Photo of
Herman Himelhoch (Cropped from The Detroit Free Press Photo on Previous Page,
05 February 2018)
Herman Himelhoch was the oldest son and died in 1943 at age 73.
For years in Caro it was his dedication and family love that kept the bread on
the table and sustained their family effort. Herman regularly worked from 6 a.m.
to 11 p.m. He performed janitorial duties, prepared his selling inventory, and
then took care of all customers until the last one left. Finally, late at night
he handled paper work. At 14, he made his first trip to the New York market. He
made the store a fashion leader. He was one of the few long gone merchant
geniuses who could run his hand over fabric with his eyes closed and evaluate
it. After the Detroit store opened, he excelled at selecting his own piece
goods and fur skins and helped his manufacturer buddies style their lines.
Henry Fredricks, once the nation’s largest coat manufacturers, told Chuck Himelhoch, Herman’s nephew, that when he was going broke in
1926, Herman saved his life when he created for him one of the great fashion
highlights of the 1920s - the steamer coat. Herman designed the original 20ish
tubular silhouette tweed coat with its large fox shawl collar, making Fredricks
a very wealthy man.
Herman was responding to a need he observed when crossing the
Atlantic for Paris showings. On one such trip, he had both his wife and
mistress on the same ship. When Chuck Himelhoch first went into the market in
the late 40s and early 50s, his buddies would regale him with similar stories,
always starting with his fashion genius and pinochle skill, before getting
around to the women. They also told of how they could infuriate him by kidding
him about being born in Russia. No Courlander would accept Russia as his
birthplace.
In later days, he deteriorated severely. Israel Himelhoch, his
brother, said he had two faults - fast women and slow horses. He grew
irresponsible buying “like a drunken sailor,” and losing the orders he had
stuck in his pockets. He would take markdowns with a pencil which were never
recorded. He appeared disheveled and harassed in contrast to the confident
well-dressed executive he had once been.
In the early Detroit days, Herman and Charles, the namesake of
Charles S. Himelhoch (Chuck), the third generation president of the store, left the
business and opened a store in Bellingham, Washington. Herman returned in a few
years after Charles died in a terrible death in a sanitorium with paresis.
Herman married Edith, his millinery trimmer, in Bellingham. Israel’s reaction
was that she had trimmed him.
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