(meta data) TITLE: Modie J. Spiegel | Immigrant Entrepreneurship

(meta data) PUBLISHER: German Historical Institute

## Modie Spiegel, along with his younger brothers Sidney and Arthur, expanded their father's erstwhile Chicago furniture retail business into one of America's leading mail order firms, the Spiegel Company.

Social Status and Immigrant Entrepreneurship

his four decades at the helm of the Spiegel Company (from 1893 to 1933), Modie Spiegel

(born April 21, 1871 in Chicago, IL; died January 8, 1943 in Kenilworth, IL),

Chicago furniture retail business into one of America's leading mail order

In the process, the Spiegel brothers became innovators in credit

merchandizing, installment plan sales, and advertising techniques.

publication of the iconic Spiegel catalog, beginning in 1905, defined the

company's image and popularity among its millions of customers throughout much

of the twentieth century. Although Spiegel, Inc. (as the company was later

renamed) would never come close to its main competitors Sears, Roebuck &

Co. and Montgomery Ward in terms of overall sales, the company nevertheless managed

to capture and retain a distinctive segment of the mail order market by

specializing in apparel, home furnishings, and accessories aimed primarily at middle-class

Joseph Spiegel, also known as Modie, was the oldest son of Joseph Spiegel (1840-1918)

According to family legend, his nickname, which he used officially

later in life, came about as the result of the persistent mispronunciation of his

father, Joseph Spiegel, was a German Jew who, together with his parents and

three sisters, immigrated to the United States as an eight-year-old in September

The Spiegel family left their home in the small village of Abenheim, near

the city of Worms in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, during the violent revolutionary

turmoil that engulfed the German states in 1848 and 1849

departure, Joseph's parents, the Rabbi Moses Spiegel and his wife Regina (née

Greenebaum) had become disillusioned with the political situation in their

homeland, and they were particularly concerned about rising anti-Jewish sentiment

Their firstborn son, the adventurous and rebellious

Marcus Spiegel (1829-64) had become actively involved with the liberal-democratic

revolutionaries after joining Franz Sigel's Landsturm

regiment, which fought against government troops in the state of Baden.

uprising appeared destined to fail, and it was not long before the rebels started

With Marcus missing in action and presumed

dead, the Spiegel family feared a devastating backlash and decided to flee the

In August 1848, Moses and Regina Spiegel, their son Joseph, and their

daughters Sarah, Minna, and Theresa crossed the border into France and headed

to Le Havre, where they boarded the ship Española,

their arrival in America, the Spiegel family quickly settled among the sizable

community of Jewish immigrants around Manhattan's Lower East Side

unable to speak English, Moses Spiegel earned a meager living by peddling

Regina Spiegel died about a year later, most likely

as a result of a disease contracted during the Atlantic crossing

Moses Spiegel found it difficult to cope with the loss of his wife and to care for

he began to adjust to his new situation.

original profession and eventually achieved great respect within the Jewish community

Meanwhile,Marcus Spiegel suddenly reappeared.

He had survived the revolution in Germany

and had made his way to the United States by the spring of 1849.

however, did not stay in New York for long; rather, he decided to seek his

fortune elsewhere: first in Chicago, where he found work as a dry goods clerk,

and then in Millersburg, Ohio, where he married Caroline Hamlin and fathered

As the Civil War began, he became a staunch abolitionist, and in

November 1861, he joined the Union Army's 67th Volunteer Infantry

Marcus Spiegel was quickly promoted to the

rank of colonel, thanks to his prior military experience in Germany

a war hero, was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg, and died on May 4, 1864, in

a Confederate attack at Snaggy Point, Louisiana.[4]

members of the Spiegel family left New York as well.

Sarah Spiegel married Michael Greenebaum (her second cousin), the owner of a

Her younger sister Theresa followed suit in 1856,

when she married Henry Liebenstein, a successful Chicago furniture merchant and

For his part, Joseph Spiegel worked as an

apprentice in several retail stores in New York until 1862.

example of his older brother, Joseph enlisted as a sutler[5]

as both headed south to Louisiana as part of General Ulysses S. Grant's army in

There, Joseph witnessed his brother's death in battle and

ended up as a prisoner of war at Fort Camp, Texas, where he remained until May

, Joseph Spiegel joined his sisters in Chicago, where he entered

into the furniture business of his brother-in-law, Henry Liebenstein.

Henry quickly became formal business partners, and Henry helped him set up a

small home furnishings retail shop on Wabash Avenue, in downtown Chicago

the next five years, the business thrived and their relationship became even

closer when Joseph, at the age of thirty, married Henry's niece, nineteen-year-old

Matilda Liebenstein, on June 22, 1870.[7]

ten months later, Joseph and Matilda Spiegel celebrated the birth of their

Little Modie was barely five months old when

the most devastating catastrophe in Chicago's history occurred – the Great

Raging for over thirty-six hours, the fire

destroyed approximately 18,000 structures in an area of about four square miles,

killed about 300 people, and left roughly one third of Chicago's 300,000 residents

Although Joseph Spiegel's furniture shop was ultimately destroyed in the flames,

he frantically managed to rescue most of his merchandise as the fire was

spreading and stored it out of harm's way in the backyard of his house at 833

Thus, only days after the Great Chicago Fire, Joseph Spiegel

was able to reopen his furniture business in a temporary location (at 320

Michigan Avenue), and within a year, J. Spiegel and Company had returned to a

brand new building at 222 Wabash Avenue, where the business enjoyed a brisk

rise in sales as the massive effort to rebuild Chicago moved forward.[9

1872, Joseph and Matilda Spiegel had a second son, Sidney.

Spiegels had become well-established among Chicago's bourgeoisie.

members of the small Sinai Congregation and practiced Reform Judaism.[10]

Although they maintained their distinctive religious identity, the Spiegels

appear to have been well-assimilated and thoroughly integrated into American

Joseph Spiegel joined a Masonic Lodge and various

he built up an extensive network of contacts with other entrepreneurs and

and later also assumed civic responsibilities as a board member of the

Joseph's far-reaching connections proved to be very useful for his business.

the sharp economic downturn in 1873, he entered into a new business partnership

in fine furniture, retail, and some wholesale, and it also offered upholstering

services to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive market (Chicago's

furniture manufacturing industry was second only to that of New York; with over

a hundred manufacturers, it employed approximately 7,000 workers).[13]

The business was profitable, largely due to Joseph's merchandizing skills and effective

and Sidney must have had a comfortable yet unremarkable childhood.[14]

They were joined (somewhat unexpectedly) by a third brother, Arthur, in 1884.

at the age of seventeen, Modie entered his father's business as a salesman.

thereafter, Sidney also joined the firm as a part-time bookkeeper, while

attending the Bryant and Stratton Business College.[15

The Spiegel brothers were being groomed as their father's heirs and successors.

and Company continued to expand in the late 1880s.

home furniture and "high art novelties," the firm faced stiff competition from

middle-class Chicagoans, who typically paid cash, but who were also quite

In order to lure more customers from the suburbs and surrounding

rural communities into the store, Spiegel began issuing its first advertisement

However, many of these new customers, some of whom travelled significant

distances to downtown Chicago, proved to be very slow to pay for their purchases.

This left Spiegel with overstocked warehouses of unsold merchandise and quickly

plunged the company into great financial difficulties.

business from bankruptcy, Modie Spiegel proposed to sell cheaper, lower quality

furniture, and – more importantly – to offer customers credit and convenient

Joseph and Sidney initially opposed the idea, despite the

fact that other enterprises, such as Singer Sewing Machine Company, had already

successfully adopted similar payment plan options years earlier.[17]

Nevertheless, in 1893, after much debate, Joseph gave Modie permission to reinvent

the firm as the Spiegel House Furnishings Company, with a dramatically

Spiegel House Furnishings Company tried to set itself apart from its rivals by using

aggressive advertising in newspapers (with either full-page illustrated ads or

multiple smaller ads on several pages), extravagant promotional events (such as

holiday sales featuring food and entertainment for customers), elaborate store

displays that often evoked exotic locations (the interior of a Bedouin tent,

for example), and a variety of high-pressure sales techniques.

started working in his father's store, it became clear that he was a natural-born

salesman who immensely enjoyed interacting with customers.

tall, sported a handlebar mustache, always dressed in expensive suits, and had

a flamboyant and outgoing personality, as well as a penchant for dramatic acting,

which he honed in an amateur theatre company in his spare time. Along with numerous

other salesmen in the new store, Modie applied a variety of well-rehearsed techniques

One sales routine – frequently performed as a kind of

It involved passing along (i.e., turning

over) a hesitant customer from one salesman to another, using successive stages

of emotional sales pitches and enticements

Another wily scheme was known as "going to Detroit."

routine went as follows: if a customer stubbornly resisted or appeared to be

getting annoyed with a salesman's efforts, Modie would suddenly swoop in from

another part of the store, loudly berate the salesman for offending the

and then ostensibly fire the salesman on the spot.

Pointing to the door, Modie would say to the visibly

despondent salesman, "Get out you no-good, you're through!

Impressed by this display of authority on his behalf,

the stunned customer would thus be much likelier to make a purchase, while the

"fired" salesman quietly reentered the store through the backdoor, waiting

According to James Cornell, the "wild and wacky"

antics of Modie Spiegel and his crew "would have put the Marx Brothers to shame."[19]

sales techniques such as these were commonly frowned upon in Europe and by the

late 1890s states intervened to officially put an end to them.

Orange Smalley nor James Cornell, in their exhaustive overviews of the

company's history, suggest that Spiegel ever violated any business laws or

experienced any kind of backlash as a result of these dubious sales practices.

On the contrary, both authors emphasize that Modie Spiegel's success as a

salesman was largely due to his mischievous charm.

such as forthrightness and honesty in business were apparently not quite as expedient

or profitable in the notorious "windy city" of Chicago.[20]

sharp contrast to the extrovert Modie, Sidney Spiegel was quiet and withdrawn,

preferring to focus on bookkeeping and other administrative tasks.

surprisingly, the two brothers' personalities frequently clashed.

