Frank Lourie of Lourie's

September 26, 2007

MidlandsBiz:
Your oldest son is getting married.

Frank Lourie:
Yes, my oldest boy is getting married in Alabama.  My wife, Susan, and I went down and visited there in July to find a place for the rehearsal dinner.  It’s right on Mobile Bay and in many ways it reminded me of how Wild Dunes used to look before Hugo hit in 1989.

MidlandsBiz:
So you knew the island prior to the hurricane?

Frank Lourie:
We had a Friedman/Lourie family reunion at Wild Dunes in the summer of 1989 two weeks before Hugo hit.  I remember that Pat Conroy, the author, was also there.

MidlandsBiz:
What was Pat Conroy doing at Lourie family reunion?   I have read most of his books; I love Pat Conroy.

Frank Lourie:
Honestly, at the time, I didn’t know what he was doing there.  My wife and I had just recently been married and we were chasing around four little kids.  I didn’t think about it much at the time.

Six years later, his novel Beach Music came out and my wife went out and bought me a  copy and had Pat personalize it.  Now I read a fair amount, but it sat on my desk for 10 years.  Have you read Beach Music?

MidlandsBiz:
Yes.

Frank Lourie:
Do you remember much about the story?

MidlandsBiz:
Honestly, no. 

Frank Lourie:
Well, Pat Conroy is an absolute master at mixing things about his own family and his own experiences when he creates his characters. It’s always interesting to try and discern between fact and fiction.  There are obviously elements of both in his writing.

In the book, Beach Music, a character called The Great Jew starts out on foot selling eggs  in Charleston and eventually works his way inland to the fictitious town of Waterford.  In reality, the name of the town is St. George and in reality, the character is based on my grandfather, Louis Lourie.

MidlandsBiz:
The character in Beach Music is based on your grandfather?  Why did it take you 10 years to read the novel?  Was it too close to home? 

Frank Lourie:
The book was so thick, 800 pages or so, and I guess I just had trouble getting motivated to undertake reading it. As far as what we (my generation) knew my grandfather had health problems and had relocated to Florida. Well, in some families, some things are just never talked about and truthfully, I didn’t know much about my grandfather.  My grandparents had actually separated and that along with the health issues were the dual reasons for his moving. It was not appropriate at that time for people to announce being  separated or divorced and my grandmother became the undisputed and unchallenged family leader and historian. This happened in the late 1930’s and all we were ever told was that my grandfather had health problems and went to live in Florida. 

Until I was forty years old, I believed that.

MidlandsBiz:
What happened to your grandfather?

Frank Lourie:
Well, as uncovered in the book, in the early 1930’s and before my grandparents separated, they learned about the atrocities that were taking place in Eastern Europe.  My grandmother was from a small town in Poland and my grandfather was from a small town in Russia and both of them had been sent over to America to escape religious persecution. 

My grandfather was sponsored by a man named Hyman Karesh who was in the dry goods business in Charleston.  We have my grandfather’s papers from Ellis Island dating back to 1911 including the name of the ship in which he crossed the Atlantic. Interestingly enough, Hyman Karesh’s grandson and namesake lives here in Columbia and we both go to the same synagogue.  I often tell him, If it weren’t for your grandfather, I wouldn’t even be here.

When my grandparents tried to find out whether any of their family was still alive back home, they discovered that not only was everybody in their family dead, but also everybody in the entire village.  

Except for one young girl who was my grandmother’s niece who was being hidden in a  Catholic Convent by the Polish underground. In the book, it was an anonymous 12 year old girl. 

My grandfather met with the State Senator in St. George at the time, Senator JD Parler, and also the Governor to see if there was anything that they could do to save this girl.  Initially the answer was that the situation was hopeless, but my grandfather was very persistent and said that he could raise money to help her escape.  Now at this time, he had been in business since 1912 and had become somewhat prosperous.  Word came back that if they could raise $50,000 that they may be able to smuggle her out of Poland.  I don’t know what $50,000 would be in today’s dollars, but it may as well have been $50 million dollars. 

My grandfather sold everything he had except the store, moved his family with six kids into the apartment above the store, and somehow managed to come up with the money.

Six months later, Libby Friedman, arrived safely in St. George, South Carolina. 

She spent a couple of years there, went to school, eventually got married and settled in Providence Rhode Island where she had several children of her own. 

On her passing two years ago, her grandson, who I’d never met, sent me an email.

I want you to know that at my grandmother’s funeral we talked about the years that she had in St. George, South Carolina.  We are all alive today because of what your grandfather did.  Dozens of people are alive today because of one act of incredible generosity.

