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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And today's

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Speaker 1: episode was requested approximately one hundred years ago, if you

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Speaker 1: go by way of hyperbole by our listener other not

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Speaker 1: really one hundred years ago, but it feels that way.

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Speaker 1: It was a very long time, and I have had

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Speaker 1: it on my list throughout that time, but I am

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Speaker 1: only just now getting to it for a variety of reasons. Uh.

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Speaker 1: We are talking today about Levi Strauss, and his story

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Speaker 1: is really historically interesting because it touches on a lot

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Speaker 1: of important moments in US history. So he was an

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Speaker 1: immigrant who ended up in a business that was impacted

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Speaker 1: by and in turn affected the U s Civil War

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Speaker 1: and American clothing culture. He has a story that's tied

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Speaker 1: to the Gold Rush. He also had a vision for

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Speaker 1: his adopted city of San Francisco that he worked really

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Speaker 1: hard to achieve so the future generations would benefit from it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and his life in many ways is the story of

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Speaker 1: the United States in the nineteenth century from the perspective

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Speaker 1: of a Jewish immigrant who became a captain of industry.

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Speaker 1: And before we get into a story, I will make

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Speaker 1: a confession, which is that until fairly recently, probably five

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Speaker 1: years this Shougo, I thought Levi and Strauss were two

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Speaker 1: different people that have been in business together. That's what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying. So clearly I missed this in history class

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Speaker 1: because even though people wear Levi's and you'd call it

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Speaker 1: Levi Strauss, I didn't realize that was one person's proper name.

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Speaker 1: So I grew up in North Carolina, not all that

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Speaker 1: far away from Cone Mills, which is who made the

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Speaker 1: denim for Levi's five oh ones, for but two hundred

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Speaker 1: years or something, so like this is a piece of

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Speaker 1: history that is like I'm a little more steeped, and

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Speaker 1: I didn't have confusion about whether Levi and Straus were

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Speaker 1: two people. It's not my proudest moment. But in my defense,

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Speaker 1: even though I am a clothes person, I don't think

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Speaker 1: I owned a pair of jeans of any flavor from

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Speaker 1: about until like two years ago. Like that's just never

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Speaker 1: been my things. So that's that's my excuse paltry, though

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Speaker 1: it may be that I just never examined Levi Strouse.

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Speaker 1: If it makes you feel better, I thought Hannah Barbera

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Speaker 1: was one person. It was a woman. Oh no, that'd

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Speaker 1: be funny, but no. So Levi was born Lub Strauss

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Speaker 1: on February eighteen twenty nine in Budenheim, Germany. His father,

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Speaker 1: Hersch Strauss, was a salesman who sold household goods store

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Speaker 1: to door. His mother's name was Rebecca has Strauss, and

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Speaker 1: both she and Hersh grew up in Franconia. It's an

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Speaker 1: area in the north of modern day Bavaria which was

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Speaker 1: predominantly Jewish. Rebecca was Hersh's second wife. His first wife,

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Speaker 1: Martel Bauman Strauss, had died at the age of thirty five,

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Speaker 1: leaving him with five children. Then Hersh and Rebecca had

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Speaker 1: two more children together, a daughter, and then Lub and Hersh.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca and their seven children lived in a three room

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Speaker 1: downstairs floor of a two story house. So this was

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Speaker 1: a time when Bavaria's udn Addict or jew law was

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Speaker 1: in effect that had started in the eighteen teens. In

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Speaker 1: this law seemed as though it offered Jewish citizens the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to pursue a number of jobs that had once

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Speaker 1: been forbidden to them, but in return it also created

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Speaker 1: really strict regulations for their lives. Among them, marriage and

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Speaker 1: immigration of new Jews was severely limited. All Jews had

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Speaker 1: to be registered, they had to take German names, they

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Speaker 1: could not own land, and even their language was codified

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Speaker 1: so all public records had to be kept in German.

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Speaker 1: They could not use Hebrew. For those someone like Hersh Strauss,

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Speaker 1: who traveled through the area selling his wares, also served

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Speaker 1: as messengers and as community connectors during this time, and

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Speaker 1: in this profession, Kursh was sort of exempted from a

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Speaker 1: part of the Union edict. Working as a peddler, which

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Speaker 1: had been a traditional job for Jewish Men in the

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Speaker 1: area for a long time, was no longer considered an

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Speaker 1: acceptable career, but older people like Hirsh who weren't able

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Speaker 1: to pick up a new profession were allowed to keep

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Speaker 1: doing it. Yeah, it was expected that they would just

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Speaker 1: eventually die off, and so would that profession, and all

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Speaker 1: of the limitations of the Union Addict eventually inspired emigration.

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Speaker 1: One of the marriage laws that really created a problem

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Speaker 1: was that only the eldest son of any Jewish household

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Speaker 1: could get married, and so there were some workarounds, like

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Speaker 1: if another son that was younger wanted to marry a

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Speaker 1: widow that was acceptable, or if a couple that had

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Speaker 1: no children wanted to give up the slot, their eldest

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Speaker 1: son would have had to another family so they could

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Speaker 1: have two sons. Mary they could, but basically this really

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Speaker 1: limited the entire societal culture because all of these young

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Speaker 1: women could not get married, all of these young men

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Speaker 1: could not get married. It was frustrating. So eventually they

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Speaker 1: wanted to leave, and in eighteen thirty seven there was

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Speaker 1: a group of eighteen people that left. Eighteen young people

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Speaker 1: and two of Lub's older siblings were part of that.

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Speaker 1: They left Germany to make homes in London and New York.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen forty nine, one two more of the Straw's

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Speaker 1: children followed suit. In eighteen forty six, first died of tuberculess.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca remarried soon after to hersh's brother, who was a

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Speaker 1: widower named Lippman, but Lippmann died just a few weeks

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Speaker 1: after the wedding. Lub was seventeen at that time and

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Speaker 1: two of his sisters were still living at home. An

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Speaker 1: immigration at this point was not easy. You couldn't just

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Speaker 1: pick up and leave. The Bavarian government had to approve

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Speaker 1: anyone who wished to leave the country, and you had

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Speaker 1: to prove that neither you nor anyone in your family

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Speaker 1: had any sort of criminal record, and that you could

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Speaker 1: afford to make the trip. On March seventeenth, eighteen forty seven,

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Strouss filed an immigration petition in which she stated

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Speaker 1: that because she was a wi know she didn't have

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Speaker 1: the financial support anymore. She didn't know how she would

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Speaker 1: provide for her youngest son, but she had children in

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Speaker 1: the United States who could help her get settled there.

