In conversation with Mary Lynn Becza; 2:30 – 3:20 pm, St. Peter’s Parish Hall
Julie Satow
Julie Satow is an award-winning journalist and the author of the instant New York Times bestseller When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, which was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and named Best Book of 2024 by Amazon, the Financial Times, Cosmopolitan, Smithsonian, the New York Post, and Vogue. Her first book, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an NPR Favorite Book of the Year. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times.
MFOB featured book: When Women Ran Fifth Avenue
The twentieth century American department store: a palace of consumption where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York, Chicago, or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled.
In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband’s department store as a housewife and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II—before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies—becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s, Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel reinvented the look of the modern department store and inspired a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers as well as decades of copycats. Journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries in this stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.
