A look at 20th century business history doesn't necessarily sound like fun summer beach reading, does it? Yet in her follow-up to "The Plaza," a chronicle of the great New York hotel, Julie Satow has again written a readable, entertaining and enlightening book that will have you intermittently raising your eyebrows, laughing, sighing and sharing fun facts with your companions. In When Women Ran Fifth Avenue (Doubleday, $32.50), Satow, who divides her time between New York City and Jamesport, unearths the stories of three women who reigned over New York's elite retail sector from the 1930s through the '80s: Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller, Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, and Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel.
If you've never heard these names, you're not alone. Much of Satow's research is the first that's been done on these figures. The combination of three unknown subjects, connected thematically but not in life, along with myriad side stories that are too good to leave out — these challenges led her to devise a unique and highly digestible structure and style for the book.
It's a triple biography of the women, but it's also a history of shopping and women in the workplace from the 1930s to the '80s. Magazine-style sidebars spotlight everything from the development of mannequins to the first Black department store to the history of designer knockoffs. Satow recently talked with Newsday about her project by Zoom.
Author Julie Satow divides her time between New York City and J.
