City in Sound; Marshall Field & Co.

This is Jack Angel with City in Sound. These are stories out of Chicago, city of all things, among them the merchants. Marshall Fields personal shopping may I help you. You wish to order a gift for your mother who is 80 years old. Does she live alone? Would she like something personal or would she like something for her home? Well, we have a lovely lingerie. How about a nice piece of lingerie for your mother? Alright, we'll select something nice and what's there? Any price range? You wish to spend about $15? Well, I'm sure we can select something nice and we will send it to your mother. And did you wish a gift wrap? Alright, we'll have that gift wrap. And did you wish to enclose a card? And how shall we sign the card? Thank you very much. People feel your order and send it through. Generation on generation. The most familiar

name in town continues to be Marshall Field. The name and the company. The industry and the institution. Standing famous not on state street alone, but throughout the merchant world. Few who shop at any corner store in the country have not heard of it. Many come to see it first among all the city's showpieces. Not nearly all the home folks ever see all of it or most of it. Some of its most interesting ingredients are not ordinarily seen by the naked eye. Well, I know now that your Mrs. Evelyn Tsar and you're the assistant manager of the personal shopping service, but where are we? We are on the 12th floor of Marshall Field and Company. And there's a vast room here with just any number of ladies answering telephones, right? That's right. What are they doing? Well, they're taking orders from customers who are calling in. It may be advertised merchandise or a service call of any kind. And we have 128 position board.

However, we have present time using about 75 due to this time of year. And all of these ladies are personal shoppers. They are, yes, they are personal shopping service. Personal. They're kind of shoppers for the shoppers and aren't they? Yes, they take the order and the shopper shops it. Kind of a unique position here at Marshall Field. How do they do this? Well, they take the order over the telephone and it's written at the time the customer places the order, then it is put on a conveyor belt. And it goes down to the end of the room and at that time about every 30 minutes I would say we clear that belt. Just in case there isn't something of a great importance and it needs a personal attention immediately. Mrs. Zahn, I notice some special apparatus around the room say those slide projectors up there. At least they look like slide projectors with great big screens. Do you have movies up here? No, we don't. Periodically, when we receive information from the selling sections, we record the information as far as stock conditions. And we ring a bell which informs the girls that they should look at

the board and make note of this information. So that you just fly it up there on the screen? Yes, that's right. All right, how about those devices over there on that wall? They look like kind of portable PBX machines. Well, they indicate to the amber light indicates the girl in a position available or in a position taking orders. The green light on the third cabinet is the available abilities. That's the number of people who are available to accept a call. And the red lights are indicate customers talking. And of course this cabinet to the right indicates the incoming calls be they enterprise or city. And we know at all times how many calls are waiting to be answered. Well, not at most of these calls come from the city, Mrs. Darn. And no, I would say it was about half and half. We serve us about 55 to 60 suburban towns. And it's a free toll service. And the lights indicate whether we're holding suburban calls or city calls. Anybody out of town ever think of you? Oh,

quite often. We get calls from all over the United States. Long distance. That's right. We had one recently from Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland. That's correct. Mm -hmm. You carry chalais. Well, anything that they ask where we have. How about some of the other places that you call? Well, we had calls from, we had a call very, not very recently, but for an order that I thought was rather unusual. And that was for Sables, Matt Sables from Houston, Texas. Mm -hmm. And the gentleman was very, very happy. In fact, the next time that he came to town with his wife, he came up to show us his wife and the Sables. Well, I know that you're certainly proud of that. And we are, very proud of him. Time of service? Mm -hmm. Uh, we'll go around here in a minute and examine the operation a little closer. Did you start out as a personal shopper yourself? I started as a personal shopper. Not as a telephone sales person, that's right. And you undoubtedly talk to many, many people each day. Quite so. Mm -hmm. How are they to talk to? Well, generally speaking, very understanding and

