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The Catalog Connoisseur: Lillian Vernon Is Born

Article Overview: Lillian Vernon became a household name at a time when women were not even supposed to work outside the home. From the humble beginnings of an immigrant family, Vernon started a business in the kitchen of her small home and grew it to be one of the most well-known multi-million dollar companies in the U.S as well as the first female-owned company to be listed on the American Stock Exchange. Today, the Lillian Vernon Corporation earns almost $300 million in revenues, has over 4,500 employees and continues to be one of the country’s leading catalog retailers.

The Catalog Connoisseur: Lillian Vernon Is Born

Lillian Vernon became a household name at a time when women were not even supposed to work outside the home. From the humble beginnings of an immigrant family, Vernon started a business in the kitchen of her small home and grew it to be one of the most well-known multi-million dollar companies in the U.S as well as the first female-owned company to be listed on the American Stock Exchange. Today, the Lillian Vernon Corporation earns almost $300 million in revenues, has over 4,500 employees and continues to be one of the country’s leading catalog retailers.

Lillian Menasche was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1929. She was the daughter of wealthy, upper class German Jews, but would not know a life of comfort for very long. The Menasche family was forced to leave behind their impressive home and successful business and begin anew when they moved to Amsterdam, Holland. It was the beginnings of World War II and Hitler’s Nazis had taken control of the country. In 1933, after their property was confiscated, the Menasche family took refuge in Amsterdam. Four years later, they brought what little they had left with them and settled in New York City, hoping to start a new life for themselves.

With the promise of a fresh start, Menasche enrolled in New York University. She dropped out after two years in order to get married. In 1951, at the age of 22, Menasche became Lillian Menasche Hochberg and found herself pregnant soon thereafter. Four months into her pregnancy, she grew restless and bored just staying at home with little to do. She watched her husband go to work every day at his family’s dry-goods store, where he was earning $75 per week. With her growing family, she decided to come up with a business plan to help supplement her husband’s earnings.

Menasche was a young and pregnant bride determined to make a contribution to her family’s income. She launched the Lillian Vernon Corporation from the yellow Formica kitchen table in her home, taking its name from Mount Vernon, the New York City suburb where she lived with her husband. She took $2,000 of the money they had received in wedding gifts and, using $495 took out an advertisement in Seventeen magazine. After spending hours looking through ads in Seventeen and Vogue, Vernon decided to try and sell matching handbags and belts for teenaged girls, which could be personalized with two initials. The ad took up just one-sixth of the page but it might have well been the whole magazine for the impact that it would have.

After just one week, Vernon nervously asked her husband if she had received any orders. $495 was a lot of money at that time and both had been worried about such a large gamble. But, Vernon’s gimmick worked. Her husband replied, “No, you got fifty.” With that, the rest became history. Those 50 orders allowed her to quickly expand her business and within one year, Vernon had over $32,000 in sales. It wasn’t only her company that had changed. “What I didn’t realize at the time was that I, too, had been transformed,” recalls Vernon. “I had become an entrepreneurial businesswoman.”

Related Articles
  Lesson #2: Take It Personally
  Starting Small and Personal: Vernon Grows Her Company
  A Mounting Success: How Vernon Reached The Top
  Lesson #3: Believe In Yourself
  Lesson #1: Keep The Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive

Article Tags: american stock exchange, amsterdam holland, catalog retailers, countrys, dollar companies, dry goods store, formica, german jews, growing family, hochberg, household name, immigrant family, leipzig germany, lillian vernon corporation, menasche, new york university, owned company, pregnant bride, staying at home, world war ii



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Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Nice read. I feel a few things were left out. At a time in American history it was illegal for a women to do many things. Not only did they need a man to stand up for them, but they needed him to sign bank documents etc.. for the women in question. Not long ago in our history a women did not have a bank account. This was a slap in the face for the woman's husband or father. My state of Oregon is supposedly had a very strong women, a madam, contribute to the establishment of our state. Of course this is seen as a very old business but a business a women were able to run in the back alleys, and as I have read, in the underground here in Oregon. Mileva Mari? was a women in our history that in her own right contributed to America with her mathematics and physics smarts. Born disabled and "homely", her rich parents sent her to many fine schools where she was (it has been said), the only women in these establishments. Since her father did not think she would ever get married seeing how she was, I bet he was a happy camper when Albert Einstein married her. I feel, with no hesitations if it were not for Mileva Mari?, Albert would not be in the history books as he is now. I feel since in the day women were not supposed to have a brain, nor be allowed to publish their own work, that her husband took her work and published it as his own. The Pendleton Roundup , (a huge rodeo here in Oregon), banned women from the rodeo due to "unlady like" behavior around the 1900's. Hence barrel racing took hold as the ONLY women event. In WWII women were the ones who were the welders etc.. women were the ones to take on the jobs of men who were fighting for our country. Once the war was over, women had to relinquish their jobs to the men. One such women was in my sons family, and I got to hear first hand how things were. I like to bring up Emily Dickinson as well, as for women who changed who women are. Women helped establish equal rites here in America. Women along with the black society fought for equal rites. A white women had the same rites as a black person here in America, thus it was only common sense to help with the equal rites movement. Again running into a women who was there. I feel Oprah Winfrey is passing down a history of strong women. Strong women who have always been. She has just stepped it up to modern times. Women rites is not a white nor black issue, it is a women, man issue. Women have done so much for America, sorry to say to find information which gives credit where credit is due when the husband is a big name, or when the establishment is huge, it takes some digging. Women in history have done bigger and better things than the girls of today are taught in schools. Bigger and better then beauty products, or cooking. Women have been, and always will be the back bone of America and American Business.
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