Ben Silver…the man

Ben continued to work and to study, closing in on his college degree, hoping to move on to medical school. And then Uncle Sam called, and Ben was drafted into WWII. Dinah was pregnant and when she gave birth, Ben was at Fort McClellan and could not get a leave to see his newborn. Apparently, he didn’t do well with that military decision and was rewarded with kitchen duty. But just before shipping off to England for a replacement depot, he did come home for one night and held his daughter. He would not see her again for more than two years.

First there was the Battle of the Bulge, in which he was a radio man. Then there was injury and PTSD and hospitalization.

When he finally returned to America, he gave up on the dream of more schooling and a scientific career. He wanted a routine. He wanted to be “back to normal.” Many soldiers and their families know the impact of years of war and the need for normalcy.

He came back to selling coats, in NYC, but also throughout the country, traveling by train to sell.

The rest of the story is abbreviated on our website as “Our History.” The men’s coat and hat business was destined to fail when JFK stood coatless and hatless in 1960 and so Ben had to look elsewhere.

Here is a story about Ben that appeared in the principal menswear trade daily in 1966:

‘For about 30 years Silver had been in the coat business, which for some time had been as sour as a kosher pickle.

“We were busy in the fall,” says Silver, but in the spring, business died. It was sad.”

In an attempt to beef up the anemic spring business, he looked around for something else to sell. He finally hit on blazers. To spice up the sales appeal, Silver got the idea of putting metal buttons with enameled college crests on them.

“With 3000 colleges around the country, I felt there would be enough business to keep us going,” explains Silver. ”I had dies made up, and I went out and peddled the blazers.”

“I got the same response everywhere. The blazers were nice, but they were more expensive than Maimon’s and not as good as Mavest’s, buyers said. But everyone liked the buttons. After about three or four months of this, I went out and sold the buttons.”