It says in the Bible that to save one person’s life is to save the world; well I think this is a pretty good example of that.

We know very little of our family history prior to my grandparents coming to America.  I am grateful to Pat Conroy because prior to Beach Music, nobody knew the truth about my grandfather.  This story was never told to my generation. 

MidlandsBiz:
How did Pat Conroy learn about this story?

Frank Lourie:
Turns out that he was doing research for Beach Music at our family reunion on the Isle of Palms.  I think he spoke with my Aunt Mary and she relayed the story. 

It took Pat Conroy six years to complete the book and another 10 years for me to read it.  So 16 years after I met Pat Conroy, you can imagine how I felt when I finally did get to read Beach Music and learn how it was linked to my family history. 

Pat, although not a native son of South Carolina, I believe has come to love his adopted state and to come to terms with our somewhat tortured history. There is good and bad in everything, and he loves the beauty and the people of this state and its history.

MidlandsBiz:
[Long pause] Although it may be tough to switch gears, can we talk a little about the apparel business.  You are coming up on 95 years in business.  There’s news of a national slowdown out there – what is your read on the economy?

Frank Lourie:
Continued high gas prices, mortgage crisis, declines in new an existing home sales, the war and the hottest summer in history, all, I think, may make people tentative about buying. 

Like you said, we have been in business for 95 years.  If there is anything I’ve learned over the last 37 years is that there always peaks and valleys… no straight lines.

MidlandsBiz:
What are feelings about casual days at work?

Frank Lourie:
The tremendous ground swell nationally towards the leisure and business casual dress has really grown out of
people’s desire to be comfortable.

But let me say this, some companies have done studies and discovered on the dress down days their employee’s were less productive.  And some companies that implemented permanent dress downs noticed a drop in productivity relative to days of more formal business attire.  

The better dressed you are, the better others perceive you and the better you perceive yourself.  The lawyer you see sitting in his office without a jacket and tie on wouldn’t dare walk into court looking like that.  Clothes are not just how you look, but also the respect that you show for the person you are seeing.  Southerners have a special  understanding of  respect.  

Casual has hit a plateau and we are seeing a small movement back to suits (suiting).  Technology is also driving that trend – fibers and fabrics these days are made with comfort in mind. 

MidlandsBiz:
Should companies have dress codes?

Frank Lourie:
It’s really up to individual companies.  We require that our sales team to wear our clothes.  On Saturdays, we allow the team to come to work  dressy casual.  In the final analysis, our  manager decides how our sales  associates should  dress.

MidlandsBiz:
Where can someone go to find out about all the different terms for fashion?  What is dressy casual?

Frank Lourie:
I’d love to be able to tell the world on my website what all the terms mean, but it’s really in the eye of the beholder. 

It’s fairly easy for men – harder for a woman.  If you have something on other than jeans, with a nice shirt then you should be fine – casual.  If you put a jacket on, then you can are more dressy casual. 

MidlandsBiz:
When and how do you order your clothes?

Frank Lourie:
We have to make decision about clothing nine months in advance.  We are placing next springs orders now.

Two-button, three button, size of the lapels, single-breasted, double-breasted, straight with no pleats, two pleats, three pleats, cuffs.  In the South particularly, things don’t change overnight.  You will see subtle changes from one year to the next – width of tie, for example. When we see a new trend, we don’t jump in 100%.  We’ll introduce things slowly, conservatively. 

We have to look into a crystal ball, know our customer and experiment a little.

MidlandsBiz:
So what is it, pleats or no pleats?

Frank Lourie:
I remember being a teenager thinking I would never wear pants with pleats, let alone a cuff.  That was for old people.  Now it is pretty much the standard for male fashion.

For young people these days, it’s considered more fashion forward to have plain front pants.  (no pleats). 

MidlandsBiz:
What are you most proud of at Lourie’s?

Frank Lourie:
Well I’m proud that we are still in business.  Very few independently owned better men’s stores still exist in this country. 

We are a full service company.  We nurture the relationship between the sales rep and the client.  Many don’t know this, but we are happy to come to our customer’s office, to their home, look at their wardrobe and make suggestions. 

Most anything we sell can be bought somewhere else, but nobody delivers the type of personalized service that we do.  All of our sales associates are consummate professionals, many of whom have been with us for 25, 30 years and more. We have made a tremendous investment in our sales staff.

We carry recognizable name brands that are fairly priced, and we offer world class customer service as an added value .  That’s how we run our business.