Spiegel was quite content to transfer more responsibilities to his oldest son.[21]

With Modie now firmly in charge, business was booming more than ever.

World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893, a celebration of the 400th

anniversary of Columbus' arrival in America, was a significant turning point

that transformed Chicago's cultural landscape.[22]

It drew an estimated 27 million visitors and benefitted the city's business

By that time, Chicago had become a shining example of modern

urban planning; unemployment was low, and a steady influx of immigrants swelled

the city's population to almost one million

families, earning an average of eleven to twelve dollars a week, now became

In need of affordable furniture and a variety of

other goods that Spiegel added to its inventory (such as iceboxes, carpets, and

ovens), these customers took advantage of Modie's generous credit offers and

"offering liberal terms of purchase to everybody so that buying is made easy to

wage earners and people of moderate means," as a 1903 advertisement in the Chicago Daily Tribune boasted,[23]

the Spiegel House Furnishings Company took a considerable financial risk.

remaining true to the company's ubiquitous new advertising slogan, "We Trust

the People," Modie Spiegel employed a simple yet effective screening process,

correctly assuming that stable, hardworking families that aspired to a middle-class

lifestyle would be appreciative and reliable enough to not default on their

Customers who applied for credit at the Spiegel store merely had to

fill out a standard form, providing some basic information, such as their

address, marital status and number of dependents, occupation, and income.

Spiegel examined these application forms personally, asked customers a few

then made an instinctive decision whether or not to

His judgment appears to have been quite sound.

period from 1893 to 1910, Spiegel only experienced moderate bad debt losses,

and fewer than a dozen lawsuits against defaulting customers appear in the

typical Spiegel payment plan for a piece of furniture is summarized by the

following excerpt from a 1905 advertisement in Woman's Magazine: "This full size Morris Chair [ . . . ] is of

handsome solid oak with rich velour cushions and the price is only $5.75.

Customers usually had up to one year to pay off their purchases in full.

increase business, Spiegel offered its customers convenient shopping hours from

10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

company regularly ran half- and full-page ads in Chicago newspapers, and Modie

Spiegel even sponsored theatre productions, providing furniture and props for

stage sets to draw ever greater numbers of customers to the store – evidently

Spiegel's profits increased dramatically from 1897 to 1903.

In 1897, for example, Spiegel registered $5,894 in profit ($160,000 in 2010).

The next year, its profits had more than tripled, to $18,296 ($496,000 in

and in 1899, Spiegel's profits rose sharply to $48,084 ($1.3 million in

By 1903, Spiegel reported $106,842 in annual profits ($2.73 million in

Modie's leadership, the Spiegel House Furnishings Company soon moved to a new

and much larger location on the corner of State Street and Van Buren in

Chicago's Loop (downtown business district), and the company added two

additional branches on Chicago's south side.

in 1903, when the Spiegel House Furnishings Company bought the large retail

furniture house of May, Stern & Co. for $500,000 ($12.8 million in 2010).[27]

Under the new name of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., the firm now became the

biggest furniture and housewares retailer in the city of Chicago.

rose from an initial value of $100 per share in 1893 ($2,500 in 2010) to well

this juncture, Modie's youngest brother, nineteen-year-old Arthur entered the

well-established family business as a sales clerk.

streak" and with a reputation as a troublemaker in school, Arthur Spiegel initially

displayed neither interest in nor aptitude for furniture retail.

found working in the store to be extremely boring, and his first few months on

the job seemed to consist mostly of being reprimanded for slacking off or for taking

needed discipline, his father "banished" him to the warehouse.

Arthur actually relished the physical labor and hectic activity of this rather

went on to develop a deeper understanding of

business fundamentals, in addition to great problem-solving and organizational skills.

Eventually, he was promoted to the company mailroom, where one of his more

tedious duties was answering stacks of letters from people far and wide who

wanted to purchase Spiegel merchandise on credit.[29]

effective newspaper advertising campaigns were reaching ever larger numbers of

potential customers throughout the Midwest; yet it was company policy to only

extend credit to customers who came to the store, and not to deliver orders

Arthur's task was to use generic form letters

to politely decline these out-of-town requests.

help but wonder how much more revenue they would generate if they met the

evident demand for their goods and credit.

worked on a comprehensive proposal to address the various strategic and

logistical aspects of expanding the company's reach beyond the Chicago area.

devising this plan, he drew some inspiration from the success of Montgomery Ward

When he presented his ideas to his father and brothers, however, he encountered

The obstacles (e.g., merchandizing, credit verification,

Spiegel found Arthur's concept of expanding into the mail order business far

too risky, especially with regard to payment defaults and repossession efforts.

Nevertheless, Arthur refused to give up and continued to lobby for his plan,

finally convincing the company hierarchy to allow him to open a small mail

order department on a trial basis in 1904.

Spiegel devoted himself to the implementation of his project.

personally, advising customers of their credit terms and payment plans, and calculating

freight and shipping costs; he oversaw the bookkeeping and packing processes,

and eventually hired several workers to help him, as more and more orders

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co.'s new mail order business was

off to a good start, earning Arthur the respect of his elders, as well as a $1,000

bonus at the end of the year ($25,300 in 2010).[31]

Having successfully completed the trial period, the next logical step for

Spiegel's mail order operations were limited to a radius of about one hundred

In order to reach more customers and offer a greater

selection of merchandise, the company published its first mail order catalog in

Arthur singlehandedly compiled and published this modest twenty-four-page

booklet (printed on extra-thin paper), which featured a variety of living room,

dining room, bedroom, and kitchen furnishings, and a small number of kitchen

the first company to offer credit through the mail,[33]

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. now modified its slogan to "We Trust the People –

As a result, it opened up a very large, previously untapped base

of customers, who pushed Spiegel's mail order sales to about $1 million in 1906

mentioned previously, Spiegel had actually published numerous catalogs for marketing

The 1905 version was in many ways similar to these earlier

It contained generic pictures of various items, along with vivid

descriptions of materials, textures, and colors

The new Spiegel catalog allowed customers to conveniently place

explained the company's unique credit policy in simple

terms (i.e., $5 minimum order, fifteen percent down payment, monthly

installments payable by cash, check, or money order), but the key component to

its remarkable success was Arthur Spiegel's editorial introduction.

blend of sales-pitch hyperbole and pre-Freudian mass psychology, the editorial sought

to dispel widespread public mistrust against mail order purchases and

installment plans by emphasizing three crucial concepts that became synonymous

with Spiegel's image over the next five decades

notion that Spiegel was a highly reputable company that only dealt in quality

products; second, it stressed that Spiegel offered a combination of quality,

price, and credit second to none; and third, it emphasized that making credit

purchases on installment plans was a convenient, perfectly respectable, and even

sophisticated way of acquiring home furnishings that were previously only

to the positive reception of the Spiegel catalog and the expansion of the company's

shipping radius to 500 miles, mail order sales continued to rise during the

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. was subsequently decoupled from

the Spiegel House Furnishings Company so that it could focus exclusively on

further expanding its mail order business and thereby assume greater debts,

while allowing the traditional retail branch to conserve its limited resources.

Arthur Spiegel became president of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., while Modie

Spiegel continued to operate the furniture stores, with Joseph and Sidney's

1910, the mail order company employed about 300 people and had relocated to new

Along with dramatic growth came a massive expansion in its line of merchandise.

The Spiegel catalog soon exceeded 136 pages and featured items ranging from

clocks and lamps to refrigerators and floor coverings

1912, Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. even launched its own line of ladies'

apparel under the name of the fictional designer Martha Lane Adams.

Lane Adams" line was so popular that it prompted the establishment of a wholly

owned subsidiary, along with its own catalog.[38]

More importantly, however, Spiegel's growing focus on women as independent and

educated consumers foreshadowed some of the far-reaching socio-economic changes

associated with women's emancipation in the aftermath of World War I.

language of the Spiegel catalog typically addressed women as household

decision-makers who were practical, financially savvy, and status-conscious.

clothing line, especially, sought not only to appeal to a woman's sense of

style and economy, but also to convey an image of glitz and glamour.

following decades, the Spiegel catalog reflected – or perhaps even helped shape

– the identity of the modern American professional woman.

Spiegel's customer base grew, extending to twenty-three states and parts of

Canada, it became necessary for the company to adapt to new realities.

business historians such as Alfred D. Chandler or Richard S. Tedlow have

demonstrated at length how rapid growth presents companies with a variety of challenges

and dangers, ranging from the need for managerial and administrative changes to

For Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., one of the most immediate tasks was to

reflect the diversity in both customer needs and merchandise pricing; for

example, down payment amounts now ranged from thirteen to eighteen percent, and

installment plans were extended to sixteen months for more expensive

Another aspect concerned minimizing the risk of offering credit to

so many people across such a large area.

which were eventually included in every Spiegel catalog, inevitably became

to screen out as many potential defaulters as possible.

– without much success – to set up a network of local "agents" to verify credit

worthiness and assist in collection or repossession proceedings

all those efforts, a significant amount of risk would always remain and losses

due to defaulting customers were simply unavoidable.

or less successfully factored into the pricing of the merchandise.[41]

Arthur's direction, Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. became firmly established

alongside Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward as a significant player

consumer credit market, the Spiegel brand was well-respected, and its methods were

However, the continued growth and success of the company

would depend on how well it managed to compete against its much larger rivals.

Therefore, in order to further raise Spiegel's profile

and distinguish it from its competitors, he hired advertising expert Edward L.

the next three decades, Swikard's innovations and advertising campaigns became

instrumental in defining Spiegel's image

he introduced new enticements such as free-trial offers, customer referral

mailing to nine million households, offering a deal on low-cost Congoleum floor

The campaign boosted company sales to $16 million and profits to $4

million that year (in 2010 dollars: $197 million and $49.3 million,

May, Stern & Co. continued to experience steady growth, partnering with an

Arthur Spiegel, meanwhile, began to lose

interest in the mail order business after meeting film pioneers Jack Warner and

Lewis J. Selznik, and he moved on to a new venture in the burgeoning movie

after becoming head of the World Film Corporation in February 1916.[44]

He died soon thereafter, at the age of only thirty-one, from pneumonia, on

## Social Status and Immigrant Entrepreneurship

the untimely death of Arthur, the Spiegel family had lost its most creative and

Modie Spiegel, now forty-five years old, took over from Arthur

as president of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., while continuing to run the

well-connected member of Chicago's business community by now.