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Speaker 1: Lib was old enough to work and contribute to the

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Speaker 1: family's finances once they arrived, and for his part, Lub

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Speaker 1: wrote his own petition stating quote, no members of my

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Speaker 1: family will stay behind. I will share the faith that

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Speaker 1: has been assigned to me with them in foreign lands.

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Speaker 1: I thus joined my mother and her plea. On June seven,

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Speaker 1: Rebecca and her children, so Lib and his two sisters

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Speaker 1: were approved for immigration, but they didn't leave immediately because

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Speaker 1: Rebecca needed to make sure that the family that had

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Speaker 1: gone on to New York had indeed made preparations for

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Speaker 1: the three of them to arrive and live there. They

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Speaker 1: finally made their way in the spring of eighteen forty eight,

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Speaker 1: although the specifics of their transatlantic passage aren't really documented

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Speaker 1: or known. Jonas and Louis Strauss, Lib's brothers had both

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Speaker 1: become dry goods merchants in the city. They had opened

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Speaker 1: up a shop at three and a half Grand Street,

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Speaker 1: but by the time the family arrived, they had moved

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Speaker 1: to a more lucrative location at two oh three and

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Speaker 1: a half Division Street. They lived above the shop. Jonas

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Speaker 1: had also gotten married and started his own family, and

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Speaker 1: at some point Lub followed the example that his siblings

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Speaker 1: had and he changed his name to a more Americanized version.

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Speaker 1: This was not uncommon, uh, and in the eighteen fifty

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Speaker 1: censes he is listed as Levi with a Y. He

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Speaker 1: also started working in the family dry goods business. While

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Speaker 1: he was there, he learned English really quickly so that

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Speaker 1: he could speak with business partners and customers, and he

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Speaker 1: applied for U S citizenship, just as his brothers had

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Speaker 1: done before him. The Strouse's dry goods business was doing

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Speaker 1: really well. They moved to another new location near Union

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Speaker 1: Market in eighteen fifty one, and as their family business

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Speaker 1: was growing, a new opportunity was making itself apparent across

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Speaker 1: the country as the California Gold Rush fostered New Town's

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Speaker 1: new prosperity and a need for dry goods. The Strauss

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Speaker 1: brothers did not want to miss a chance to capitalize

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Speaker 1: on this new market, but they also needed to keep

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Speaker 1: their established New York business going, and so the youngest

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Speaker 1: brother of the family was sent west. Five days after

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Speaker 1: he took his oath of citizenship. On January one, eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifty three, Lob Strauss, who was now going by Levi,

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Speaker 1: left New York for San Francisco aboard the U. S

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Speaker 1: Mail ship Georgia, which was a steamer, and the family

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Speaker 1: had already loaded a shipment of merchandise aboard another ship

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Speaker 1: called the Winged Racer for Levi to take possession of.

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Speaker 1: Once he reached San Francisco. The clipper Winged Racer was

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Speaker 1: sailing down around the tip of South America and then

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Speaker 1: north to California. Levi would make the trip in less time,

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Speaker 1: traveling through Panama. This was, of course, before the Panama

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Speaker 1: Canal was built, so he took the steamer Georgia to

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Speaker 1: Panama and then traveled across that thin strip of the

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Speaker 1: country to Panama City on the Pacific side. It got

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Speaker 1: on another steamer there called the Isthmus and that was

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Speaker 1: bound for San Francisco. He arrived in San Francisco on

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Speaker 1: March thirteenth, eighteen fifty three. This was considered for a

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Speaker 1: lot of people a safer plan than trying to travel

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Speaker 1: overland from New York to San Francisco because uh, people

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Speaker 1: often did not survive that journey, or if they did

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Speaker 1: get to California, they got there in pretty sorry shape. Uh.

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Speaker 1: This was a little bit of an easier move, and

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Speaker 1: the specifics of Levi's first days in San Francisco are

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Speaker 1: also unknown. He would have needed to rent warehouse space

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Speaker 1: for the goods that were coming in on the winged Racer,

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Speaker 1: and he would have needed to find lodgings for himself.

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Speaker 1: He most likely had some letters of introduction to family

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Speaker 1: connections that had already made that journey west, so it

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Speaker 1: wasn't as though he just showed up and had to

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Speaker 1: figure everything out by himself. He had some security net

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Speaker 1: in place that merchandise that had been shipped showed up

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Speaker 1: two weeks after Leavi did on March, Unlike other merchants

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Speaker 1: who had to bid on merchandise that was shipped on

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Speaker 1: spec once it got to the port at San Francisco,

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Speaker 1: Leavin knew what was coming. He just had to inspect it,

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Speaker 1: accept it, and then move it into the warehouse. As

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Speaker 1: I got to know the market in California, he could

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Speaker 1: ensure that future shipments contained items that would be the

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Speaker 1: most likely to move and to make the most money.

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Speaker 1: And for clarity, the Strouss were not opening a retail

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Speaker 1: shop in San Francisco, even though they had sort of

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Speaker 1: a similar one in New York. They were basically setting

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Speaker 1: up a wholesale business that would sell stock to other

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Speaker 1: merchants for their shops. So Levi had to invest time

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Speaker 1: in developing really good relationships with other businessmen in the area,

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Speaker 1: and he was twenty four at this point. He wasn't

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Speaker 1: supporting a wife or family, so aside from attending synagogue

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Speaker 1: and participating in social events primarily within San Francisco's Jewish community,

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Speaker 1: all of his efforts could be focused on establishing the

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Speaker 1: family's new West Coast firm. And he wasn't only working

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Speaker 1: with retailers in San Francisco either. He also traveled inland

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Speaker 1: to Sacramento, and he paid visits to smaller mining towns

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Speaker 1: to make deals with the shopkeepers there, and this was

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Speaker 1: an ongoing practice for the business that he pretty much

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Speaker 1: carried out forever. So when news broke of new or

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Speaker 1: strikes or a new town popping up, Strauss was smart

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Speaker 1: enough to go get into those towns that sprouted up

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Speaker 1: in those places really quickly and forged those new business partnerships.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, we'll talk more about how Levi Strouss set

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Speaker 1: up the Strouss family business in San Francisco, but first

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Speaker 1: we will take a little break for a word from

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Speaker 1: a sponsor. So Levi quickly established a list of regular clientele,

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Speaker 1: and even as he had received shipment of that first

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Speaker 1: load of freight that his brothers had sent, there were

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Speaker 1: already two other shipments on the way. He was doing

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Speaker 1: business ostensibly for the company that his brother founded, which

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Speaker 1: was J. Strauss and Brother, but he was invoicing clients

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Speaker 1: sort of as a separate business as just Levi Strauss.

