Neiman-Marcus, Texas

Herbert Marcus, Sr., a former buyer with Dallas’ Sanger Brothers department store, had left his previous job to found a new business with his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, A.L. Neiman, then employees of Sanger Brothers competitor A. Harris and Co. In 1907 the trio had $25,000 from the successful sales-promotion firm they had built in Atlanta, Georgia, and two potential investments into which to invest the funds. Rather than take a chance on an unknown “sugary soda pop business,” the three entrepreneurs rejected the fledgling Coca-Cola company and chose instead to return to Dallas to found a retail business. The store, established on September 10, 1907, was lavishly furnished and stocked with clothing of a quality not commonly found in Texas. Within a few weeks, the store’s initial inventory, mostly acquired on a buying trip to New York made by Carrie, was completely sold out. Oil-rich Texans, welcoming the opportunity to flaunt their wealth in more sophisticated fashion than was previously possible, flocked to the new store. In spite of the Panic of 1907 set off only a few weeks after its opening, Neiman Marcus was instantly successful, and its first several years of operation were quite profitable.

Neiman-Marcus, Texas by Frank X. Tolbert “tells the story of Dallas’ fashion-wise emporium, from its start in 1907 to its acclaim today [1953], and is profiled here in all its elegance, community significance and individual enterprise.”