He was also an extremely busy man who not

only ran the family business, but also raised his own family while performing

civic duties as a member of the Chicago Board of Education.

March 1897, Modie had married Lena Straus, daughter of the banker Frederic W.

They had four children: three sons, Frederick W. Spiegel (1898-1975),[47]

Modie Jr., also known as M.J. Spiegel (1901

and a daughter, Pauline Spiegel (1913-76).[50]

The family lived in Chicago's affluent northern suburb of Kenilworth.

matured and settled down, Modie Spiegel shed much of the youthful exuberance and

flamboyance that had characterized his early years as a salesman in "Modie's

madhouse" furniture store; he became more civic minded and politically active,

embarking on a long career in Chicago public life.

Chicago Board of Education in 1906, Modie Spiegel would play a significant role

in shaping school policies in Illinois for decades to come (for example, thirty

years later, he was appointed to the Illinois Education Commission by Governor

involvement in educational matters is amply documented in the Chicago Examiner, which published almost

weekly columns on the board of education's activities for years.

Modie Spiegel frequently backed progressive initiatives in Chicago's schools.

For instance, he helped set up a relief fund for hungry pupils,[53]

advocated for fire safety regulations in public schools,[54]

and voted in favor of a ten-percent raise in teacher pay.[55]

His sociopolitical stance is perhaps best illustrated by a resolution he

Combining the traditional German emphasis on Bildung with American

The true function of the public schools is to

The functions of the school board do not

entirely cease when sufficient book learning is provided.

public school fund is to benefit pupils physically, mentally, and morally.

public schools have a collateral mission besides training pupils.

mission to make true Americans of foreign born parents who have children

The American public school, besides its normal

functions of mental and physical training, teaches patriotism, discipline,

industry, and the elements of hygienic cleanliness, to those who need the

Spiegel's involvement and interest in operating the family business began to

wane in the mid-1920s, as he groomed his two oldest sons as his successors

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. went public, although the family retained a

By 1932, the economic downturn of the Great Depression

had forced him to shut down the Spiegel House Furnishings Company.

Spiegel, Inc. (as the mail order company was renamed in 1937) fared surprisingly

well during the depression and actually experienced tremendous growth

rose from $7.1 million in 1932 ($113 million in 2010) to more than $56 million

This was achieved by selling cheaper goods and further relaxing the company's

credit policies under the new slogan "no charge for credit" to eager customers.

Sales eventually leveled off by 1938 and Spiegel, Inc., refocused on the higher

income segment of the market, adding various reputable brand names to its

By 1941, though, the war and rationing basically brought Spiegel's business to a

By that time, the company was firmly in the hands of M.J. Spiegel,

On January 8, 1943, Modie Spiegel died of

natural causes at the age of seventy-two.

Modie Spiegel's great wealth and prominent social status, he and his family

struggled to gain acceptance in Chicago's gentile high society.

Holly C. Shulman, states in an article commemorating the life of her mother,

Polly Spiegel Cowan, the Spiegels were quite isolated among their snobbish

The family was part of the Jewish community and had

many Jewish friends, but they did not actively practice Judaism (although they

identified with the moral values of Reform Judaism)

Christian Science, but the children were raised in a completely secular

Still, Polly was never invited to any parties, dances, or other

social events by her Christian peers, and restrictive real estate policies

prevented other Jews from moving into the area.

and the outbreak of World War II eventually forced the Spiegels to rethink

their German-Jewish identity, and the family tried to locate long-forgotten

distant relatives – unfortunately, to no avail

what they could to help Jewish refugees from Europe.[59]

members of the German-Jewish community in Chicago and enjoying a number of

family connections definitely had its advantages for the Spiegels from the very

Henry Greenebaum, a relative of Joseph Spiegel's mother (and the brother-in-law

), was one of the most important figures in the

establishment of Chicago's German-Jewish Sinai Congregation around 1850.

a wealthy banker, set up several B'nai B'rith lodges, and became the first

Jewish officeholder in Chicago (alderman).[60]

When the Spiegels first settled in Chicago, there were around 4,000 Jews in the

By 1900, that number had grown to around 75,000.[61]

German Jews, unlike many of their Eastern European counterparts, were better educated,

better off economically, and well-organized in various influential clubs; they continued

to hold their religious ceremonies in German and maintained a distinctly

The Standard Club, the most prominent German-Jewish social

organization in Chicago, featured among its members such illustrious figures as

the architect Dankmar Adler, the shoe manufacturer Simon Florsheim, and the

As wealthy and successful Chicago merchants, three

generations of Spiegels naturally had a prominent position among the city's

Through intermarriage, such as Modie Spiegel's

marriage to Lena Straus of the W.S. Straus banking family, dynastic ties were

It was also common to invest in each other's

or to establish partnerships, such as Joseph Spiegel's joint

ventures with Henry Liebenstein or Jacob Cahn

Jews in Chicago typically also maintained relatively close and cordial

relations with non-Jewish German immigrants, for example, in the labor movement

On the whole, German Jews generally assimilated

into American society very quickly and many ascended the social ranks.

other ethnic or religious groups sometimes exhibited a somewhat hostile and

discriminatory attitude toward them, many German Jews were well-integrated into

the political, economic, and cultural life of the city.

as America's "second city" and its vibrant business climate in the second half

helped the entrepreneurial spirit of the resident

Merchants, especially, benefitted from the

constant stream of new immigrants who arrived in Chicago before the First World

There was always a demand for affordable goods, and coming up with

innovative ways to fill that demand (for example, by targeting German

immigrants with German-language advertisements in ethnic publications) enabled

enterprising minds like Modie and Arthur Spiegel to make a considerable

By 1914, Modie was earning a yearly salary of $35,000 ($788,000 in

Not surprisingly, the Spiegels were rather status-conscious and resided in

upscale neighborhoods; they dressed well, had busy social lives, owned cars,

The later Jewish immigrant arrivals from Eastern Europe found it much more

difficult to make the transition from the Old World to the New.

European Jews (the majority of whom came from Lithuania, Russia, and Poland)

worked in menial jobs and settled down in the Jewish ghetto around Maxwell

Street, where they maintained their accustomed Shtetl lifestyle.[64]

and Arthur Spiegel's business success was based first and foremost on considerable

risk-taking, and on what seems like an almost naïve trust in the honesty and

The danger that their company would fail due to

customers who defaulted on payments or – worse yet – perpetrated outright fraud

It is perhaps doubtful that Spiegel, Inc., would have

ever been able to enter into credit merchandizing and the mail order business

had the Spiegels not felt secure and confident enough to take these kinds of

Their family ties in the wider German-Jewish community must have

provided an adequate safety net (or some other reassurance) for them to

The Spiegels were able to attract a number of

investors, and on at least two occasions, in 1888 and 1897, cash infusions

the obvious financial risks, Modie and Arthur Spiegel faced other uncertainties

on account of the controversial nature of the mail order business in the United

Mail order companies like Sears, Roebuck

skepticism, hostility, and outright resistance to this new method of commerce.

For one thing, retailers in villages and small towns regarded the mail order

giants as unfair and therefore unwanted competitors, because they undercut

prices and generally hurt small businesses

organized lobbying campaigns against mail order companies in various parts of

even went so far as to stage public catalog burnings.

order customers also feared negative repercussions in their communities if it became

known that they shopped at Sears or Spiegel (for example, there were frequent

efforts to intimidate and ostracize individuals who received packages from mail

In order to keep their customers out of trouble, the mail

order companies offered to ship merchandise discretely in plain, unmarked

major obstacle for Spiegel's business model to overcome was the vastly

different perception of consumer credit in American society in the late

was widely regarded as dishonorable, even immoral or sinful.

typically rooted in Puritanical traditions, but it also had much to do with the

general distrust of modern city culture in rural areas.

Spiegel spent considerable time and effort persuading skeptical customers that

installment plans and consumer credit were reputable, convenient, and

Eventually, Spiegel managed to convince many

Americans "that life could be much more pleasant – and much more fun – if you

obtained the items you needed when you needed them and paid for them as they

Most importantly, the Spiegel "doctrine of credit was directed at

small-town America, where it was received as a revelation [and] helped to touch

off a revolution in living that would in time lead to lower prices, improved

quality, increased comfort – in short, to the affluent society of today."[66]

the direction of Modie's son and successor, M.J. Spiegel, the company went

through various structural transformations, and faced some inevitable economic

challenges during the Great Depression and World War II, but it basically

with the Beneficial Finance Company proved to be problematic.

Spiegel Company, which was originally founded by a German immigrant in the

nineteenth century, was eventually bought in 1982 by a German company, Otto

Versand GmbH, Europe's largest mail order firm, based in Hamburg.