very fine. They're most appreciative. Do they ever ask for very strange things that you can't find or have a great difficulty in finding? Well, we may have a very difficult time in finding, but if we do, we check outside sources and make every effort to fill the order. All right, fine. Let's go around and take a look. All right. Marshall Field Shopping Service. You wish to send a gift to your wife. You'd like it out at the airport? What time must we have it out there? Do you wish us to select the gift or do you know what you'd like? A sunburst clock. We'd be glad to check it for you and see if we have it and get it out there for you. Oh, you'd like two cheesecakes? Surely, if we have them, we'll send it to. All right, we'll check the special desk and see if we can get a boy out there. And you must

have it by 9 o 'clock. All right. Can we call you back? All right, we'd be glad to. We'll call you back. We'll be glad to. Thank you. Well, since Marshall Field is a showcase of Chicago, it's very nice to talk to the lady in charge of window display. This place that have been so famous here in town, Miss Virginia Park. How do you do? Very nice to see you and we certainly have a tremendous shop to do these displays, don't you? Yes, we do. We're very proud of it. It's one of the biggest, I think, in the city, accounting the country for this kind of work. And I think that you have a band saw somewhere around it. We certainly do. We get this all day long. What do you fashion most of your window displays from? What kind of material? Almost every time. We use a great deal of compel board and plywood. We have gotten

into some of the other woods where we chestnut, pecky cypress, and any of the props are made of that. Yes, well, who designs these? Do you do that in perspective? We have a staff of designers that have different windows. They are concerned with. And I check them and go over the designs with them. You do this quite well in advance of the time that you plan to use them. Well, we try to, very often. Sometimes we have to do what we call quickies. Well, it's always been fascinating to me that you do Christmas in July and Easter in December and all sorts of things. A lot of seasons for us are always mixed up. Well, how many windows do you have to work on here, Ms. Paxen? In the main store and in the annex, which is the men's store across the street, we have a total of 54 windows. How many people do you get to do this work? Do they have to be trained in artistic lines?

Sometimes we like to get people that have had our training in colleges or from schools like the Art Institute, Illinois Institute of Design. Beginners, of course, don't have to be so advanced. How much is so? We train them. I'm a graduate of the Art Institute. Oh, I see. Chicago. And about how often do you change the displays? That varies. About every two weeks at the present time. Sometimes we do it every week, depending on the merchandise changes. On some of the displays, like for Christmas and Easter, that are a mobile and it move and that have very handsome devices swinging around each other, you have to work with electricians in a number of other crafts. Oh, yes. We rely so much on so many of the tradesmen in the building, the electricians help us a great deal. Imagine it's kind of fascinating, though, to see these windows take shape, isn't it? I think so. I think it's the nicest part of display, the

pulling of the curtain and seeing the finished product. For my end of it, it is. I see the little scribbly sketches from the very beginning, and then I see the finished product, and it's most fascinating. It's facts, and I can see that you have painters, carpenters, types of designers, about how many crafts are actually involved in this operation. To do a complete window, well, as you said, there's painters and carpenters. There is the designer themselves. They have assistants. We have girls who work with us from the fashion office. We have a crew of laborers that do the heavy lifting and carrying objects down to the windows. As special cases, we work with the electricians of the store. It's a great big family sort of thing. Do you ever work with the salespeople who say, well, we need this particular kind of a thing? Well, not the salespeople, as much as the buyers of the sections, they're very important, of course.

Working with the fashion office, choosing the merchandise that we must display. The merchandising managers, of course, are in there. We do the same people who design these displays, actually install them or create the windows. Yes, it's a very important part of the designing is to get down there and see that your design is executed the way it should be. I see a number of handsome mannequins around here. Miss Paxton, is the mannequin business pretty big here? We have over 200 mannequins that we use just in window display. All sizes and shapes from the tiny, tiny baby six months old to the very high fashion figure. Well, actually, mannequins have always looked kind of underfed to me. Why is that? I think it's to have any voluptuous mannequins here. We have some ladies, some mannequins that we call matronly figures. I see. We don't use them too often. I think most of the ladies like to see the clothes on figures that look well. What do you do with these girls when you're finished with them? You just throw them away or

save them for another day. Well, we send some of them to our suburban stores. We have a little place here that we call the graveyard. And we stash them in there until they're just not any good for you sending longer. Nothing left of the mannequin. That's right. Well, my information is that we're right by the information desk here and that your Mary Stewart. It's correct. What do you do, Mary? Well, I'm a section manager for the personal services of Marshall Film Company, third floor. And that includes this information device here? Yes, one of the departments is my information desk, yes. Do you ever get tired of people asking your questions? Never? I say no. No. Well, exactly what services do you provide here? I know people ask an awful lot of questions and I know that they run the gamut of virtually everything. But what in the way of services to these questioners do you provide? Well, of course, we provide transportation services out of the city, suburban.