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Speaker 1: In July etive, Levi sent a shipment of gold back

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Speaker 1: to his brothers. This was valued at a little over

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Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars at the time, which is estimated to

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Speaker 1: be close to a quarter of a million dollars in

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Speaker 1: modern currency. Of course, it's really difficult to make those estimates. Clearly,

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Speaker 1: the California office was doing really well. In spite of

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Speaker 1: the fact that there was something of a financial panic

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Speaker 1: going on in San Francisco that year, it didn't seem

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Speaker 1: to impact Strauss. By the end of eighteen fifty five,

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Speaker 1: he'd sent more than eighty thousand dollars home in gold. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that really made his business. It'll

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Speaker 1: come up over and over that even when their difficulties,

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Speaker 1: they still managed to pull through and even do pretty well.

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Speaker 1: Like people will always need dry goods, they always need

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Speaker 1: clothes and linen's and household basics. So it was a

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Speaker 1: really smart business to be in in the first place.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty six saw continued expansion of the Strouss

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Speaker 1: enterprise in California. Levis sister Fogla, who had changed her

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Speaker 1: name to Fanny when she moved to the United States,

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Speaker 1: moved to San Francisco with her husband, David Stearns, and

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Speaker 1: their children to assist with the growing responsive elities of

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Speaker 1: the business, and his brother Lewis also joined them. It

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Speaker 1: is possible, though unconfirmed, that his mother, Rebecca, made the

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Speaker 1: journey as well, and for the first time since moving

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Speaker 1: to the US. Levi actually had a home with an

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Speaker 1: address that was separate from his business, not living above

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Speaker 1: it or within it, indicating that there was this ongoing

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Speaker 1: trend of prosperity. The firm also changed names that year.

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Speaker 1: It went from J. Strouss and Brother to J. Strouss

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Speaker 1: Brother and Company, maybe to acknowledge Levi's contribution, but on

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Speaker 1: all records in California it was listed as Levi Strausse.

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Speaker 1: Levi sent more than double the amount to New York

246
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Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty six that he had in eighteen five.

247
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Speaker 1: That amounted to approximately two d thousand dollars. Eventually, in

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen sixties, Levi changed the name of the

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Speaker 1: California branch to Levi Strousse and Company, recognizing his family

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Speaker 1: members contributions. Eighteen fifty six was also the year that

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Speaker 1: Levi Strouss became involved, along with his brother in law,

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Speaker 1: in the Committee of Vigilance, which was a vigilante group

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Speaker 1: made up largely of merchants that formed a combat the

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Speaker 1: city's growing political corruption and related violence. While business and

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Speaker 1: politics had largely stayed separate up to that point, concerns

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00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,800
Speaker 1: over how businesses could be impacted by the lawlessness of

257
00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,479
Speaker 1: men and power led to the Committee of Vigilance nominating

258
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Speaker 1: and eventually electing many of the city's business leaders into

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00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,920
Speaker 1: political office. So they picked people that they knew from

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00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,520
Speaker 1: other merchants and put them in office because they thought

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00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:34,280
Speaker 1: that was safer. And while Strauss did not seem to

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00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,240
Speaker 1: have any political ambitions of his own, he did back

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00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:41,160
Speaker 1: the political efforts of the committee. Those committees that there

264
00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:44,640
Speaker 1: were several of them and several places at this time period,

265
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Speaker 1: and in some places their activities were kind of controversial

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Speaker 1: because there was like an extra judicial violence capacity in

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Speaker 1: this combat of corruption, so it's like there's a whole

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00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:00,200
Speaker 1: bigger story there. But his involvement was really about out

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Speaker 1: electing businessmen to city positions, and there had actually been

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Speaker 1: a similar committee in San Francisco several years prior to

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Speaker 1: this that was much more of like a vigilante law

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Speaker 1: force that thought that they would fill the gap between

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Speaker 1: the crime that was going on and the police that

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00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:21,160
Speaker 1: were obviously to their minds, not doing anything about it.

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Speaker 1: So that existed in San Francisco as well, although he

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Speaker 1: was not part of that at the time. In eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifties seven, the Strousse family experienced a financial loss. In September,

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Speaker 1: the SS Central America, which had picked up passengers and

279
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Speaker 1: freight in Panama, including a large shipment of gold, went

280
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Speaker 1: down in a hurricane off the US coast in the Atlantic.

281
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Speaker 1: More than four hundred people died and an estimated one

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Speaker 1: point five million dollars of gold was lost, including seventy

283
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Speaker 1: six thousand dollars that was en route to J. Strouss

284
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Speaker 1: brother and Company from Levi Strouss and Company. Incidentally, the

285
00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,920
Speaker 1: wreckage of the Central America was found and much of

286
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,320
Speaker 1: the treasure recovered in although there was a significant legal

287
00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,400
Speaker 1: battle over who should get that gold. The thinking of

288
00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,160
Speaker 1: the Central America set off a financial panic. There was

289
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,880
Speaker 1: a lot of gold that New York banks had been

290
00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:15,720
Speaker 1: expecting on that ship, so when it didn't show up

291
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:19,800
Speaker 1: that was It was a significant economic disruption. And yet,

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00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:22,480
Speaker 1: as seems to be the pattern of his life, Levi

293
00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:26,400
Speaker 1: Strauss weathered this storm. Part of this was because his

294
00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 1: brothers were the ones shipping him good so that meant

295
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 1: he didn't have to reassure a supplier of his good

296
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:33,680
Speaker 1: credit and be like, no, no, I know, I lost

297
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,360
Speaker 1: some money, but I will make it up to you.

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Speaker 1: They were like yeah, we'll just keep it going. So

299
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:40,960
Speaker 1: the Strauss family continued business as usual, and because other

300
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,040
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs didn't have the credit or the leverage to do

301
00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:48,040
Speaker 1: the same thing, Levi's business flourished as others shut down.