, Spiegel swiftly underwent a complete makeover and

became more of an upscale catalog retailer, while expanding and diversifying

its business (for example, through the acquisition of the Eddie Bauer retail

chain and the First Consumers National Bank)

the early 2000s had a devastating effect on Spiegel's catalog and credit card

forcing the company to enter into Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Today, Spiegel operates as a more or less typical online retailer (now owned by

Eddie Bauer Holdings and Commerzbank), focusing entirely on high-end women's

Spiegel's tenure as chief executive, from the 1890s to the 1930s, was in many

ways the most dynamic and prosperous phase in Spiegel's history.

only helped oversee the dramatic growth of his father's small furniture

business into one of America's leading mail order companies

foundation for twentieth-century consumerism.

installment plans, company image, advertising and catalog merchandizing all had

a tremendous influence on modern shopping habits, tastes, and branding.

particular, Spiegel's focus on women as independent and conscientious consumers

company's accomplishments were largely attributable to the Spiegel family's

tight-knit nature, hard work and dedication, risk taking and business acumen,

and to their connections and standing within the German-Jewish community of

As the son of an immigrant entrepreneur, Modie Spiegel was immersed in

the family retail business from an early age and inherited a solid foundation

Under his stewardship, the company expanded steadily but

cautiously, achieving considerable financial success and stability.

through various mergers and acquisitions, Spiegel & Co. was eventually

transformed from a traditional family business into another faceless international

Thus, in the final analysis, the rise and fall of the Spiegel

Company mirrors the fate of many other U.S. companies and reflects the broader economic

Smalley and Frederick D. Sturdivant, The

Credit Merchants: A History of Spiegel, Inc. (Carbondale, IL: Southern

Jr., The People Get the Credit: The First

One Hundred Years of the Spiegel Story (Chicago, IL: Spiegel, Inc., 1964),

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 18-24.

merchant who sells provisions to an army in the field, in camp, or in quarters.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 27-29.

Cremin, Chicago: A Pictorial Celebration

(New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2006), 17.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 31-32.

Cutler, The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl

to Suburb (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 24-25.

constituted the largest single ethnic group in Chicago in the late

1800s (approximately 470,000 by 1900, or one quarter of the population).

Germans from all regional and religious backgrounds had a particular proclivity

(i.e., clubs) with a wide range of interests and purposes.

specific information on Joseph Spiegel's membership in social clubs is not

Hospital opened in 1880 on Chicago's south side.

bequeathed to the United Hebrew Relief Association by the wealthy real estate

developer Michael Reese (a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria); its mission was to

serve all Chicagoans regardless of race, creed, or nationality.

Best, "Michael Reese Hospital," Encyclopedia

to find any specific information on Modie and Sidney's upbringing, which

school(s) they attended, and whether they spoke any German at all.

Spiegel furniture catalog of 1888 consisted of 103 pages and was offered to

customers who paid 15 cents per copy in postage

catalog appears to have been a response to similar advertising campaigns by

comprehensive overview of Singer's innovative sales and marketing practices,

see: Andrew Godley, "Selling the Singer Sewing Machine around the World: Singer's

International Marketing Strategies, 1850-1920," in Enterprise and Society, vol. 7, number 2 (2006): 266-314.

Universe Corporate Histories: Spiegel Inc.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 45-48.

nickname as "the windy city" originated in the 1880s, in reference to its

reputedly long-winded, boastful, and self-promotional politicians.

Zorn, "For Our Out of Town Guests: Why Chicago is Called 'the Windy City,'" Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2006.

Spiegel remained actively involved in the family business until his death in

In terms of personality, he was more like Sidney and tended to avoid the

melodramatic sales tactics introduced by Modie.

All current values (in 2010 USD) are based on Samuel H. Williamson, "Seven

Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to

present," MeasuringWorth, 2011, using the

Ward and Sears, Roebuck & Co. had been in the mail order business since

1872 and 1886 respectively, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenues

annually, but neither company offered its clients credit or convenient

The Sears, Roebuck catalog, for example,

explicitly stated "our only terms are cash in full with all orders."

See The 1902 Edition of the Sears, Roebuck

Catalogue (New York, NY: Gramercy Books, 1993), 3.

volume of business of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co.'s little mail order

See Smalley and Sturdivant, The Credit Merchants, 45.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 59-61.

Universe Corporate Histories: Spiegel Inc.

Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge,

MA: MIT Press, 1969), and Richard S. Tedlow, New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America

(Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1996)

standard Spiegel credit application consisted of fifteen questions, which

included new categories such as previous address, race, other credit accounts,

Smalley and Sturdivant, The Credit Merchants, 86-87.

[41] Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 70-71.

importance to the company is also demonstrated by his salary, which was equal

See "Earnings of Executives Bared By Treasury," Chicago Tribune, January 15, 1937.

Directory of Company Histories: Spiegel Inc. (accessed July 15,

Financial World," Chicago Daily Tribune,

Spiegel, Millionaire at 31 by Own Efforts, Chicago

Yet to Come," Chicago Daily Tribune, March

They were divorced and he later married Ruth Hirsch

He served in the American Red Cross ambulance service in 1918 and

He died in Chicago in 1975. http://www.newberry.org/collections/FindingAids/spiegelhemingway/spiegelhemingway.html (accessed August 27, 2011)

after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1922.

general manager in 1932 and president in 1939.

company expanded into scores of retail outlets in the mid-1940s.

devoted himself to his passion for horse racing.

See "Modie J. Spiegel, 89, Mail Order Executive," New York Times June 28, 1990 (accessed August

Spiegel did not follow in his older brothers' footsteps by entering the family

Instead, he studied medicine at Northwestern University, and became a

nationally renowned social psychiatrist, conducting research on violence as

part of war, the inner city, and the family.

of Chicago as well as at Harvard University

Kenan Heise, "John P. Spiegel Obituary," Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1991.

("Polly") Spiegel Cowan attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York and became

a radio and television producer, as well as a political activist.

famous radio show was called "Conversation," and her best-known television show

was a literary quiz show called "Down You Go."

National Council of Negro Women's board of directors in the 1960s.

Polly and her husband died tragically in

Mail Order Firm Chairman, Dead," Chicago

mentions his attendance at a Republican Party banquet in 1909 (Chicago Examiner; January 15, 1909);

another, in 1912, lists him as a supporter of W. H. Taft (Chicago Examiner, February, 6, 1912).

[55]Chicago Examiner, December 20, 1909.

Universe Corporate Histories: Spiegel Inc.

Directory of Company Histories: Spiegel Inc.,

Shulman, "We Remember – Polly Spiegel Cowan: Civil Rights Activist, 1913-1976,"

in Jewish Women's Archive, 2004. http://jwa.org/weremeber/cowan

Spiegel's lifetime, from 1871 to 1943, the Jewish population in Chicago rose

example, Modie Spiegel and his family went on a vacation to France, where they

were nearly killed in an automobile accident after colliding with a horse-drawn

wagon. Modie Spiegel suffered a fractured collar bone and severe cuts to his

"Modie J. Spiegel." (2019) In Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Retrieved August 18, 2019, from Immigrant Entrepreneurship: http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=140

In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 3, edited by Giles R. Hoyt.

"Modie J. Spiegel," Immigrant Entrepreneurship, 2019, Immigrant Entrepreneurship. 18 Aug 2019 <http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=140>

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Cowan grew up in Los Angeles.  His grandfather created "The $64,000 Question", and Spike Jonze is his 3rd cousin. Cowan's great-great-grandfather was Joseph Spiegel, the founder of the Spiegel Catalog. His great-grandfather, Modie J. Spiegel, eventually took over the catalog in 1893.


Arthur Spiegel was the great-grandfather of Spike Jonez.

(meta data) TITLE: Modie J. Spiegel | Immigrant Entrepreneurship

(meta data) PUBLISHER: German Historical Institute

## Modie Spiegel, along with his younger brothers Sidney and Arthur, expanded their father's erstwhile Chicago furniture retail business into one of America's leading mail order firms, the Spiegel Company.

Social Status and Immigrant Entrepreneurship

his four decades at the helm of the Spiegel Company (from 1893 to 1933), Modie Spiegel

(born April 21, 1871 in Chicago, IL; died January 8, 1943 in Kenilworth, IL),

Chicago furniture retail business into one of America's leading mail order

In the process, the Spiegel brothers became innovators in credit

merchandizing, installment plan sales, and advertising techniques.

publication of the iconic Spiegel catalog, beginning in 1905, defined the

company's image and popularity among its millions of customers throughout much

of the twentieth century. Although Spiegel, Inc. (as the company was later

renamed) would never come close to its main competitors Sears, Roebuck &

Co. and Montgomery Ward in terms of overall sales, the company nevertheless managed

to capture and retain a distinctive segment of the mail order market by

specializing in apparel, home furnishings, and accessories aimed primarily at middle-class

Joseph Spiegel, also known as Modie, was the oldest son of Joseph Spiegel (1840-1918)

According to family legend, his nickname, which he used officially

later in life, came about as the result of the persistent mispronunciation of his

father, Joseph Spiegel, was a German Jew who, together with his parents and

three sisters, immigrated to the United States as an eight-year-old in September

The Spiegel family left their home in the small village of Abenheim, near

the city of Worms in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, during the violent revolutionary

turmoil that engulfed the German states in 1848 and 1849

departure, Joseph's parents, the Rabbi Moses Spiegel and his wife Regina (née

Greenebaum) had become disillusioned with the political situation in their

homeland, and they were particularly concerned about rising anti-Jewish sentiment

Their firstborn son, the adventurous and rebellious

Marcus Spiegel (1829-64) had become actively involved with the liberal-democratic

revolutionaries after joining Franz Sigel's Landsturm

regiment, which fought against government troops in the state of Baden.

uprising appeared destined to fail, and it was not long before the rebels started

With Marcus missing in action and presumed

dead, the Spiegel family feared a devastating backlash and decided to flee the

In August 1848, Moses and Regina Spiegel, their son Joseph, and their

daughters Sarah, Minna, and Theresa crossed the border into France and headed

to Le Havre, where they boarded the ship Española,

their arrival in America, the Spiegel family quickly settled among the sizable

community of Jewish immigrants around Manhattan's Lower East Side

unable to speak English, Moses Spiegel earned a meager living by peddling

Regina Spiegel died about a year later, most likely

as a result of a disease contracted during the Atlantic crossing

Moses Spiegel found it difficult to cope with the loss of his wife and to care for

he began to adjust to his new situation.

original profession and eventually achieved great respect within the Jewish community

Meanwhile,Marcus Spiegel suddenly reappeared.