We provide restaurant information, nightclub information for our out of town people, great -line sightseeing tours. If I want to know when the red flash leaves your peoria, you can tell me. We can tell you. Huh? What station to? What seat? Gracious. And how about tours? Well, of course, we have the great -line sightseeing tours here of the city. And we also provide tours of our store. Oh, you do? Every day? Yes, our tours leave every day, they're by special arrangement. And the girls you see behind the desk and the blue dresses are our guides. Yeah, well, who goes on these tours, Mary? Well, we have our people from the city, women's clubs, school groups, state department tours from Washington, foreign visitors. Oh. Now, you mentioned state department tours just before they. Well, these are tours that are sponsored by foreign relations department of the state department. They come through touring all of the United States and, of course, they always come to fuels. Well, these are foreign visitors.

That's correct. Whereabouts they come from, most anywhere? Just about everywhere. Well, how can they find their way around here? Of course, you provide a guide. That's correct. How can you make yourselves understood? Well, most of the time, the state department, when they reach Washington, these coasts, they pick up an interpreter. If not, then the interpreter was started from the original destination. If not, we also provide interpreters. From a store here in town or from a... From our own staff and fields. Well, from your own staff, you mean you have people who speak Spanish and French and they write in. Russian, everything. Wonderful. What most impresses these foreign visitors about the store, would you say? Personalize, variety of merchandise. What really impresses them is all of our imported goods. They ever go away and say that the American should be pretty grateful for all this wealth and abundance. Well, Christians say that, but most of the time, they usually say I wish some of our people

could come and see all this. Because they just won't believe it when I tell them. Well, it's something that's impressive to us as well. And I'm sure to the people who haven't seen it before. Mary, what's the idea behind this? This, of course, isn't the actual sale of merchandise. At least as far as retail merchandise is concerned. What's the idea behind this? Well, of course, fields has always been known for its service to those customers. So, just as a new thing comes along, we add it to our group of services. Find out if it provides what we want it to for our customers. If it's sufficient, people like it. And we keep it. And, of course, it's grown to what you have now in the third floor. Well, he's coming right up. Tony, you described yourself as a trailer spotter. What is that? I like a different whole. We've got so many places that we can spot trailers. Like in South Trailer, we have to put a South Trailer in there. You know, suburban trailers and trucks that come

in different types. What's your last name? Marino. Tony, what do they call this place here where we are now? Holden car. This is an holding car. Holden car. Holden car. Actually, I got a name. Owned by Marsafy and private property. And this is the street that people see when they walk down Randolph and Washington. That's right. Washington Randolph, the center of the door. And it gets sentenced to the start. All in. Crowded with trucks. Crowded with merchandise. And people. Right. And people. Now, how do you know what your truck is? Which? You're the trailer spotter here. Well, they come in. It's a different driver's command. Like this one that's at the end now. That's he come in from Park Forest. He left here 130. Well, maybe 1 o 'clock. He goes to Park Forest and back. He should be here for five. We're just about 10 minutes to five now. What do they come back with? He brings a load out and he brings a load back. Calls or merchandise that's been brought back or merchandise that's got to go from that store to this store. Or whatever it calls for. I see. And you also have a warehouse run here too, of course. Yeah. The main work. Well, that's our main warehouse. That's for furniture. The heavy debulk merchandise. I see. Actually, how