302
00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:50,600
Speaker 1: By the end of the year, he was shipping gold

303
00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:52,880
Speaker 1: to New York once again, and he had expanded to

304
00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:55,360
Speaker 1: have offices in the city that were actually separate from

305
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:59,240
Speaker 1: his warehouse. He was also taking shipments of raw materials

306
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:02,640
Speaker 1: from suppliers outside the family, which he then leveraged in

307
00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,200
Speaker 1: deals that got him discounts on the goods that were

308
00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,600
Speaker 1: made from those raw materials. As the country found itself

309
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:12,080
Speaker 1: in the grip of the Civil War, San Francisco's citizens

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00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:16,080
Speaker 1: realized they could eventually be impacted by it. California had

311
00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:18,960
Speaker 1: entered the Union as a free state, as outlined in

312
00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:22,280
Speaker 1: the Compromise of eighteen fifty, but while most of the

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00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:25,320
Speaker 1: city was loyal to the Union, there were some concerns

314
00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:29,080
Speaker 1: about some government officials wanting to ally with the Confederacy.

315
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,760
Speaker 1: After a pro Union rally in the city on May eleventh,

316
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:35,760
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, at the junction of Montgomery Market and

317
00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:40,159
Speaker 1: Post Streets, a resolution was put forth that formed a

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00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:43,879
Speaker 1: Union Committee of thirty four. This is a committee of

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00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,639
Speaker 1: respected men who would uphold the ideals of the Union,

320
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,280
Speaker 1: phil vacant government posts, and keep an eye out for treason.

321
00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:53,159
Speaker 1: Levi Strauss was one of the men named as a

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Speaker 1: member of this group, and one of only three Jewish

323
00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,840
Speaker 1: men included. Yeah, they were very worried that there were

324
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:02,840
Speaker 1: people that were infiltry in California who were pro slavery,

325
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:06,520
Speaker 1: and that it was gonna completely cause an upheaval of

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Speaker 1: everything going on in the state, and particularly in a

327
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,800
Speaker 1: large city like San Francisco. So they really wanted to

328
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Speaker 1: try to keep an eye out and prevent such a problem.

329
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Speaker 1: And when the troops that were stationed at the Presidio

330
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,399
Speaker 1: were sent east to fight, it really left the people

331
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Speaker 1: of San Francisco a little bit uneasy and they were

332
00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:27,879
Speaker 1: fearful without protection, and the volunteer group known as the

333
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:30,880
Speaker 1: Home Guard was founded that consisted of three thousand men

334
00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,439
Speaker 1: and it sort of served as a makeshift military force.

335
00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:36,520
Speaker 1: The Home Guard and the Union Committee of thirty four

336
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,520
Speaker 1: actually disbanded though, when Leland Stanford was elected California Governor.

337
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:44,200
Speaker 1: Stanford was a pro union Republican who was very well

338
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:48,440
Speaker 1: respected successful and powerful, so the concerns of some sort

339
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,720
Speaker 1: of pro Confederacy uprising that had led to the formation

340
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:54,440
Speaker 1: of those two groups were pretty diminished under his leadership.

341
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:58,200
Speaker 1: Strauss and his California business continued to do well through

342
00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:01,560
Speaker 1: all of this, and the prosperity of California's merchants helped

343
00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:04,960
Speaker 1: keep the country of floats through the Civil War. Strauss

344
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,440
Speaker 1: had recognized the value of real estate fairly early on

345
00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,440
Speaker 1: and had invested in a number of properties throughout the city,

346
00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:14,920
Speaker 1: which he often sold as a profit after holding them

347
00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:18,680
Speaker 1: for some time. Levi Strauss and Company also moved into

348
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:21,119
Speaker 1: a new space that he purchased in eighteen sixty seven.

349
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,080
Speaker 1: This was a four story building on Battery Street that

350
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,520
Speaker 1: clearly showed the company's success. The company was known for

351
00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:30,560
Speaker 1: its excellent and speedy service and the ability of its

352
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:35,240
Speaker 1: employees to satisfy client needs with even the largest orders. Yeah,

353
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:38,000
Speaker 1: there was a write up where they actually used the

354
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,960
Speaker 1: word empowered to describe the salespeople and clerks at Levi

355
00:19:43,119 --> 00:19:47,200
Speaker 1: Strouse as being able, like they were empowered to meet

356
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,600
Speaker 1: the needs and agree to deals with clients, which is

357
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,679
Speaker 1: sort of a weird word to be using in the

358
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 1: eighteen sixties, but there it was. Unfortunately, the late eighteen

359
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:59,080
Speaker 1: sixties also came with family loss, as Levi's half sister

360
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:02,680
Speaker 1: Mary died in eighteen sixty six and his mother, Rebecca

361
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,679
Speaker 1: passed three years later. After Rebecca's death, Levi traveled back

362
00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:08,400
Speaker 1: to New York, and he stayed there for a month,

363
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:11,400
Speaker 1: presumably to help settle accounts and get her affairs in order.

364
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,840
Speaker 1: There was also an embezzlement scandal at Levi, strouss and

365
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,680
Speaker 1: Company in October of eighteen sixty six, when news broke

366
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,560
Speaker 1: that a bookkeeper had taken five hundred thousand dollars and

367
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,120
Speaker 1: left the country. While the company, not wanting to scare

368
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:28,000
Speaker 1: away business partners, said that there was no money missing,

369
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:32,000
Speaker 1: it also made a statement in an advertisement that the

370
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,800
Speaker 1: man in question, G. S. Goodman, was no longer with

371
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 1: the company it was not authorized to conduct business on

372
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 1: behalf of Levi Stroussing Company. This mix of messages seemed

373
00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:45,920
Speaker 1: to blow over. While Mr Goodman never saw any retribution

374
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:47,960
Speaker 1: of the fact that he had taken money from his

375
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,600
Speaker 1: employer quite a lot of money from his employer, neither

376
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:54,880
Speaker 1: the company nor Levi strousse personally seemed to suffer any

377
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:58,160
Speaker 1: negative fallout from it either. Yeah, that's one of those

378
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:02,239
Speaker 1: stories where it's like they completely claimed that it had

379
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,520
Speaker 1: not happened, so there is no record of it happening.

380
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 1: But then the fact that they're also like, but also

381
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:07,920
Speaker 1: if you talk to that guy, he doesn't work for

382
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:13,080
Speaker 1: us anymore. Um, you know, it does seem like it's

383
00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:14,960
Speaker 1: a little bit of a weird combination of things to

384
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,639
Speaker 1: put out in the press. The company continued explosive growth

385
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,920
Speaker 1: right into the eighteen seventies as Levi, who obviously had

386
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:26,000
Speaker 1: an impressive business instinct, realized that he needed to expand

387
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:30,119
Speaker 1: into international markets. At that point, his business had expanded

388
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,160
Speaker 1: to supply merchants all along the Western Seaboard and into

389
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,400
Speaker 1: Oregon and Montana, but he was also expanding farther into

390
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,160
Speaker 1: the American Southwest, and then he started to reach out

391
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: to potential clients in Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii. Coming up,

392
00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,720
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into the thing that the Levi

393
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,199
Speaker 1: Strouths name is most closely associated with today, which is

394
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:59,399
Speaker 1: blue jeans. First, we're gonna have a quick sponsor break.