He had survived the revolution in Germany

and had made his way to the United States by the spring of 1849.

however, did not stay in New York for long; rather, he decided to seek his

fortune elsewhere: first in Chicago, where he found work as a dry goods clerk,

and then in Millersburg, Ohio, where he married Caroline Hamlin and fathered

As the Civil War began, he became a staunch abolitionist, and in

November 1861, he joined the Union Army's 67th Volunteer Infantry

Marcus Spiegel was quickly promoted to the

rank of colonel, thanks to his prior military experience in Germany

a war hero, was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg, and died on May 4, 1864, in

a Confederate attack at Snaggy Point, Louisiana.[4]

members of the Spiegel family left New York as well.

Sarah Spiegel married Michael Greenebaum (her second cousin), the owner of a

Her younger sister Theresa followed suit in 1856,

when she married Henry Liebenstein, a successful Chicago furniture merchant and

For his part, Joseph Spiegel worked as an

apprentice in several retail stores in New York until 1862.

example of his older brother, Joseph enlisted as a sutler[5]

as both headed south to Louisiana as part of General Ulysses S. Grant's army in

There, Joseph witnessed his brother's death in battle and

ended up as a prisoner of war at Fort Camp, Texas, where he remained until May

, Joseph Spiegel joined his sisters in Chicago, where he entered

into the furniture business of his brother-in-law, Henry Liebenstein.

Henry quickly became formal business partners, and Henry helped him set up a

small home furnishings retail shop on Wabash Avenue, in downtown Chicago

the next five years, the business thrived and their relationship became even

closer when Joseph, at the age of thirty, married Henry's niece, nineteen-year-old

Matilda Liebenstein, on June 22, 1870.[7]

ten months later, Joseph and Matilda Spiegel celebrated the birth of their

Little Modie was barely five months old when

the most devastating catastrophe in Chicago's history occurred – the Great

Raging for over thirty-six hours, the fire

destroyed approximately 18,000 structures in an area of about four square miles,

killed about 300 people, and left roughly one third of Chicago's 300,000 residents

Although Joseph Spiegel's furniture shop was ultimately destroyed in the flames,

he frantically managed to rescue most of his merchandise as the fire was

spreading and stored it out of harm's way in the backyard of his house at 833

Thus, only days after the Great Chicago Fire, Joseph Spiegel

was able to reopen his furniture business in a temporary location (at 320

Michigan Avenue), and within a year, J. Spiegel and Company had returned to a

brand new building at 222 Wabash Avenue, where the business enjoyed a brisk

rise in sales as the massive effort to rebuild Chicago moved forward.[9

1872, Joseph and Matilda Spiegel had a second son, Sidney.

Spiegels had become well-established among Chicago's bourgeoisie.

members of the small Sinai Congregation and practiced Reform Judaism.[10]

Although they maintained their distinctive religious identity, the Spiegels

appear to have been well-assimilated and thoroughly integrated into American

Joseph Spiegel joined a Masonic Lodge and various

he built up an extensive network of contacts with other entrepreneurs and

and later also assumed civic responsibilities as a board member of the

Joseph's far-reaching connections proved to be very useful for his business.

the sharp economic downturn in 1873, he entered into a new business partnership

in fine furniture, retail, and some wholesale, and it also offered upholstering

services to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive market (Chicago's

furniture manufacturing industry was second only to that of New York; with over

a hundred manufacturers, it employed approximately 7,000 workers).[13]

The business was profitable, largely due to Joseph's merchandizing skills and effective

and Sidney must have had a comfortable yet unremarkable childhood.[14]

They were joined (somewhat unexpectedly) by a third brother, Arthur, in 1884.

at the age of seventeen, Modie entered his father's business as a salesman.

thereafter, Sidney also joined the firm as a part-time bookkeeper, while

attending the Bryant and Stratton Business College.[15

The Spiegel brothers were being groomed as their father's heirs and successors.

and Company continued to expand in the late 1880s.

home furniture and "high art novelties," the firm faced stiff competition from

middle-class Chicagoans, who typically paid cash, but who were also quite

In order to lure more customers from the suburbs and surrounding

rural communities into the store, Spiegel began issuing its first advertisement

However, many of these new customers, some of whom travelled significant

distances to downtown Chicago, proved to be very slow to pay for their purchases.

This left Spiegel with overstocked warehouses of unsold merchandise and quickly

plunged the company into great financial difficulties.

business from bankruptcy, Modie Spiegel proposed to sell cheaper, lower quality

furniture, and – more importantly – to offer customers credit and convenient

Joseph and Sidney initially opposed the idea, despite the

fact that other enterprises, such as Singer Sewing Machine Company, had already

successfully adopted similar payment plan options years earlier.[17]

Nevertheless, in 1893, after much debate, Joseph gave Modie permission to reinvent

the firm as the Spiegel House Furnishings Company, with a dramatically

Spiegel House Furnishings Company tried to set itself apart from its rivals by using

aggressive advertising in newspapers (with either full-page illustrated ads or

multiple smaller ads on several pages), extravagant promotional events (such as

holiday sales featuring food and entertainment for customers), elaborate store

displays that often evoked exotic locations (the interior of a Bedouin tent,

for example), and a variety of high-pressure sales techniques.

started working in his father's store, it became clear that he was a natural-born

salesman who immensely enjoyed interacting with customers.

tall, sported a handlebar mustache, always dressed in expensive suits, and had

a flamboyant and outgoing personality, as well as a penchant for dramatic acting,

which he honed in an amateur theatre company in his spare time. Along with numerous

other salesmen in the new store, Modie applied a variety of well-rehearsed techniques

One sales routine – frequently performed as a kind of

It involved passing along (i.e., turning

over) a hesitant customer from one salesman to another, using successive stages

of emotional sales pitches and enticements

Another wily scheme was known as "going to Detroit."

routine went as follows: if a customer stubbornly resisted or appeared to be

getting annoyed with a salesman's efforts, Modie would suddenly swoop in from

another part of the store, loudly berate the salesman for offending the

and then ostensibly fire the salesman on the spot.

Pointing to the door, Modie would say to the visibly

despondent salesman, "Get out you no-good, you're through!

Impressed by this display of authority on his behalf,

the stunned customer would thus be much likelier to make a purchase, while the

"fired" salesman quietly reentered the store through the backdoor, waiting

According to James Cornell, the "wild and wacky"

antics of Modie Spiegel and his crew "would have put the Marx Brothers to shame."[19]

sales techniques such as these were commonly frowned upon in Europe and by the

late 1890s states intervened to officially put an end to them.

Orange Smalley nor James Cornell, in their exhaustive overviews of the

company's history, suggest that Spiegel ever violated any business laws or

experienced any kind of backlash as a result of these dubious sales practices.

On the contrary, both authors emphasize that Modie Spiegel's success as a

salesman was largely due to his mischievous charm.

such as forthrightness and honesty in business were apparently not quite as expedient

or profitable in the notorious "windy city" of Chicago.[20]

sharp contrast to the extrovert Modie, Sidney Spiegel was quiet and withdrawn,

preferring to focus on bookkeeping and other administrative tasks.

surprisingly, the two brothers' personalities frequently clashed.

Spiegel was quite content to transfer more responsibilities to his oldest son.[21]

With Modie now firmly in charge, business was booming more than ever.

World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893, a celebration of the 400th

anniversary of Columbus' arrival in America, was a significant turning point

that transformed Chicago's cultural landscape.[22]

It drew an estimated 27 million visitors and benefitted the city's business

By that time, Chicago had become a shining example of modern

urban planning; unemployment was low, and a steady influx of immigrants swelled

the city's population to almost one million

families, earning an average of eleven to twelve dollars a week, now became

In need of affordable furniture and a variety of

other goods that Spiegel added to its inventory (such as iceboxes, carpets, and

ovens), these customers took advantage of Modie's generous credit offers and

"offering liberal terms of purchase to everybody so that buying is made easy to

wage earners and people of moderate means," as a 1903 advertisement in the Chicago Daily Tribune boasted,[23]

the Spiegel House Furnishings Company took a considerable financial risk.

remaining true to the company's ubiquitous new advertising slogan, "We Trust

the People," Modie Spiegel employed a simple yet effective screening process,

correctly assuming that stable, hardworking families that aspired to a middle-class

lifestyle would be appreciative and reliable enough to not default on their

Customers who applied for credit at the Spiegel store merely had to

fill out a standard form, providing some basic information, such as their

address, marital status and number of dependents, occupation, and income.

Spiegel examined these application forms personally, asked customers a few

then made an instinctive decision whether or not to

His judgment appears to have been quite sound.

period from 1893 to 1910, Spiegel only experienced moderate bad debt losses,

and fewer than a dozen lawsuits against defaulting customers appear in the

typical Spiegel payment plan for a piece of furniture is summarized by the

following excerpt from a 1905 advertisement in Woman's Magazine: "This full size Morris Chair [ . . . ] is of

handsome solid oak with rich velour cushions and the price is only $5.75.

Customers usually had up to one year to pay off their purchases in full.

increase business, Spiegel offered its customers convenient shopping hours from

10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

company regularly ran half- and full-page ads in Chicago newspapers, and Modie

Spiegel even sponsored theatre productions, providing furniture and props for

stage sets to draw ever greater numbers of customers to the store – evidently

Spiegel's profits increased dramatically from 1897 to 1903.

In 1897, for example, Spiegel registered $5,894 in profit ($160,000 in 2010).

The next year, its profits had more than tripled, to $18,296 ($496,000 in

and in 1899, Spiegel's profits rose sharply to $48,084 ($1.3 million in

By 1903, Spiegel reported $106,842 in annual profits ($2.73 million in

Modie's leadership, the Spiegel House Furnishings Company soon moved to a new

and much larger location on the corner of State Street and Van Buren in

Chicago's Loop (downtown business district), and the company added two

additional branches on Chicago's south side.

in 1903, when the Spiegel House Furnishings Company bought the large retail

furniture house of May, Stern & Co. for $500,000 ($12.8 million in 2010).[27]

Under the new name of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., the firm now became the

biggest furniture and housewares retailer in the city of Chicago.

rose from an initial value of $100 per share in 1893 ($2,500 in 2010) to well

this juncture, Modie's youngest brother, nineteen-year-old Arthur entered the

well-established family business as a sales clerk.

streak" and with a reputation as a troublemaker in school, Arthur Spiegel initially

displayed neither interest in nor aptitude for furniture retail.

found working in the store to be extremely boring, and his first few months on

the job seemed to consist mostly of being reprimanded for slacking off or for taking

needed discipline, his father "banished" him to the warehouse.

