Our Michael Jackson Story
The “Chipp” building was a 5 story brownstone. We used 2 1/2 floors for selling - the rest of the space was used for tailors, administrative office staff, inventory storage, and shipping. We had an intercom system to communicate throughout the building. The system allowed one to to speak to a specific station or to make a general announcement. With some frequency someone would call to speak to a customer and our telephone operator would make a gerneral page- ” There is a call for Mr.——.” My brother Jimmy and I were not above paging fictitious individuals- ” Telephone call for Mr. I.P. Standing, or Is Mr. Ben Dover in the shop?” to cite a few announcements that were made. I was in the front of the 2nd floor showing cloth to a customer. From the front of the shop one could look to the back where there would often be a customer having a fitting. We have a customer whose name is Michael Jackson. Mr. Jackson is about 6′5″ and is caucasian. On this day Mr. Jackson was fitting in the back and his secretary called and asked to speak with him. Our operator made the page - “There is a call for Mr. Michael Jackson. ” This story goes back many year to when the recentky departed entertainer was at he height of his career. The customer with whom I was working said,” I did’t know you made clothing for Michael Jackson!” I told him we not only made Mr. Jackson’s clothes but he was being fit as we spoke. I pointed to the other end of the shop- ” There he is.” My customer looked at “our” Michael Jackson and said-” I never knew he was so Tall.”
Tags: Michael Jackson
February 26th, 2010 at 6:01 am
Great Blog!!….This reminds me of a story some years back..I was having lunch with my law partner one day…I should mention that “Bob” weighs somewhere north of 300 pounds…anyway, during lunch Bob drips some sauce on his new tie…..I interrupted his cursing with some helpful advice, to wit…”Bob, you should do what Fred Astaire used to do…when a tie got old or soiled he used it as a stylish, colorful belt”…..with that, Bob takes his tie off, stands up, and tries to wrap it around his waist…naturally, due to Bob’s girth, the tie didn’t make it all the way around…with that Bob says..”Fred Astaire must have longer ties than I do!!!”