RARE "Macy's Founder" Fred Lazarus Jr Signed 3.25X5.75 Card For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "Macy's Founder" Fred Lazarus Jr Signed 3.25X5.75 Card. 

ES-1875

Fred R. Lazarus Jr. (October

29, 1884 – May 27, 1973) was an American founder of Federated Department

Stores, which became Macy's, Inc. Fred Lazarus Jr. was born to a Jewish family on October 29, 1884, the son of Rose (née

Eichberg) and Fred Lazarus.[1] He was the second of four brothers,

Simon Sr. (August 19, 1882 – December 21, 1947), Robert Sr. (September 20, 1890

– February 4, 1973), and Jeffrey Sr. (June 20, 1894 – 1975). He grew up working

in his family's store, F. & R. Lazarus, founded by his grandfather Simon Lazarus, an immigrant retailer. He briefly attended

the Ohio State University, but

dropped out at the age of 18 to work full-time in the store. He began expanding

the business soon afterward; under his leadership, federated eventually became

the largest department store company in the United States. In 1928, the company purchased The John Shillito Company department

store in Cincinnati. In the summer of 1929, months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929,

F. & R. Lazarus merged with Abraham & York to become Federated Department Stores, of which

"Mr. Fred" was the chairman. Lazarus himself exerted enormous

financial, social, and political clout; he is credited with convincing

President Franklin D. Roosevelt in

1939 to move Thanksgiving a week

earlier, to the fourth Thursday in November instead of the last Thursday in

November, in order to make the Christmas shopping season longer

in those years on which November had 5 Thursdays. The Lazarus family pioneered

many shopping firsts such as the concept of "one low price" (in which

no bargaining was required); theirs was also the first

department store with escalators and the first air conditioned store in the country.