Arthur actually relished the physical labor and hectic activity of this rather

went on to develop a deeper understanding of

business fundamentals, in addition to great problem-solving and organizational skills.

Eventually, he was promoted to the company mailroom, where one of his more

tedious duties was answering stacks of letters from people far and wide who

wanted to purchase Spiegel merchandise on credit.[29]

effective newspaper advertising campaigns were reaching ever larger numbers of

potential customers throughout the Midwest; yet it was company policy to only

extend credit to customers who came to the store, and not to deliver orders

Arthur's task was to use generic form letters

to politely decline these out-of-town requests.

help but wonder how much more revenue they would generate if they met the

evident demand for their goods and credit.

worked on a comprehensive proposal to address the various strategic and

logistical aspects of expanding the company's reach beyond the Chicago area.

devising this plan, he drew some inspiration from the success of Montgomery Ward

When he presented his ideas to his father and brothers, however, he encountered

The obstacles (e.g., merchandizing, credit verification,

Spiegel found Arthur's concept of expanding into the mail order business far

too risky, especially with regard to payment defaults and repossession efforts.

Nevertheless, Arthur refused to give up and continued to lobby for his plan,

finally convincing the company hierarchy to allow him to open a small mail

order department on a trial basis in 1904.

Spiegel devoted himself to the implementation of his project.

personally, advising customers of their credit terms and payment plans, and calculating

freight and shipping costs; he oversaw the bookkeeping and packing processes,

and eventually hired several workers to help him, as more and more orders

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co.'s new mail order business was

off to a good start, earning Arthur the respect of his elders, as well as a $1,000

bonus at the end of the year ($25,300 in 2010).[31]

Having successfully completed the trial period, the next logical step for

Spiegel's mail order operations were limited to a radius of about one hundred

In order to reach more customers and offer a greater

selection of merchandise, the company published its first mail order catalog in

Arthur singlehandedly compiled and published this modest twenty-four-page

booklet (printed on extra-thin paper), which featured a variety of living room,

dining room, bedroom, and kitchen furnishings, and a small number of kitchen

the first company to offer credit through the mail,[33]

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. now modified its slogan to "We Trust the People –

As a result, it opened up a very large, previously untapped base

of customers, who pushed Spiegel's mail order sales to about $1 million in 1906

mentioned previously, Spiegel had actually published numerous catalogs for marketing

The 1905 version was in many ways similar to these earlier

It contained generic pictures of various items, along with vivid

descriptions of materials, textures, and colors

The new Spiegel catalog allowed customers to conveniently place

explained the company's unique credit policy in simple

terms (i.e., $5 minimum order, fifteen percent down payment, monthly

installments payable by cash, check, or money order), but the key component to

its remarkable success was Arthur Spiegel's editorial introduction.

blend of sales-pitch hyperbole and pre-Freudian mass psychology, the editorial sought

to dispel widespread public mistrust against mail order purchases and

installment plans by emphasizing three crucial concepts that became synonymous

with Spiegel's image over the next five decades

notion that Spiegel was a highly reputable company that only dealt in quality

products; second, it stressed that Spiegel offered a combination of quality,

price, and credit second to none; and third, it emphasized that making credit

purchases on installment plans was a convenient, perfectly respectable, and even

sophisticated way of acquiring home furnishings that were previously only

to the positive reception of the Spiegel catalog and the expansion of the company's

shipping radius to 500 miles, mail order sales continued to rise during the

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. was subsequently decoupled from

the Spiegel House Furnishings Company so that it could focus exclusively on

further expanding its mail order business and thereby assume greater debts,

while allowing the traditional retail branch to conserve its limited resources.

Arthur Spiegel became president of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., while Modie

Spiegel continued to operate the furniture stores, with Joseph and Sidney's

1910, the mail order company employed about 300 people and had relocated to new

Along with dramatic growth came a massive expansion in its line of merchandise.

The Spiegel catalog soon exceeded 136 pages and featured items ranging from

clocks and lamps to refrigerators and floor coverings

1912, Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. even launched its own line of ladies'

apparel under the name of the fictional designer Martha Lane Adams.

Lane Adams" line was so popular that it prompted the establishment of a wholly

owned subsidiary, along with its own catalog.[38]

More importantly, however, Spiegel's growing focus on women as independent and

educated consumers foreshadowed some of the far-reaching socio-economic changes

associated with women's emancipation in the aftermath of World War I.

language of the Spiegel catalog typically addressed women as household

decision-makers who were practical, financially savvy, and status-conscious.

clothing line, especially, sought not only to appeal to a woman's sense of

style and economy, but also to convey an image of glitz and glamour.

following decades, the Spiegel catalog reflected – or perhaps even helped shape

– the identity of the modern American professional woman.

Spiegel's customer base grew, extending to twenty-three states and parts of

Canada, it became necessary for the company to adapt to new realities.

business historians such as Alfred D. Chandler or Richard S. Tedlow have

demonstrated at length how rapid growth presents companies with a variety of challenges

and dangers, ranging from the need for managerial and administrative changes to

For Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., one of the most immediate tasks was to

reflect the diversity in both customer needs and merchandise pricing; for

example, down payment amounts now ranged from thirteen to eighteen percent, and

installment plans were extended to sixteen months for more expensive

Another aspect concerned minimizing the risk of offering credit to

so many people across such a large area.

which were eventually included in every Spiegel catalog, inevitably became

to screen out as many potential defaulters as possible.

– without much success – to set up a network of local "agents" to verify credit

worthiness and assist in collection or repossession proceedings

all those efforts, a significant amount of risk would always remain and losses

due to defaulting customers were simply unavoidable.

or less successfully factored into the pricing of the merchandise.[41]

Arthur's direction, Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. became firmly established

alongside Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward as a significant player

consumer credit market, the Spiegel brand was well-respected, and its methods were

However, the continued growth and success of the company

would depend on how well it managed to compete against its much larger rivals.

Therefore, in order to further raise Spiegel's profile

and distinguish it from its competitors, he hired advertising expert Edward L.

the next three decades, Swikard's innovations and advertising campaigns became

instrumental in defining Spiegel's image

he introduced new enticements such as free-trial offers, customer referral

mailing to nine million households, offering a deal on low-cost Congoleum floor

The campaign boosted company sales to $16 million and profits to $4

million that year (in 2010 dollars: $197 million and $49.3 million,

May, Stern & Co. continued to experience steady growth, partnering with an

Arthur Spiegel, meanwhile, began to lose

interest in the mail order business after meeting film pioneers Jack Warner and

Lewis J. Selznik, and he moved on to a new venture in the burgeoning movie

after becoming head of the World Film Corporation in February 1916.[44]

He died soon thereafter, at the age of only thirty-one, from pneumonia, on

## Social Status and Immigrant Entrepreneurship

the untimely death of Arthur, the Spiegel family had lost its most creative and

Modie Spiegel, now forty-five years old, took over from Arthur

as president of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co., while continuing to run the

well-connected member of Chicago's business community by now.

He was also an extremely busy man who not

only ran the family business, but also raised his own family while performing

civic duties as a member of the Chicago Board of Education.

March 1897, Modie had married Lena Straus, daughter of the banker Frederic W.

They had four children: three sons, Frederick W. Spiegel (1898-1975),[47]

Modie Jr., also known as M.J. Spiegel (1901

and a daughter, Pauline Spiegel (1913-76).[50]

The family lived in Chicago's affluent northern suburb of Kenilworth.

matured and settled down, Modie Spiegel shed much of the youthful exuberance and

flamboyance that had characterized his early years as a salesman in "Modie's

madhouse" furniture store; he became more civic minded and politically active,

embarking on a long career in Chicago public life.

Chicago Board of Education in 1906, Modie Spiegel would play a significant role

in shaping school policies in Illinois for decades to come (for example, thirty

years later, he was appointed to the Illinois Education Commission by Governor

involvement in educational matters is amply documented in the Chicago Examiner, which published almost

weekly columns on the board of education's activities for years.

Modie Spiegel frequently backed progressive initiatives in Chicago's schools.

For instance, he helped set up a relief fund for hungry pupils,[53]

advocated for fire safety regulations in public schools,[54]

and voted in favor of a ten-percent raise in teacher pay.[55]

His sociopolitical stance is perhaps best illustrated by a resolution he

Combining the traditional German emphasis on Bildung with American

The true function of the public schools is to

The functions of the school board do not

entirely cease when sufficient book learning is provided.

public school fund is to benefit pupils physically, mentally, and morally.

public schools have a collateral mission besides training pupils.

mission to make true Americans of foreign born parents who have children

The American public school, besides its normal

functions of mental and physical training, teaches patriotism, discipline,

industry, and the elements of hygienic cleanliness, to those who need the

Spiegel's involvement and interest in operating the family business began to

wane in the mid-1920s, as he groomed his two oldest sons as his successors

Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. went public, although the family retained a

By 1932, the economic downturn of the Great Depression

had forced him to shut down the Spiegel House Furnishings Company.

Spiegel, Inc. (as the mail order company was renamed in 1937) fared surprisingly

well during the depression and actually experienced tremendous growth

rose from $7.1 million in 1932 ($113 million in 2010) to more than $56 million

This was achieved by selling cheaper goods and further relaxing the company's

credit policies under the new slogan "no charge for credit" to eager customers.

Sales eventually leveled off by 1938 and Spiegel, Inc., refocused on the higher

income segment of the market, adding various reputable brand names to its

By 1941, though, the war and rationing basically brought Spiegel's business to a

By that time, the company was firmly in the hands of M.J. Spiegel,

On January 8, 1943, Modie Spiegel died of

natural causes at the age of seventy-two.