395
00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:05,680
Speaker 1: Jacob Davis, who presumably started at his yakub and americanized

396
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 1: his name when he got here. Was also a Jewish immigrant,

397
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 1: and he had moved to the United States from Russia

398
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,359
Speaker 1: as a young man. He, like Levi, also worked in

399
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 1: dry goods as a cutter and a tailor, although he

400
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:20,320
Speaker 1: had also dabbled in the brewery business and some other enterprises.

401
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:23,720
Speaker 1: He was also an inventor. He had developed a screw

402
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,640
Speaker 1: based clothing fastener and ironing board that could also stretch clothes,

403
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,479
Speaker 1: and a folding press, and those last two items were

404
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:34,400
Speaker 1: granted patents, but that fastener was not. Jacob had also

405
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:38,440
Speaker 1: expanded his tailoring work to make tents and wagon covers

406
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 1: to capitalize on a need for those kinds of goods

407
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,679
Speaker 1: in mining towns in Nevada, where he lived, he started

408
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:49,040
Speaker 1: making very sturdy, long lasting trousers for laborers out of

409
00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:53,119
Speaker 1: duck and Denham. Duck is like a very densely woven cloth,

410
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,400
Speaker 1: and he eventually, on the suggestion of a relative, started

411
00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: buying his duck yardage from Levi strap Us in company. Yeah,

412
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:07,400
Speaker 1: duck is usually compared to like a very densely woven canvas. Almost.

413
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,440
Speaker 1: It's a It's one of those things that people still

414
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:13,760
Speaker 1: make work clothes out of. Sometimes I don't love it.

415
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,320
Speaker 1: It's a little stiff for my taste. It's very sturdy.

416
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 1: It will last you a long time. And to please

417
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 1: one of his tailoring customers who came in to order

418
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 1: work pants for her husband, who apparently wore through them

419
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 1: at a pretty good clip, Davis used rivets to reinforce

420
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,479
Speaker 1: the pockets. The story goes that the wife came in

421
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,520
Speaker 1: because she said, my husband is worn not all his

422
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 1: pants and cannot leave the house. I have to come

423
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 1: to place this order. Um. So she had to go

424
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:41,399
Speaker 1: back with a piece of string and mark like his

425
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 1: waistline and other measurements, and then bring it back to

426
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,719
Speaker 1: the shop and she was delighted. It appeared her husband

427
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 1: was delighted. Jacob later saw her husband around town wearing

428
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 1: these pants, so it seemed like everything was going great.

429
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: And he included that detail, those riveted pockets on a

430
00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 1: number of other pairs of pants because people started to

431
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: see these pants in town and asked where they came

432
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 1: from and could they also get the same ones, And

433
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: so he started making these pants with duck canvas and

434
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,120
Speaker 1: riveted pockets for more and more people. As the riveted

435
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: pants pocket became popular with his customers, Davis decided he

436
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 1: should patent them, but that was a really expensive process,

437
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: and the story goes that his wife didn't want him

438
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 1: to spend money that they didn't have trying to do it.

439
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,440
Speaker 1: So along with a payment on an invoice that he

440
00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:28,440
Speaker 1: sent to Levi Strauss in company, he also sent two

441
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 1: pairs of pants with the proposition that the company apply

442
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: for the patent in his name and in return he

443
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: would give the company half the rights to sell the pants.

444
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,400
Speaker 1: This is like the most trusting move I can possibly

445
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: imagine someone doing. I know, here's this thing I invented.

446
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 1: I would like you to help me patent. By the way,

447
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,160
Speaker 1: it's not patented yet, but here it is yet. Especially

448
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 1: having been working on this day in history class and

449
00:24:54,480 --> 00:25:00,359
Speaker 1: recently recording episodes on people like Filo Farnsworth and Nicola Tesla, like,

450
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,520
Speaker 1: there are so many stories about a big business that's like,

451
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,199
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take this patent from you for no money

452
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 1: and exploited um. In a lecture that I was watching

453
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:15,439
Speaker 1: online of Levi Strouss, biographer whose book I used for

454
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,400
Speaker 1: a lot of this, she was saying, like to her,

455
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: this really indicates how trustworthy Levi Strouss was perceived to

456
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,439
Speaker 1: be by people that I just knew his name, like,

457
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 1: he just had this reputation for being a really honest

458
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:30,360
Speaker 1: and good man, and so this person completely trusted him

459
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 1: with his invention, and there it went. And Strauss was

460
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:38,160
Speaker 1: no fool. He went for the idea really quickly. Uh

461
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: He wrote up an agreement that gave the company Levi

462
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 1: Straus and Company exclusive rights to sell the pants on

463
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,840
Speaker 1: the West Coast, and that quote rights outside of the

464
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 1: Pacific Coast and territory shall be equally divided between ourselves

465
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,719
Speaker 1: and Davis. Davis agreed to these terms and made it

466
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: very clear that this was not just about the rivets,

467
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,199
Speaker 1: it was also about the cut and can instruction. He

468
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,119
Speaker 1: offered to oversee the manufacture of the pants, either in

469
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: New York or in San Francisco, whichever Strauss preferred, and

470
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: the first patent application filed on behalf of Davis was

471
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,000
Speaker 1: rejected on the basis that the military had been using

472
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 1: rivets in the construction of shoes already and so that

473
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,639
Speaker 1: just using them on pockets was really not an innovation.

474
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: Strauss did not accept this. He hired lawyers who specialized

475
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 1: in patent law to appeal the case, but it was

476
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:32,119
Speaker 1: once again rejected. In early eighteen seventy three, Strauss and

477
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 1: Davis were preparing another go at a patent for these

478
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: riveted pants. Jacob Davis and his family moved to San Francisco.

479
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 1: In May, a revised version of their application was submitted,

480
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: this time with more detail about the distinction between the

481
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 1: riveting that they were using on clothes and the way

482
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: that rivets had been used on shoes. Just a few

483
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: weeks later, on May twenty, eighteen seventy three, the patent

484
00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: was issued. Strauss paid Davis for the value of his

485
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:03,640
Speaker 1: home and store in Reno, Nevada, and the Davis has

486
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 1: made their move to San Francisco permanent so that Jacobs

487
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 1: could oversee production of this new line of riveted trousers.