long does this operation keep up? I mean, all day. All day. It starts. It actually starts about 7 .30 in the morning. But the bakery goods. They bring like we've got our own bakeries and everything. They load our trucks, this type of a truck. And they send them to the different store. Like, and even the airport. So we've got Midway Airport and the O 'Hara Field that they send bakery goods out to them. And that's all merchandise. That's perish of merchandise. It has to go out right away. Ice cream and so far and whatever they need. Well, Tony, let me ask you this. How come they leave from here and not the warehouse? Why don't they just leave directly? Well, the bakeries are here. Everything is here. We've got everything in the store here. Like, our bakeries, our bake shop is here. Our ice cream plant is here. Our candy shop is here. Everything is made here. This truck over here, you said, was going to... He just... No, no. This one, the trailer's going to all larger. This one just came back from 20 seconds. Oh, I see. That's right. When it goes to old orchard, that's northwest of town. No, that's not. That's right. That's merchandise from this store. When the merchandise was brought in here, one section owns it. But instead of keeping it all

here, they distribute it. The dissection here and that section there, which is old orchard and park forest. And old park so far. Well, as long as you've got storage, you've got business. That's right. As long as you've got business. That's what you're trying. Well, this is a fascinating moment. We're here with Miss Marthetta McMan in the doll department here on the fourth floor of fields in the toy department. Looks like you have a regular, separate doll department, Miss McMan. We have. It's very interesting, we think. And we have many collectors from all over the country who come here. Well, a number of people, including my daughter, insist that this is the largest retail collection of dolls anywhere. Is that true? As far as I know, I'm sure it is. And you're the doll buyer. Yes. It must be quite interesting going around buying dolls. It is. It's very interesting. You see lots of different things. Well, now you have so many foreign dolls here. Are these merely for this player? Do you actually retail these in abundance?

Well, perhaps not in abundance. But we do sell them and they are definitely for retail sale. Well, now these here, where do they come from, the ones that we're looking at now? These come from Austria. Is there any particular European nation that excels in doll making? Germany is probably the best known for doll making, although Italy is famous. And there are many dolls from different countries. Norway is interesting dolls. Yugoslavia. It's one of them here and look at some of them. You can kind of tell the national characteristics, can't you, by the type of doll? Yes, and many of the dolls are dressed in a particular fashion for the particular part of the country that they come from. There is the original Mr. Prune face up there. What is that? Those are made of dried apple. Yes. They

are... The apples are cured in a certain way. The maker guards her secret as a rule and does not tell anyone. Well, actually it's very attractive. And the clothing or the doll outfit is... Yes, and the faces, the dried apple lends itself particularly to the old face. What's the hair made of? That's a mohair type of wool that they use. Would it be safe to assume that adults, more or less, go for this variety of imported doll, whereas the children go for the big, cuddly American doll that they can trample underfoot? Yes, the majority of the, particularly the expensive dolls are sold to adults. I think often though, an adult starts a collection herself buying dolls for a child and becomes interested in them and buys and starts her own collection. Actually, do the dolls that our collectors items run fairly expensively? We have them all the way from

$1 .95 up to $150, $175. Take a lot of work, though, in preparation, nothing. Yes, they do. The hearts with dolls over there, for instance, are about $175. Well, what is the latest in dolls, Mr. McMahon? What can we expect for our children and what not? Walking dolls, crying dolls? Well, walking dolls, frankly, are a little passé. The baby doll, we feel this year, will come back into its own. The Shirley Temple doll, so far this year in a 12 -inch size, has been perhaps the most important doll so far. I suppose mothers and little girls go for the domestic -type doll. Yes. After the domestic -type star, such as Shirley Temple. They like dolls that are dressed like themselves. We try in our doll clothes to copy the children's clothes as nearly as possible.

Well, this is really a major phase of the toy business, isn't it? Yes, the doll industry, I don't know exactly what percentage it is. It is of the whole toy industry, but it's quite a large percentage. It would be a simple matter of fact to say that of all the great commercial structures in Chicago, none is more a part of its history and economy than fields. But you could put it a different way. There was even something of a strange city conscience about it, often renowned for its black mark. The city could turn away to good things, say the solid, stately pride of state and Randolph, where Marshall Field and Company would always stand. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer, whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.