Modie Spiegel's great wealth and prominent social status, he and his family

struggled to gain acceptance in Chicago's gentile high society.

Holly C. Shulman, states in an article commemorating the life of her mother,

Polly Spiegel Cowan, the Spiegels were quite isolated among their snobbish

The family was part of the Jewish community and had

many Jewish friends, but they did not actively practice Judaism (although they

identified with the moral values of Reform Judaism)

Christian Science, but the children were raised in a completely secular

Still, Polly was never invited to any parties, dances, or other

social events by her Christian peers, and restrictive real estate policies

prevented other Jews from moving into the area.

and the outbreak of World War II eventually forced the Spiegels to rethink

their German-Jewish identity, and the family tried to locate long-forgotten

distant relatives – unfortunately, to no avail

what they could to help Jewish refugees from Europe.[59]

members of the German-Jewish community in Chicago and enjoying a number of

family connections definitely had its advantages for the Spiegels from the very

Henry Greenebaum, a relative of Joseph Spiegel's mother (and the brother-in-law

), was one of the most important figures in the

establishment of Chicago's German-Jewish Sinai Congregation around 1850.

a wealthy banker, set up several B'nai B'rith lodges, and became the first

Jewish officeholder in Chicago (alderman).[60]

When the Spiegels first settled in Chicago, there were around 4,000 Jews in the

By 1900, that number had grown to around 75,000.[61]

German Jews, unlike many of their Eastern European counterparts, were better educated,

better off economically, and well-organized in various influential clubs; they continued

to hold their religious ceremonies in German and maintained a distinctly

The Standard Club, the most prominent German-Jewish social

organization in Chicago, featured among its members such illustrious figures as

the architect Dankmar Adler, the shoe manufacturer Simon Florsheim, and the

As wealthy and successful Chicago merchants, three

generations of Spiegels naturally had a prominent position among the city's

Through intermarriage, such as Modie Spiegel's

marriage to Lena Straus of the W.S. Straus banking family, dynastic ties were

It was also common to invest in each other's

or to establish partnerships, such as Joseph Spiegel's joint

ventures with Henry Liebenstein or Jacob Cahn

Jews in Chicago typically also maintained relatively close and cordial

relations with non-Jewish German immigrants, for example, in the labor movement

On the whole, German Jews generally assimilated

into American society very quickly and many ascended the social ranks.

other ethnic or religious groups sometimes exhibited a somewhat hostile and

discriminatory attitude toward them, many German Jews were well-integrated into

the political, economic, and cultural life of the city.

as America's "second city" and its vibrant business climate in the second half

helped the entrepreneurial spirit of the resident

Merchants, especially, benefitted from the

constant stream of new immigrants who arrived in Chicago before the First World

There was always a demand for affordable goods, and coming up with

innovative ways to fill that demand (for example, by targeting German

immigrants with German-language advertisements in ethnic publications) enabled

enterprising minds like Modie and Arthur Spiegel to make a considerable

By 1914, Modie was earning a yearly salary of $35,000 ($788,000 in

Not surprisingly, the Spiegels were rather status-conscious and resided in

upscale neighborhoods; they dressed well, had busy social lives, owned cars,

The later Jewish immigrant arrivals from Eastern Europe found it much more

difficult to make the transition from the Old World to the New.

European Jews (the majority of whom came from Lithuania, Russia, and Poland)

worked in menial jobs and settled down in the Jewish ghetto around Maxwell

Street, where they maintained their accustomed Shtetl lifestyle.[64]

and Arthur Spiegel's business success was based first and foremost on considerable

risk-taking, and on what seems like an almost naïve trust in the honesty and

The danger that their company would fail due to

customers who defaulted on payments or – worse yet – perpetrated outright fraud

It is perhaps doubtful that Spiegel, Inc., would have

ever been able to enter into credit merchandizing and the mail order business

had the Spiegels not felt secure and confident enough to take these kinds of

Their family ties in the wider German-Jewish community must have

provided an adequate safety net (or some other reassurance) for them to

The Spiegels were able to attract a number of

investors, and on at least two occasions, in 1888 and 1897, cash infusions

the obvious financial risks, Modie and Arthur Spiegel faced other uncertainties

on account of the controversial nature of the mail order business in the United

Mail order companies like Sears, Roebuck

skepticism, hostility, and outright resistance to this new method of commerce.

For one thing, retailers in villages and small towns regarded the mail order

giants as unfair and therefore unwanted competitors, because they undercut

prices and generally hurt small businesses

organized lobbying campaigns against mail order companies in various parts of

even went so far as to stage public catalog burnings.

order customers also feared negative repercussions in their communities if it became

known that they shopped at Sears or Spiegel (for example, there were frequent

efforts to intimidate and ostracize individuals who received packages from mail

In order to keep their customers out of trouble, the mail

order companies offered to ship merchandise discretely in plain, unmarked

major obstacle for Spiegel's business model to overcome was the vastly

different perception of consumer credit in American society in the late

was widely regarded as dishonorable, even immoral or sinful.

typically rooted in Puritanical traditions, but it also had much to do with the

general distrust of modern city culture in rural areas.

Spiegel spent considerable time and effort persuading skeptical customers that

installment plans and consumer credit were reputable, convenient, and

Eventually, Spiegel managed to convince many

Americans "that life could be much more pleasant – and much more fun – if you

obtained the items you needed when you needed them and paid for them as they

Most importantly, the Spiegel "doctrine of credit was directed at

small-town America, where it was received as a revelation [and] helped to touch

off a revolution in living that would in time lead to lower prices, improved

quality, increased comfort – in short, to the affluent society of today."[66]

the direction of Modie's son and successor, M.J. Spiegel, the company went

through various structural transformations, and faced some inevitable economic

challenges during the Great Depression and World War II, but it basically

with the Beneficial Finance Company proved to be problematic.

Spiegel Company, which was originally founded by a German immigrant in the

nineteenth century, was eventually bought in 1982 by a German company, Otto

Versand GmbH, Europe's largest mail order firm, based in Hamburg.

, Spiegel swiftly underwent a complete makeover and

became more of an upscale catalog retailer, while expanding and diversifying

its business (for example, through the acquisition of the Eddie Bauer retail

chain and the First Consumers National Bank)

the early 2000s had a devastating effect on Spiegel's catalog and credit card

forcing the company to enter into Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Today, Spiegel operates as a more or less typical online retailer (now owned by

Eddie Bauer Holdings and Commerzbank), focusing entirely on high-end women's

Spiegel's tenure as chief executive, from the 1890s to the 1930s, was in many

ways the most dynamic and prosperous phase in Spiegel's history.

only helped oversee the dramatic growth of his father's small furniture

business into one of America's leading mail order companies

foundation for twentieth-century consumerism.

installment plans, company image, advertising and catalog merchandizing all had

a tremendous influence on modern shopping habits, tastes, and branding.

particular, Spiegel's focus on women as independent and conscientious consumers

company's accomplishments were largely attributable to the Spiegel family's

tight-knit nature, hard work and dedication, risk taking and business acumen,

and to their connections and standing within the German-Jewish community of

As the son of an immigrant entrepreneur, Modie Spiegel was immersed in

the family retail business from an early age and inherited a solid foundation

Under his stewardship, the company expanded steadily but

cautiously, achieving considerable financial success and stability.

through various mergers and acquisitions, Spiegel & Co. was eventually

transformed from a traditional family business into another faceless international

Thus, in the final analysis, the rise and fall of the Spiegel

Company mirrors the fate of many other U.S. companies and reflects the broader economic

Smalley and Frederick D. Sturdivant, The

Credit Merchants: A History of Spiegel, Inc. (Carbondale, IL: Southern

Jr., The People Get the Credit: The First

One Hundred Years of the Spiegel Story (Chicago, IL: Spiegel, Inc., 1964),

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 18-24.

merchant who sells provisions to an army in the field, in camp, or in quarters.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 27-29.

Cremin, Chicago: A Pictorial Celebration

(New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2006), 17.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 31-32.

Cutler, The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl

to Suburb (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 24-25.

constituted the largest single ethnic group in Chicago in the late

1800s (approximately 470,000 by 1900, or one quarter of the population).

Germans from all regional and religious backgrounds had a particular proclivity

(i.e., clubs) with a wide range of interests and purposes.

specific information on Joseph Spiegel's membership in social clubs is not

Hospital opened in 1880 on Chicago's south side.

bequeathed to the United Hebrew Relief Association by the wealthy real estate

developer Michael Reese (a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria); its mission was to

serve all Chicagoans regardless of race, creed, or nationality.

Best, "Michael Reese Hospital," Encyclopedia

to find any specific information on Modie and Sidney's upbringing, which

school(s) they attended, and whether they spoke any German at all.

Spiegel furniture catalog of 1888 consisted of 103 pages and was offered to

customers who paid 15 cents per copy in postage

catalog appears to have been a response to similar advertising campaigns by

comprehensive overview of Singer's innovative sales and marketing practices,

see: Andrew Godley, "Selling the Singer Sewing Machine around the World: Singer's

International Marketing Strategies, 1850-1920," in Enterprise and Society, vol. 7, number 2 (2006): 266-314.

Universe Corporate Histories: Spiegel Inc.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 45-48.

nickname as "the windy city" originated in the 1880s, in reference to its

reputedly long-winded, boastful, and self-promotional politicians.

Zorn, "For Our Out of Town Guests: Why Chicago is Called 'the Windy City,'" Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2006.

Spiegel remained actively involved in the family business until his death in

In terms of personality, he was more like Sidney and tended to avoid the

melodramatic sales tactics introduced by Modie.

All current values (in 2010 USD) are based on Samuel H. Williamson, "Seven

Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to

present," MeasuringWorth, 2011, using the

Ward and Sears, Roebuck & Co. had been in the mail order business since

1872 and 1886 respectively, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenues

annually, but neither company offered its clients credit or convenient

The Sears, Roebuck catalog, for example,

explicitly stated "our only terms are cash in full with all orders."

