Gimbel v. Gimbel

If the five Gimbels who manage Gimbel Bros. Inc. (department stores) are to be thought of as a basketball team, beefy President Bernard F. Gimbel, biggest stockholder, would be captain and centre. The team's "running" forward and its nimblest basket-shooter would be Cousin Richard, 36, vice president. A Phi Beta Kappa at Yale he advertised TUTORING CLASSES DE LUXE, guaranteeing that any student who attended his five-hour lectures would pass a given course. His students paid $20 a head, lay on divans in his rooms, consumed champagne, soda pop, candies, ice cream, cigars. Richard Gimbel carried his money-making zeal into the bargain basement of the Philadelphia store. Shrewd, lusty, Richard became store manager at 30, often boasts of the fact that he pulled the store out of a $1,700,000 deficit in three years.

President Bernard, most popular of the Gimbel clan, is friend to Gene Tunney and lesser celebrities, spends leisure hours entertaining richly on his Port Chester, N. Y. estate. Cousin Richard, no socialite, expresses himself by pride in his four children and by collecting the works of Edgar Allan Poe whose cottage on Brandywine Street he endowed and refurnished. Between Cousin Bernard and Cousin Richard bad feeling has long existed. After Richard Gimbel had put the Philadelphia store into the black, his salary was cut and he was removed from control--an episode he never allows Cousin Bernard to forget since the store promptly sank into the red again and Cousin Richard had to be recalled. Few weeks ago the Board of Directors threatened to drop Richard from office again. The violent personal quarrel, which was destined to become the first public break in the Gimbel clan, concerned one Arthur C. Kaufmann, whom President Bernard had hired from McCreery's in Pittsburgh to become merchandising manager. Mr. Kaufmann was given an office near Richard. Immediately they disagreed, Mr. Kaufmann wanting to bring in new men, Richard championing the men he had spent 15 years training.

One day last week Richard summarily dismissed Mr. Kaufmann for "disloyalty and insubordination." Furious, President Bernard, on whose Manhattan office wall hangs the motto: "To be Right is Desirable, To Seem Right is Essential," seized pen, dispatched to Cousin Richard a telegram: "YOU ARE HEREBY SUSPENDED AS AN OFFICER AND EMPLOYE OF GIMBEL BROS. INC. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO FORTHWITH LEAVE THE STORE. YOUR AUTHORITY TO ISSUE ANY ORDERS OR IN ANY WAY ACT FOR THE COMPANY IS HEREBY WITHDRAWN. YOUR UNAUTHORIZED ACTION . . . CONCERNING MR. KAUFMANN AT A TIME WHEN YOU KNEW DIRECTORS WERE CON- TEMPLATING NOT TO RE-ELECT YOU TO OFFICE COMPELS THIS IMMEDIATE ACTION. . . ."

In Philadelphia, Richard called in the newshawks, gave out a lengthy statement, couched in the third person, declaring the whole affair an incident in a "battle for Wall Street control of Gimbel Bros"

"This is the second time Mr. [Richard] Gimbel has been in charge of the Philadelphia store. He was removed the first time for doing too good a job. . . . The store is currently running at a rate which will show a profit, and once again Mr. Gimbel expects to be removed for doing too good a job. . . .

"Mr. Gimbel would not stand any longer the slaughter by Mr. Kaufmann of efficient and loyal Philadelphia executives. Mr. Gimbel expects Wall Street experts, lawyers, bankers and accountants to combine in an effort to throw him out of the business, but he is confident that in the end the stockholders or bondholders or the courts will sustain his position. . . ."

Officers of the company could not explain the reference to Wall Street.

When the Board of Directors met in Manhattan next day, four Gimbels (unnamed) were on Richard's side. But Cousin Bernard rounded up enough votes to confirm Richard's dismissal, appoint Mr. Kaufmann to succeed him. Again, Richard met the newshawks, told them the executives of other Gimbel stores were "scabs," then blurted menacingly: "If you boys are going to take sides, better choose the right side." Philadelphia newspapers saved themselves the trouble by discreetly ignoring the whole fight.

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