488
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: Strouss later sold this back to Davis for a dollar

489
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 1: and he flipped it. Yeah, it was a couple of

490
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 1: years later that Davis bought back his house and shopping Reno,

491
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 1: and I think it was only like three months after

492
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: that that he sold it. And at the time, they

493
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:29,640
Speaker 1: marketed these new pants as overalls, and that word did

494
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: not have the connotation of bib overalls that it would

495
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: have today. Uh, they were sometimes called waste overalls. Like

496
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: basically part of that was because you could wear them

497
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,920
Speaker 1: over other pants, um, but people wore them without pants

498
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: underneath it as well. The first batches went out in

499
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 1: June of eighteen seventy three, so that was just a

500
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 1: month after the patent was approved. At nineteen fifty per

501
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,160
Speaker 1: dozen pair, so nineteen dollars fifty cents for a dozen

502
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: of them. This was a substantial increase over previous market

503
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 1: prices for similar garments, more than a dollar more than

504
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:06,880
Speaker 1: individual purchasers were used to seeing. So for a merchant

505
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,880
Speaker 1: that was the middleman to have to pay that much

506
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: per pant was significant. They really had to explain, No,

507
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 1: these are gonna last you so long. They are way

508
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,439
Speaker 1: stronger and better than other pants. Strauss opened up a

509
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: new factory location so they can start more serious production.

510
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 1: The following month, he placed an ad for first class

511
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 1: female sewing machine operators. These operators had to bring their

512
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: own sewing machines that were suitable for heavy work. Yeah

513
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:37,880
Speaker 1: he even uh. In the advertisement they laid out which

514
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: sewing machine models would be acceptable and if you didn't

515
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: have one of those, don't apply for the job. Uh

516
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 1: Soon Levi Strauss and Company also started selling riveted duck

517
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 1: coats for hunting, and by the end of eighteen seventy

518
00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: three they had sold an estimated twenty thousand garments. The

519
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 1: pants that they were making at the beginning bore pretty

520
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 1: much all the characteristics we see on Levi's today, although

521
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 1: they have shifted in style a little. It so they

522
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: had copper rivets, they had that mustard orange thread for stitching,

523
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 1: and the curvy, shallow V stitching on the back pocket.

524
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: The year after Levi and Jacob's Riveted overalls hit the market,

525
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 1: Levi was named by the New York Times as one

526
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:18,440
Speaker 1: of San Francisco's millionaires. He had also set up the company,

527
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 1: which was basically functioning on its own as a separate

528
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 1: entity from j. Strouss brother in company. It's a co

529
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: partnership with his brothers so that they would have power

530
00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 1: of attorney and be able to make decisions about the business.

531
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: And the event that he was not able to, Yeah,

532
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: he kind of realized this has grown massive, and I

533
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 1: can't be the only one who makes decisions if something

534
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 1: goes awry. And that same year, Levi Strauss also sued

535
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: a competitor who started using rivets in the construction of

536
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 1: their pants. That other manufacturer, A. B. L. Felt In Company,

537
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 1: pulled all the product that they had made from shelves

538
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: once that suit was filed, but Strauss continued the legal

539
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: action anyway in order to deter others from infringing on

540
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: the patent. Just a couple of years later, Levi Strauss

541
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: and his brothers set up an East Coast factory under

542
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: Jacob Davis's supervision to make riveted goods. But in late

543
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six, another manufacturer, H. W. King and Company

544
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: started making riveted goods as well. Levi Strauss saw his

545
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: company's numbers drop even as they brought an infringement suit

546
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 1: against this other company. After a four year legal battle,

547
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: the case was decided in favor of Levi Strauss and Company. Yeah,

548
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 1: that's a long time for that to drag out, but

549
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 1: they were like, nope, we're going to do it eventually.

550
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: They did start as their you know, patents did not

551
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: last forever, and they started realizing that they had to

552
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: do branding so that their genes were completely recognizable from

553
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: others and people could ask for them by look. That's

554
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,239
Speaker 1: how they developed their logo. They kind of knew they

555
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,960
Speaker 1: couldn't stave off other people using rivets forever. Uh So

556
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 1: they've got very savvy about how they presented their clothes.

557
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 1: There were also two more deaths in the Strouss family

558
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four. Levi's brother in law and senior partner,

559
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: David Stern, died in January and in August. One of

560
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 1: David's sons, who was just eighteen, died for reasons that

561
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 1: have been lost to the historical record. And even as

562
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 1: there were losses, the family also continued to grow through

563
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: marriage and children, and it reached a point where fourteen

564
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: people were all living in Strauss's house, including himself, so

565
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:26,160
Speaker 1: they moved to a larger home on Leavenworth Street. In

566
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:30,200
Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies, Chinese immigrants in California were being viewed

567
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,720
Speaker 1: with increasing hostility as they competed for jobs with white

568
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: labors in the same market with fewer and fewer opportunities.

569
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy six, Strauss was named in an expose

570
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: that appeared in the Daily Morning Call. The claim was

571
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: that Strauss was employing five hundred Chinese workers. A rebuttal

572
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. The following day, saying

573
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 1: that the company employed exactly one Chinese person and that

574
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: that person was in a position the white laborers had

575
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: quote again and again tried and failed to do. That

576
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: position was cutting the dense fabrics that were used to

577
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: make these overalls. Generally, Levi Strauss and Company, like a

578
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: lot of manufacturers at the time, really stressed in their

579
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 1: advertising that their goods were made by white labor. Yeah,

580
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: this was a whole problematic thing. We're going to talk

581
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: about it a little more in a moment, but we

582
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 1: have talked before also on the show, about the racism

583
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 1: that became rampant, particularly on the West Coast of the

584
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 1: United States during this time, towards Asian immigrants. Uh. And

585
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: he continued to do business with Chinese merchants. He did

586
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,040
Speaker 1: not seem to have an aversion to them at all

587
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: or be racist towards them in terms of business partnerships.

588
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 1: But he kind of knew that if he was like, yes,

589
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 1: I hired Chinese labors, that it would tank the company

590
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 1: because people would not trust him anymore. So he was

591
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: complicit in this whole system. But that doesn't seem to

592
00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: reflect like a personal outward racism, right Uh And In

593
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty he worked on the committee that arranged the

594
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,720
Speaker 1: San Francisco visit of President Rutherford B. Hayes. This was

595
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 1: kind of funny because it was reported that Mr. And

596
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: Mrs Levi Strousse attended a dinner in the President's honor,

597
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 1: But Levi never got married, so it is unclear if

598
00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: he had taken a female relative to this event or

599
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: an acquaintance, or if the paper simply got the facts wrong.