See The 1902 Edition of the Sears, Roebuck

Catalogue (New York, NY: Gramercy Books, 1993), 3.

volume of business of Spiegel, May, Stern & Co.'s little mail order

See Smalley and Sturdivant, The Credit Merchants, 45.

Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 59-61.

Universe Corporate Histories: Spiegel Inc.

Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge,

MA: MIT Press, 1969), and Richard S. Tedlow, New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America

(Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1996)

standard Spiegel credit application consisted of fifteen questions, which

included new categories such as previous address, race, other credit accounts,

Smalley and Sturdivant, The Credit Merchants, 86-87.

[41] Cornell, The People Get the Credit, 70-71.

importance to the company is also demonstrated by his salary, which was equal

See "Earnings of Executives Bared By Treasury," Chicago Tribune, January 15, 1937.

Directory of Company Histories: Spiegel Inc. (accessed July 15,

Financial World," Chicago Daily Tribune,

Spiegel, Millionaire at 31 by Own Efforts, Chicago

Yet to Come," Chicago Daily Tribune, March

They were divorced and he later married Ruth Hirsch

He served in the American Red Cross ambulance service in 1918 and

He died in Chicago in 1975. http://www.newberry.org/collections/FindingAids/spiegelhemingway/spiegelhemingway.html (accessed August 27, 2011)

after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1922.

general manager in 1932 and president in 1939.

company expanded into scores of retail outlets in the mid-1940s.

devoted himself to his passion for horse racing.

See "Modie J. Spiegel, 89, Mail Order Executive," New York Times June 28, 1990 (accessed August

Spiegel did not follow in his older brothers' footsteps by entering the family

Instead, he studied medicine at Northwestern University, and became a

nationally renowned social psychiatrist, conducting research on violence as

part of war, the inner city, and the family.

of Chicago as well as at Harvard University

Kenan Heise, "John P. Spiegel Obituary," Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1991.

("Polly") Spiegel Cowan attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York and became

a radio and television producer, as well as a political activist.

famous radio show was called "Conversation," and her best-known television show

was a literary quiz show called "Down You Go."

National Council of Negro Women's board of directors in the 1960s.

Polly and her husband died tragically in

Mail Order Firm Chairman, Dead," Chicago

mentions his attendance at a Republican Party banquet in 1909 (Chicago Examiner; January 15, 1909);

another, in 1912, lists him as a supporter of W. H. Taft (Chicago Examiner, February, 6, 1912).

[55]Chicago Examiner, December 20, 1909.

Universe Corporate Histories: Spiegel Inc.

Directory of Company Histories: Spiegel Inc.,

Shulman, "We Remember – Polly Spiegel Cowan: Civil Rights Activist, 1913-1976,"

in Jewish Women's Archive, 2004. http://jwa.org/weremeber/cowan

Spiegel's lifetime, from 1871 to 1943, the Jewish population in Chicago rose

example, Modie Spiegel and his family went on a vacation to France, where they

were nearly killed in an automobile accident after colliding with a horse-drawn

wagon. Modie Spiegel suffered a fractured collar bone and severe cuts to his

"Modie J. Spiegel." (2019) In Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Retrieved August 18, 2019, from Immigrant Entrepreneurship: http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=140

In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 3, edited by Giles R. Hoyt.

"Modie J. Spiegel," Immigrant Entrepreneurship, 2019, Immigrant Entrepreneurship. 18 Aug 2019 <http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=140>

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Cowan grew up in Los Angeles.  His grandfather created "The $64,000 Question", and Spike Jonze is his 3rd cousin. Cowan's great-great-grandfather was Joseph Spiegel, the founder of the Spiegel Catalog. His great-grandfather, Modie J. Spiegel, eventually took over the catalog in 1893. Modie's brother was Arthur Spiegel.


(meta data) TITLE: 1992 Winner - SCOTT PELLERIN of University of Maine

## 1992 Winner - SCOTT PELLERIN of University of Maine

With 223 points, Scott Pellerin ranks second as the all-time scorer in Maine history, and is third in career goals with 106, third in career assists with 117, and second in career games with 167.

He holds Maine's record for career power play goals with 47, and was the first Division I player in Maine's history to score 100 goals and record 100 assists.

In addition to receiving the 1992 Hobey Baker Award, he was named 1992 Hockey East Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the Hockey East Championship Tournament.

Growing up in Shediac, New Brunswick, he was a member of Team Canada during the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle.

Pellerin was picked by the New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, and subsequently spent parts of twelve seasons playing in the NHL with that team as well as in St. Louis, Minnesota Wild, Carolina, Boston, Dallas and Phoenix.

He retired from hockeyfollowing the 2003-04 season.

Pellerin was born in Shediac, New Brunswick. He played high school hockey at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame (a boarding school) in Wilcox, Saskatchewan under coach Barry MacKenzie. In Pellerin's junior year, his midget AAA hockey team took 2nd place in the 1987 Air Canada Cup (the national midget AAA finals). His high school hockey teammates included other future NHLers including Rod Brind'amour, Jeff Batters, Jason Herter and Joby Messier.   In 1988, Pellerin's senior year, he played for the Hounds junior AA team during its 1st season in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.  That year, the Hounds won the Centennial Cup (the National Junior AA championship) behind goaltender Curtis Joseph.
 Pellerin was drafted 47th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft.


He won the Hobey Baker Award as the best collegiate player in America.

Pellerin was born in Shediac, New Brunswick. He played high school hockey at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame (a boarding school) in Wilcox, Saskatchewan under coach Barry MacKenzie. In Pellerin's junior year, his midget AAA hockey team took 2nd place in the 1987 Air Canada Cup (the national midget AAA finals). His high school hockey teammates included other future NHLers including Rod Brind'amour, Jeff Batters, Jason Herter and Joby Messier.   In 1988, Pellerin's senior year, he played for the Hounds junior AA team during its 1st season in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.  That year, the Hounds won the Centennial Cup (the National Junior AA championship) behind goaltender Curtis Joseph.
 Pellerin was drafted 47th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. He won the Hobey Baker Award in 1992.


He won the Hobey Baker Award while playing for the University of Maine.

Pellerin was born in Shediac, New Brunswick. He played high school hockey at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame (a boarding school) in Wilcox, Saskatchewan under coach Barry MacKenzie. In Pellerin's junior year, his midget AAA hockey team took 2nd place in the 1987 Air Canada Cup (the national midget AAA finals). His high school hockey teammates included other future NHLers including Rod Brind'amour, Jeff Batters, Jason Herter and Joby Messier.   In 1988, Pellerin's senior year, he played for the Hounds junior AA team during its 1st season in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.  That year, the Hounds won the Centennial Cup (the National Junior AA championship) behind goaltender Curtis Joseph.
 Pellerin was drafted 47th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. He won the Hobey Baker Award in 1992. He won the Hobey Baker Award as the best collegiate player in America.


In July 2018, Barbieri was appointed as an assistant coach.

(meta data) TITLE: Victory sign King Kenny, City bring in Rado Vidosic and Kalac

Victory sign King Kenny, City bring in Rado Vidosic and KalacSkip to sections navigationSkip to contentSkip to footerOur

# Victory sign King Kenny, City bring in Rado Vidosic and Kalac

Melbourne Victory cult hero "King" Kenny Athiu has continued his rise from part-time journeyman to full-time professional by inking a two-year deal with the A-League champions.

Originally signed on-loan from NPL powerhouse Heidelberg United, the 25-year-old took time in adapting to the pace and demands of full-time professionalism, but came good in the latter stages of the season with several impressive cameos off the bench.

All hail the King: Kenny Athiu has signed on for two more years at Melbourne Victory.

"Kenny absolutely deserves this new contract," Victory coach Kevin Muscat said.

"He's worked incredibly hard over the past six months to get himself into a position where he now has the physical capabilities to play at the top level.

"We saw him come into his own late in the season, not only getting himself a couple of goals, but more importantly he made an impact off the bench and influenced games.

"Not many would realise this, but it was actually Kenny's desperation that won the ball for Terry Antonis to score the winner against Sydney FC and get us into the grand final.

"Kenny's a big boy who moves well across the ground, so he's going to cause plenty of headaches and we're looking forward to seeing what he can do with a full pre-season under his belt."

Athiu now wants to become a first-team regular.

"I really enjoyed my first taste of professional football last season, it was a big step up but I had great support from everyone at the club," he said.

Meanwhile, Melbourne City has announced a new coaching structure for its senior men's and women's teams.

Rado Vidosic, father of City attacker Dario, joins as the club's technical director and head coach of the W-League team, while Former Matildas captain Melissa Hudson (formerly Barbieri) joins Vidosic as assistant coach of the W-League side.

Former Socceroo goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac joins the A-League team as goalkeeping coach.

The former international had a brief spell as goalkeeping coach at Karabukspor in Turkey, where he moved briefly with Tony Popovic.

Before that, he coached at Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC.

As a player, his career spanned more than 20 seasons in the UK (Leicester City), Italy (AC Milan, Perugia), Greece (Kavala), the Netherlands (Roda) and Australia (Sydney United, Hobart Zebras).

Tony Vidmar has signed a two-year contract extension as assistant to head coach Warren Joyce, while title-winning W-League coach Patrick Kisnorbo will become another assistant to Joyce.

Michael Lynch is The Age's chief soccer reporter and also reports on motor sport and horseracing

 Barbieri had her first child, a girl, in 2013.
 In May 2015 national coach Alen Stajcic surprisingly axed Brianna Davey from Australia's 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup squad, a decision criticised in many quarters, recalling resurgent veteran Barbieri for her fourth World Cup.
 In July 2016, Barbieri signed a deal to play one game as a guest for Taroona in the Tasmanian Women's Super League.
 Barbieri was appointed coach of Heidelberg United's women's team in October 2016.
 In November 2017, she came out of retirement to join Melbourne City on an injury replacement contract, after one of their goalkeepers Emily Shields broke her wrist.