St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 45

Building Uniforms Into Big Business Myles Standish The New Films Togetherness Mot Entirely a Blessing ONE WOULD SUPPOSE it is about time tha modern American fetish of togetherness gets a gentle ribbing, and just that is given it in "MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION," an amusing domestic comedy at the FOX THEATER. James Stewart is Mr. Hobbs, a St. Louis banker who decides to tranquilize his nerves, frayed by the tensions of the city, by holding a month-long family reunion at a California seaside resort in a summer mansion generously provided by a friend.

He and his wife (Maureen O'Hara) bring along their small son and teen-age daughter, and their I I I trm i Lr'2 im 1 viv -1 At' extmmj I Ml la -v a to; -Mrt' to -m 1 111 lllll -IT. AS fc I I W1LLARD LEVY (pointing), and his brother, JOHN, who took over the Angelica Uniform Co. in 1946, discuss a production problem with OTTO SCHNELLER, a cutter with the firm since 1927. two married daughters bring along their husbands and chil-. dren.

Of course the "mansion" turns out to be a broken-down eld Victorian horror with a temperamental water-pump. But the mechanical running gag is only a small part of the proceedings. Mostly they are concerned with the raft of troubles Hobbs runs into with his family, which theoretically should have been oozing with happiness over the reunion. There are such things as an overly endowed blonde neighbor (Valerie Varda) who persists in discussing literature with Mr. Hobbs while wearing what practically is a bikini; a frantic scramble to make the teen-age old daughter popular with the boys when she persists in making her mouth a grim, closed line because of braces; a suave yacht-club sportsman (Reginald Gardiner), who is a bit too attentive to Mrs.

Hobbs; a silent son who unbends and becomes friendly with his father only after a hair-raising sail lost in an ocean fog; quarrels in one daughter's marriage and a roving eye in the husband of the other; a grandchild who destroys everything he can lay his hands on, etc. The film is loaded with chuckles, and Mr. Stewart does marvelous job of character humor all the ridiculous developments are there, but he still keeps them realistic. The funniest sequence is one in which that deft comedian, John McGiver, and Marie Wilson as his wife, visit the Hobbs and have to be kowtowed to in spite of his grumpiness and the hopeles stuffiness of both, because it is hoped he will give a son-in-law a job. The climax, when Hobbs gets locked In the bathroom with the visiting wife when he tries to turn off the steam, is hilarious.

Miss O'Hara, still as beautiful as ever, is quite a grandmother. Others in the cast, like John Saxon, Natalie Trundy and Fabian, mostly play straight. It is Stewart who carries the comedy. It is a treat to hear him growl at a brat grand-eon (raised by modern psychological methods) "Little weep." Calignri Revisited "THE CABINET OF CALIGARI," at the AMBASSADOR, Is not a remake of the 1921 German film, which is regarded by some as a classic because of its crazy sets and camera angles, but which I for one can look on more realistically nowa Angelica Co. Will Gross Under Willard and John Levy $18,000,000 Has 6500 Styles By Jack Rice Of tha Pott-Dhpntch Staff THE CHAIRS in the president's office at Angelica Uniform Co.

here are. soft and easy to slouch in. The president of the company, Willard Levy, likes to slouch. He is, at 47, a thriving representative of the Enlightened Executive and if a man claims that thoughts rush faster to his brain if he sits with his feet propped high, Levy will accept the story until performance proves otherwise. Angelica Uniform and ii The Angelica firm pioneered in fancy jackets for bartenders.

This model is in gold and brown. days as a rather hammy and crude horror film. Rather, the new picture is "a tribute" to the earlier, film, retaining only its title, its attempt at psyehological terror (now called "subliminal and in one sequence, a grotesque set and a few cockeyed camera angles. All this seeks to portend horror, rather Mr. Angflica should incur disaster and go to the bottom of the sea.

being a friend of Mr. Angelica, was greatly struck by 6uch a curse. I looked at my clork. It was 10:45 p.m. "The next day the papers were carrying the telegraphic news that the steamer Burgoyne met disaster on the coast of Newfoundland and that the boat with all passengers was lost.

The disaster occurred at 1:45 a.m. Monday 10:45 p.m. St. Louis time, just when the man gave the curse." Levy leaned back In his chair. He was not smiling.

He put his hand on two typewritten pages, the description that Paini gave evy of the curse and its circumstances. Paini visited Levy at the Angelica offices in 1947 and described the Sunday evening at than actually show it. It has Grynis Johns as a young woman whose car has broken down entering a big house for help (classic horror opening) and being kept prisoner there by the owner, an evil character named Caligari. Dan O'Herlihy plays Calgari, and also a kindly doctor. Other people are imprisoned in the luxurious house, and there are suggestions of eerie goings-on.

