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Notable people · Business

Fred Lazarus Jr.

Columbus-born head of F. & R. Lazarus & Co. and founder (1929) of Federated Department Stores. In 1939 he urged President Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving earlier to lengthen the Christmas selling season; Congress fixed it as the fourth Thursday in 1941.

Fred Lazarus Jr.
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At a glance

Born
1884-10-29
Died
1973-05-27
Education
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, briefly, none
Known as
Business
Organizations
F. & R. Lazarus & Co., Federated Department Stores

Life story

Fred Lazarus Jr. was born in Columbus in 1884. His grandfather Simon Lazarus founded F. & R. Lazarus & Co. in 1851. Fred left Ohio State at 18 to join the family store.

The store introduced one-price selling, department store escalators and early air conditioning. In 1928 Lazarus bought the John Shillito Company in Cincinnati.

In summer 1929 he met two other retail heads on a yacht, and the three agreed to merge their stores into Federated Department Stores; Bloomingdale's joined in 1930. In 1934 he sorted apparel by size rather than color or price.

In 1939 he persuaded President Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday to lengthen the shopping season, per Wikipedia. He died in Cincinnati in 1973.

Timeline

  • 1884-10-29: Born in Columbus (Columbus, OH) source
  • 1911: Marries Meta Marx (Columbus, OH) source
  • 1928: Buys the John Shillito Company (Cincinnati, OH) source
  • 1929: Federated Department Stores formed (Long Island Sound, NY) source
  • 1934: Reorganizes apparel by size (Columbus, OH) source
  • 1939: Lobbies FDR on Thanksgiving date (Washington, DC) source
  • 1973-05-27: Dies at 88 (Cincinnati, OH) source

What Fred is known for

  • Founded Federated Department Stores (1929) by merging Lazarus with Abraham & Straus and Filene's
  • Lobbied FDR in 1939 on the Thanksgiving date ('Franksgiving'); 1941 law set the fourth Thursday
  • Introduced size-based apparel arrangement (1934)
  • Federated Department Stores, 1929

Family

  • grandfather: Simon Lazarus
  • wife: Meta Marx
  • wife: Celia Kahn Rosenthal
  • son: Maurice Lazarus

Ohio places

Where Fred Lazarus Jr. was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

  • Thanksgiving date: story of Lazarus moving it is widely told; retailers broadly lobbied in 1939.

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

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