600
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 1: In January of eighteen eighty one, the San Francisco bullet

601
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: And published the details of Levi Strouss's funeral. There's one problem,

602
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 1: he was very much alive at this point. Initially this

603
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 1: sounds like a really funny mix up, but it was

604
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 1: actually a really sad moment. Levi's brother Louis had been

605
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,960
Speaker 1: the one who had died, and the paper had to

606
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: publish a correction the next day. Three years later, the

607
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 1: Strouss's sister, Fanny, who had been very close to Levi,

608
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 1: also died, and the oldest sibling and founder of the

609
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 1: family business, Jonah Strouss, died in eighteen eighty five. Of

610
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 1: Like Levi, his siblings had also been really involved in

611
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: philanthropic work. Yeah, we're going to talk about his philanthropy

612
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,879
Speaker 1: in just a moment, but all of their obituaries talk

613
00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 1: about all of the places that they donated both money

614
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: and time, all of the causes they supported. It definitely

615
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,319
Speaker 1: was a family affair in terms of like wanting a

616
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: better community and a better future for the children that

617
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,839
Speaker 1: would come after. Another devastating loss came in eighteen nine

618
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: three when Levi's nephew, Nathan, who had been running the

619
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,719
Speaker 1: New York offices for the firm, shot himself in his

620
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: office bathroom. And while it eventually came out that he

621
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 1: had lost a good bit of money, it was never

622
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,799
Speaker 1: discovered exactly how that had happened. There were certainly lots

623
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 1: of rumors about how it might have happened, but there

624
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: is no clear evidence as to actually what had led

625
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: him to that moment. In nine hundred, Levi, Strauss and

626
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 1: Company printed its first catalog. The business seemed to have

627
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,760
Speaker 1: no limit to its potential at this point. He weathered

628
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: a labor strike that took place throughout the city that year.

629
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 1: In two he also joined with other community leaders to

630
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 1: speak out against making the provisions of the two Geary

631
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: Act permanent. The Geary Act had extended the provisions of

632
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:15,160
Speaker 1: the eighteen eighty two Chinese Exclusion Act, and we've talked

633
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 1: about the Chinese Exclusion Act on the show before. Uh

634
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 1: the telegram that was sent by Strauss and his colleagues

635
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: to Washington d C. Stated that barring legitimate Chinese merchants

636
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: was an injustice. This plea did not have the desired effect,

637
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 1: though the extension of the Geary Act came through. Yeah,

638
00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:37,239
Speaker 1: and there's discussion of just how much this was like

639
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 1: an activist moment versus you're stupid to turn away business

640
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:44,800
Speaker 1: that's going to help our country and particularly our community grow.

641
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: But he did speak out against it, even though that

642
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: did not play out the way they had hoped. In

643
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: September of nineteen o two, Levice Trouse was diagnosed after

644
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 1: feeling a little unwell for a bit with a slight

645
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: congestion of the liver, and it was believed that he

646
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: was going to recover, and he did start to feel better,

647
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:04,839
Speaker 1: and two days after a doctor had visited and given

648
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: him this diagnosis, Levi Strauss died after eating dinner with

649
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: his family and then returning to bed. He was interred

650
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,320
Speaker 1: at the family mausoleum at the Home of Peace Cemetery

651
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 1: after a funeral at his home, and his four surviving

652
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 1: nephews inherited the business and his fortune. His nieces each

653
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 1: received a significant sum to be given directly to them

654
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 1: and not to their spouses or other male relatives for management.

655
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,319
Speaker 1: That was something that one of his brothers had done

656
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: as well. And he also left money to all of

657
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:36,800
Speaker 1: the various charities that he had worked with over the years.

658
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,320
Speaker 1: So I will tell you, and if you have listened

659
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:42,160
Speaker 1: to this podcast for any period of time, you can

660
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:46,120
Speaker 1: understand why as I researched this episode, I kept waiting

661
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: for the other shoe to drop, because we have so

662
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 1: many instances of really interesting seeming people that then in

663
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: the course of actually digging into their biography we find

664
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: out some horrifying thing that they did or were a

665
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: part of. Here's the secret evil. I didn't think I

666
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 1: was signing up for with this r right, Oh, I

667
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: thought this was like, no, they're horrible. Um. And while

668
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: Levi Strouss was certainly a shrewd businessman who did look

669
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 1: after the interests of his company, he also seems to

670
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: have been a genuinely nice and pretty good human being.

671
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: Surely not faultless, but I kept expecting some horrific thing

672
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 1: to appear and it didn't. Yeah, we've got plenty of

673
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,359
Speaker 1: things that, like we said, we're problematic, like being like,

674
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 1: oh no, we only employ white people. That yeah, that

675
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 1: that's not great. But also it was not a case

676
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 1: of like, let me literally enslave people in the basement,

677
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:47,280
Speaker 1: which seems like that's more often than not the story

678
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:52,279
Speaker 1: we accidentally wind up telling. Um. In his Prosperity, Levi

679
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:56,840
Speaker 1: strouss upheld the Jewish ideology of benevolence. He donated money

680
00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 1: to worthy causes in the San Francisco community. Both the

681
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,920
Speaker 1: was run by various iterations of Jewish benevolent associations and

682
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 1: non Jewish charities as well. Yeah, he actually started donating

683
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:09,919
Speaker 1: money almost as soon as he started making money after

684
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: he moved to California. Um it seemed to have been

685
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: just something that was deeply important to him, and in

686
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:18,280
Speaker 1: the eighteen sixties he donated to the U. S. Sanitary

687
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: Commission to help clean up union camps to minimize the

688
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: rampant disease there. He advocated for and participated in a

689
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:29,319
Speaker 1: shutdown of businesses in San Francisco on election day. On

690
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,360
Speaker 1: November eight, eighteen sixty four. That was the election that

691
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 1: Lincoln won for what would have been his second term.

692
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 1: He was also one of the founders of the Concordia Society,

693
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: which began in January of eighteen sixty five, which was

694
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 1: a place where Jewish leaders and professionals could gather for

695
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: social and educational events. Strauss was the club's first vice president. Yeah,

696
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,479
Speaker 1: that was another one of those institutions that was really

697
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 1: forward facing in terms of like looking to the future.

