754D058625704D000DA8F9?OpenDocument

When I was a kid, my parents took me to downtown New York City, and I got to go to Macy's and Gimbel's and Bergdorf's and Altman's and Wanamaker's and, I gathered some steps down, Klein's. Altman's might have been in Brooklyn... something we went to was in Brooklyn.

When we lived in Chicago-adjacent, Marshall Field's was it. Never mind Wieboldt's, even though it had air conditioning. That was just where we got our windbreakers. Marshall Field's was a kind of heaven. We took the el downtown.... made a day of it, also checking out Carson Pirie Scott, and perhaps going to a movie and certainly having lunch somewhere.

At Christmas, Marshall Field's had a giant tree, very impressive to me even as a preteen. The idea that that place would ever go away .... was out of my realm of imagination. What would happen to the toys?

As an adult I have seen everything become owned by others and become ever more plastic. Marshall Field's and Sak's, and so forth, might have been rigid palaces back then too, but, hey, interestingly rigid.

All those department stores became, even pre-mall, out of sync, in the late sixties, early seventies, as people discounted dressing well. I don't know if the figures follow that, but that is my sense of it, living around the denouement of department stores.

Well, I miss it all. I miss Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, and Marshall Field's in Chicago, and the Bloomingdale's of my youth in New York.

I am sorry there doesn't seem to be room for those places now in the way the once were, places with fine goods, including emeralds... that any of us could walk past.

Or could any of us. I wasn't, at nine, aware of racial matters. I am much more so now. Could my niece have come with me then?

Things change, memories stay. I hate even phony elegance to just disappear - we need a range, if only for design ideas.

Mumbling now.

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The idea of changing, or losing, the name Marshall Field's in Chicago is almost devastating to me. I can't imagine Mayor Daley allowing such a thing. It's not a political issue at all but Marshall Field's is to Chicago what Bloomingdales is to NYC or Neiman Marcus to Houston. An institution that deserves more respect that this.

I was in Field's last January and it just has that special something floating in the air. Perhaps it's memories, I don't know, but Field's will always hold a special place with me, not only because of the excitement a Field's gift box would generate on birthdays or Christmas but because I worked there for several years in the advertising department during the decadent '80s and it was a heady blast. (I worked at Wieboldt's also, before Field's, and freelanced for Carson Pirie Scott as well.) When Federated acquired Field's several years ago, you knew it was the beginning of the end but at least, according to the article, they're giving the namechange consideration and not just slapping Macy's on the building the way they did here with the Rich's stores.

Change is inevitable and I can accept that but institutions should be left the hell alone.

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By the way, osso, it's my understanding that the racial policy of Field's back in the 50's was, black people could shop there but could not try anything on, clothes, shoes, etc. Which meant of course, very few black people shopped there. My friend's mother did but she looked like a white woman, and tried on anything she liked.

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Couldn't try anything on.... eek!

That puts a dent in the star for me, makes it tilt offside..
but my own memories of Field's in the fifties are good.

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Filene's is also closing, becoming a Macy's. Feh.

When I was in college (class of '83, so it's over 20 years ago, but still ...), Downtown Crossing area had Filene's and Jordan Marsh, and the radio ads for Jordan's Furniture of Waltham ended with the tagline, "Not to be confused with Jordan Marsh."

JM closed a few years ago and now Filenes. Jordan's Furniture is going strong and few people under the age of 35 remember the old tagline.

Feh!

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My first ad director at Field's back in 1982 snagged a choice position at Filene's. Creative director, I think. We were all excited for her. Filene's had a fine rep.

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My mother used to mention it and Jordan Marsh - she was a Boston girl in her youth (Watertown).

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I like The Parisian. And Nordstrom's. They both remind me of Field's. Osso, in your part of the land, do you remember I. Magnin's? Or was it Bonwit Teller? Which one came out of San Fran?

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City of Paris...
no, that's not an answer, just a San Francisco store I haven't heard of in years.

I Magnin's and Sak's and Bonwit's were on succcessive corners on Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills and to some extent I mixed them up. I happen to be able to look to the left from my computer at a framed enlarged photo I took almost twenty years ago when two women clothing designers we shared studio space with - it was their space, we sublet - hit the big time and got their clothing line in the windows of both Bonwit's and Saks within a month or two of each other.
The photo shows a manikin standing fetchingly with one of their outfits on in what is probably a tan space, both floor and walls, but the photo was taken by me through glass and thus reflects the colors and cityscape outside - if you stare at it for a while you can pick up building forms and palm trees and roseate late afternoon light.

The photo is too big for my scanner. Maybe while I'm going through my photo stuff in an effort to pack for my move in an organized way I'll run across the 3 x 5 original...

I don't know which store originated in SF...

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Hope this link works
I Magnin's

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It worked - enjoyable link.

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-macys29.html

Look's like Field's name may stay on the State Street store...

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Ode to Marshall Field's, and others

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