Director Robert Kay and screenwriter Robert Bloch, who wrote "Psycho," have attempted to apply to this film the Tirandello approach of "people seeing what they want to see, and nothing is what it sems to be." It could be Mimulatingly different, except that the murkiness of the development tends to dreariness, and the big surprise ending is much too predictable to the perceptive viewer. Robert Peterson Piano Teacher in 80s I WAS INVITED to a piano recital in Greenwich, Conn. The event was of geriatric interest because the youthful per-formers had been taught by a woman in her mid-80s who is probably the nation's oldest piano teacher. fltoQjJSu I 1 W-Wtv tt- jf Wit Cheruhino Angelica's home. After he reached the climax of the story Paini stood, to give his conclusion dramatic emphasis, and said, "And that curse occurred exactly 50 years ago today." "Then," said Levy, "Mr.

Paini dropped dead in our office." We sat and looked at one another. Levy's father and his uncle took over the business in 19(14, buying it from the Angelica estate. The curse must not have been included in the bargain. LUMP CLINIC CUSTOM MADE LAMPS a REPAIRS Sjvef 4 Brass 7585 Oliva Street Rd. ft at North South VO 3-2100 .5 FREE PARKING nitHnrirtimi.

Fru J. is, 3 RlVi rl Teaching is no hobby for her. She has 30 pupils who take half-hour lessons weekly. Her income from teaching is a substantial part of her livelihood. "I'm doing just what I've always done," said Mrs.

F. M. Livingston after the recital. "I began teaching piano in my teens and later took time off to marry and rear four children. For a time my husband and I ran a dairy farm.

But ROBERT PETERSON Levy, are among the largest and less publicized forces in St, Louis business. The central office at Fifteenth and Olive streets directs regional offices in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles; stocks warehouses in Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Fort Worth, Detroit, Miami and Buffalo; sets production schedules at two plants in St. Louis, a plant in Los Angeles, and factories in five small Missouri towns Marqujnd, Summersville, Mountain View, Winfield and Eminence. The company's basic stock Is approximately 1000 uniform styles that expand with variations to a selection of some 6500 uniforms, or something to suit just about anyone except Douglas MacArthur. In its past fiscal year, Angelica did a business of $15,000,000.

Levy said, with no show of excitement, that he expects the company to gross $18,000,000 this fiscal year. He indicated the $3,000,000 increase with the casual air of a man accustomed to slouching, letting the thoughts rush to his head, and making the business grow. The business has been growing since 1946 when Willard Levy and his younger brother, John, took it over. The company was a family business, but the brothers did not take it over as an inheritance, or treat it as a member of the family. "The business grossed about $4,500,000 in 1946," Willard Levy said, letting the difference between 1946 and now speak for itself.

"John was just out ot the service in '46 and being four years younger than I am, he was trusting. I told him the company had to change. Angelica was a family business and there are two arguments against a family business. One argument is paternalism. I don't believe people want to be told what's good for them when they're working for a company, they want to decide that for themselves.

The second argument against a family business is favoritism. You're damn lucky these days if a family business runs well. "I persuaded John that we should buy out the other interests in the family and we did. We encouraged bright young outsiders, we looked for talent. A man can come into this company now and he doesn't have to worry that his work will be rewarded by the next big promotion going to a member of the family.

Within a few months our oldest vice president will be 56. Then it drops down to age 46. "We completed the change In 195ft when we put our stock on the market. Now we're a publicly owned company." I protested that there should be a sentimental ache when a family business Is depersonalized. Levy smiled and pointed out the difference between cash reality and sentiment.

"John and I found ourselves with money after the sale of the stock. What's the psychological effect of suddenly having money? Are you going to relax? I found it just the opposite, a great incentive. "To explain it, I must personalize it. I had a conversation with an elder statesman of the financial world in New York. He asked me what I knew about our business and I told him I knew everything.

He listened to me tell how much I knew and then he said, 'You won't be worth anything to that business until you've worked yourself out of a "It's taken two or three years for the sageness of that remark to seep in. He meant that until I'd built up an organization, delegated authority to the point that the business could get along without me, I wouldn't be a success at Angelica. I want my This model for waitresses is reversible, providing two "fronts" for double wear before laundering. nounced a curse. "With a loud Taini, "he made curse, a wish said that ALL STORES OPEN EVERY i i tand with ytllow farm.

alMlaVWIUkWalH1 Ei I Hooded coverall pro vides "clean room' protection where production work must free from lint and dust. I'll bet he's wearing one of our uniforms. "When you're eating out, chances are the people serving you wear our products. When you have an operation the surgeon will be wearing an Angelica uniform and you'll be in one of our gowns." I thanked him for the quick trip from a restaurant to surgery. There must be no getting away from Angelica.