698
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 1: They also wanted to make sure that uh young Jewish

699
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,360
Speaker 1: professionals could come in and learn from mentours and get

700
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: a support system to help them succeed. And he became

701
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:07,959
Speaker 1: increasingly involved in community government and politics over the years.

702
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 1: He seemed to think it was his responsibility as a

703
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 1: successful person. He was a vocal supporter of the Hawaiian

704
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: Reciprocity Treaty of eighteen seventy five, which removed tariffs on

705
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 1: goods traded between the Kingdom of Hawaii and the US,

706
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 1: and he also advocated for building regulations that would reduce

707
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 1: the risk of fire spreading in the increasingly tightly packed city.

708
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,360
Speaker 1: He had had some fires himself that impacted his properties

709
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 1: and so of course those efforts had benefit to other people,

710
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:38,600
Speaker 1: but they also benefited his personal business. He also drummed

711
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:43,120
Speaker 1: up donations for the Garfield Monument Fund Association, donated to orphanages,

712
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 1: and helped set up the Labor Exchange, which was a

713
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,120
Speaker 1: group that was intended to help the unemployed men of

714
00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:51,280
Speaker 1: the city make connections to find temporary and parliament work.

715
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 1: He also became heavily involved in the Society for the

716
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 1: Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which was incorporated in eighteen

717
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:00,480
Speaker 1: seventy six. He served in one leader ship role or

718
00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: another with the organization for the rest of his life.

719
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 1: That was a particularly important one to him. Uh and

720
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 1: as the eight nineties had moved on, Strauss had stayed busy,

721
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,200
Speaker 1: even though he was going through a lot of family

722
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 1: tragedy at the time. He was working with other merchants

723
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: and civic leaders to actualize infrastructure projects, including a railroad

724
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,120
Speaker 1: to compete with the Southern Pacific. He knew that a

725
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 1: city that was appealing to new residents would mean sustained

726
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 1: growth for the businesses there, so he was constantly donating

727
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,680
Speaker 1: both his personal money and on behalf of Levi Straussing

728
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 1: Company to the creation of things like parks or the

729
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 1: improvement of public spaces, and he supported efforts like the

730
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 1: Pioneer Kindergarten Society because he knew that educating children was

731
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 1: a vital part of making a future for the city.

732
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 1: He was not only interested in early childhood education, though.

733
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:50,480
Speaker 1: He also donated to the University of California, Berkeley so

734
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:53,560
Speaker 1: they could keep their library open longer hours, and he

735
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,800
Speaker 1: created a scholarship fund at that school that Levi Strouss

736
00:40:56,800 --> 00:41:00,759
Speaker 1: Scholarship continues to this day. One of strouss As employees,

737
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: named Henry Richmond, later wrote of him, quote, Mr. Strouss

738
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 1: was very quiet, affable, always immaculately dressed. Yeah, and he apparently,

739
00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 1: uh did not like to be called Mr. Strauss. He

740
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 1: wanted everybody to just call him Levi. He seems like

741
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,400
Speaker 1: a lovely, lovely gentleman. And I also wanted to include

742
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 1: as our final note a point of trivia related to

743
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 1: one of our previous episodes, because Levi Strauss was a

744
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 1: founding member of the Pacific Coast Auxiliary of the Jewish

745
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:31,120
Speaker 1: Publication Society of America, and another member of that group

746
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 1: was Ferdinand Toklis, father of Alice B. Toklis. It's one

747
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:36,840
Speaker 1: of those moments where you just see all the history

748
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 1: puzzle pieces starting to click together. Itsal connected, Yes, and

749
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: Levi Strouss is so connected in many ways like that

750
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:48,439
Speaker 1: to California history because you know he was on all

751
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:51,839
Speaker 1: sorts of like public works committees and efforts with you know,

752
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: people like Stanford and other other famed people that really

753
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 1: formed a lot of the foundation of California as we

754
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:02,680
Speaker 1: know it today. Yeah, you have some listener mail for us.

755
00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: I do this listener mail is very exciting to me personally.

756
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 1: You'll find out why in a second. Uh. It is

757
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,880
Speaker 1: from our listener, Karen, who writes, Dear Holly and Tracy,

758
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,480
Speaker 1: greetings from New York. Thank you for your wonderful podcast

759
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: and all that you do. My name is Karen, and

760
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,880
Speaker 1: I'm a Swedish expat living in the US. Your podcast

761
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,360
Speaker 1: has been a great help in immersing myself in American

762
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,799
Speaker 1: history and culture. As a thank you, I wanted to

763
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,799
Speaker 1: send you a few pieces of Swedish history, especially since

764
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: I know you have some interest in the history of fashion.

765
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:35,360
Speaker 1: These are three women's magazines from Sweden. An issue of

766
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 1: Hemmett's Journal dated September ninety five, an issue of Whose

767
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,320
Speaker 1: Modern dated nineteen fifty two, and an Allah's dated nineteen

768
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,400
Speaker 1: fifty four. Side note, Hemmet's Journal was first published in

769
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one and is still in print today. Aside

770
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 1: from fun advertisements and fashion illustrations, these are a few

771
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:52,920
Speaker 1: of my favorite tidbits, and she points out some of

772
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,439
Speaker 1: the fun stuff to look for in there. Uh. This

773
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 1: is one of those things that is so cool to me.

774
00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:01,799
Speaker 1: I can't even quite deal with it. Hey. I kind

775
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:03,799
Speaker 1: of opened this parcel and went, I have to put

776
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:05,640
Speaker 1: this away because I have work to do, and if

777
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:07,359
Speaker 1: I actually just sit with this since I've been time

778
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 1: with it, I will lose the day. Uh. So, Karen,

779
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:14,320
Speaker 1: thank you so much for this incredibly lovely and generous gift. Uh.

780
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: We also got a series of fantastic suggestions about Scandinavian

781
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:22,359
Speaker 1: history in this letter, so I will put those on

782
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,360
Speaker 1: the list. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If you

783
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:25,839
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can do so

784
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com. You

785
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 1: can find us across the spectrum of social media as

786
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 1: Missed in History and Missed in History dot Com is

787
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 1: our web page where you will find every episode that's

788
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,279
Speaker 1: ever existed in our archive and show notes for any

789
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:41,640
Speaker 1: of the ones that Tracy and I have worked on.

790
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 1: So come and hang out with us and we'll talk

791
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 1: about some history together. At missed in history dot com

792
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:53,560
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

793
00:43:53,600 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 1: it how staff works dot com