Trying for a more cheerful progression, I asked him about the history of the founding of Angelica. Levy snapped out of his slouch and looked pleased, almost as pleaspd as he had been during a tour of the plant when a veteran cloth-cutter said the usual "Hello, Willard," then patted the company president on the back and added, "You're looking good young feller." Levy said he was glad I asked about the company his- tnry; he had been waiting for the question. "I don't know if it's history, really," he said, "but we have the best spook story of any business in town. I've documents here to prove it and I'll have copies made for you." He gave me copies of the documents after he told the story, and it is a rare one, eeriness backed by facts, as follows: Cherubino Angelica, an Italian immigrant, founded the company here in 1R7S. Angelica prospered and in 1897 he decided to visit his home town in Italy.

Mrs. Angelica stayed in St. Louis to watch the store but because her husband was not in good health she insisted he take a traveling companion. Angelica chose a friend, also an Italian immigrant, and paid the man's traveling expenses. They sailed from New York on the S.S.

Burgoyne on a Saturday and the following night, Sunday, friends gathered on the porch of the Angelica home in St. Louis to discuss Cherubino's great trip. One of the people on the porch was a young artist, Silvio Paini. Another was a man from Angelica's home town in Italy and the man was angered because he had not been chosen as the traveling companion. Mrs.

Angelica tried to mollify him but her soft answers only made the man more certain he had been wronged. He rose and faced the people on the porch, Paini told Levy many years later, and pro- This uniform for waitresses comes in black with white accessories. brother John to become, president. I think he's a better man for the job, and that's what I'm working on now. It's the ambition that stimulates me along with a little natural tendency toward laziness." Levy grinned, and rearranged his leg across the arm of his chair, simulating laziness.

Then he took charge of the interview, asking questions, "What's a 'uniform'?" he asked. "The word uniform is a misnomer. There is a euphemism, 'vocational service but that could be damn nar anything. I'll try to tell you what our business is. "More uniforms are rented these days than are bought.

I think our future lies in the service business. Speaking of changes, I'll show you something wild." Levy opened a catalogue that pictured uniforms. The uniforms had style and color and pretty models but he passed up pages of pretty waitresses, looking for a bartender. He found one. He said, "Bartenders used to be staidly dressed men, remember? About five or six years ago I was looking through a Brooks Brothers catalogue and something told me we'd better get on the ball and prepare for a change in men's styles everywhere.

Our merchandising department fashioned new styles for bartenders and we actually were a little ahead of the times then, but in the past three or four years the trend'i caught up with us." Levy displayed a picture of the latest model bartender. The picture showed a man smiling and looking like Liberace, come to tend bar in a black-and-gold jacket made by Angelica. Levy closed the catalogue oh the 'bartenders and discussed Angelica uniforms at work in nobler fields. "The last guy to touch John Glenn was a technician who strapped the astronaut into the Mercury capsule, and the technician was wearing an Angelica uniform. A newborn baby usually is handled by somebody wearing one of our uniforms, too, in a hospital.

"In a hotel, the maid's probably wearing an Angelica uniform. Maybe a guy's assembling your next car somewhere. blasted mounting, 2 side diamonds. 14R or white gold. JO WEEK FWt brirtioat diomoiidi, vJf V39509 ST Show Detail then I was widowed so I returned to piano teaching and have been at it ever since.

"It's a shame age has such a poor reputation," she continued. "There must be many persons my age who could teach music or do other kinds of useful work as a means of keeping busy and earning a living. But they've been led to believe that they're not what they used to be. And younger folks have heard so much about retiring at 65 that they can't Imagine folks past that age being much good. No wonder older people often are hesitant about revealing their age.

"It may sound like bragging, but I feel that I'm a better piano teacher today than I was 25 years ago. I seem to have more enthusiasm and patience. And I feel children respond to my methods better than ever. My teaching methods are a distillation of CO years of teaching experience. And I know they work, for pupils often go on to musical careers and come back and tell me I gave them a sound start.

"I simply can't understand why so many firms force competent, reliable persons to quit working at 65. Those who work in such firms should make plans for second careers they won't sit around in retirement and lose their grip and lense of purpose," she said. "I don't think I'd be around today if I hadn't continued working. Oh, I might be around but I don't believe I'd be as healthy as I am. I feel wonderful.

Jt sleep well and eat just about anything. One or two days a week in summer I go awimming. And I take a keen interest in my garden. I feel that if you keep on working and earning your own way you can Rrow old outside while continuing to feel young inside," the concluded. For a hnnklel.

"Employment Tipi for Older People." write to Robert Peterton in rare of the Pott-ftitpntrh, incloting ttamped, entelope and 10 tentt. Bill Vaughan Says THERE'S NOTHING LIKE a few days at a vacation resort to make you feel fit and rested, and nothing like the drive home to wear you out again. THE RULES of any political discussion, whether in parlor, kitchen or Congress, ought to provide a penalty for any participant who uses a slogan as an argument. TILLY MAY SPEND her vacation at home. She aays she Wouldn't want to meet the kind of man who would go to the kind of place the can afford.

EVENING i i i i 1 ST.LOUIS POST-DISPATCH esse.