SPECIAL POST: Garay Handbags – With input from the daughter of the company's founder and the wife of the man who ran the belt department for many years.
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| Garay wooden box bag with painted town scene. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
Arnold Garay (pronounced GAH-ray) was born in Hungary in 1904. He had five siblings. According to the 1920 Census, sixteen-year-old Arnold was living with his father Gerson Garay, a language instructor, his mother Tillie Garay and two of Arnold’s siblings and a brother-in-law at E. 208th St. in the Bronx, New York.
On July 2, 1932, Arnold married Mary Behringer (b. Germany, 1907). Their only child, Tamara (Tami) Garay, was born in 1939 in New York. The 1940 Census lists Arnold’s profession as a manufacturer of ladies’ bags.
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| An early Garay clutch bag, created from corde', a type of embroidery made on a special machine. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
Arnold Garay held numerous patents for braided and knitted fabrics, and enjoyed giving American consumers great deals on his versions of the latest, most expensive European fashion trends. For five decades, the Garay company produced lines of bags made of “Copy Calf” (a faux leather), “Garacloth” (a wool felt), corde, plastic, straw and other materials. By 1953, his handbags were in 6,000 stores.
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| From the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office list of design patentees. Volume 5, December 1945, screenshot from Google Books. |
Based on The Vintage Purse Museum’s previous research, Arnold Garay formed a partnership with Morris Moskowitz (see our article about MM here) in 1937. The company, Garay & Co., Inc., manufactured handbags, eventually expanding to include a belt division. In 1948, the pair dissolved their business relationship and Moskowitz went on to become a prolific handbag manufacturer with his eponymous brand.
While we’ve often read that couture handbag maker Judith Leiber (1921-2018), got her start with Morris Moskowitz, we found a 2016 Harper’s Bazaar article that said her first job in the US was with the Garay company, when Moskowitz was a partner.
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| Life Magazine 1948 Garay belt ad with order form. Original ad from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
The Vintage Purse Museum was delighted to speak with Evelyn Bomser, whose husband, Philip Bomser (1916-2007) ran the belt department at Garay from the 1940s until his retirement in 1980. Prior to working for Garay, Philip had gone to school to become an accountant, but went to work for a (different) belt manufacturer. When he asked for a raise and they denied him, he was quickly snapped up by Arnold Garay to work in Garay’s belt division, with it eventually becoming the largest belt maker in the United States. Mrs. Bomser told us that people would often compliment her on the Garay belt she was wearing and she would take it off and present it to them, knowing she’d always have another Garay belt of the latest style.
Mrs. Bomser remembers Arnold and Mary Garay, and Arnold’s then-partner Aaron Jarvis (birth name Jarfits, 1899-1976), and his wife Jean (maiden name Kaplan, 1903-1990) as being lovely people. She says of the Garays that they were very down to earth and “the nicest people you ever want to meet.”
Tami Garay (married name withheld for privacy) also remembers her parents with deep fondness. Like many handbag companies of the era, Garay employed relatives. Tami's cousins Irving and Danny Silverman (now deceased) were part of the company when her father ran it. She also remembers visits with Morris Moskowitz and his daughter, as well as the children of Mr. Ginsberg who was part of the Sol Mutterperl handbag company. Tami recalls that there was a viaduct building on W. 14th St. in Long Island City that once had a sign that said “Home of Garay.” They also had offices at 33 E. 33rd St. in New York City, 36 S. State St. in Chicago, 607 S. Hill St. in Los Angeles and 115 Chauncy St. in Boston (opened by Dan Silverman, per The Bag Lady's website). An advertisement in the September 1957 edition of trade publication Handbags & Accessories (in the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum) indicates that they also had a Dallas location. UPDATE: 04/26/21. In a subsequent phone call with Tami, she tells us that Garay employed a designer named Sam Smith and a salesman named Alan Feldman. There was also a switchboard operator named Nell Cook, whose daughter Barbara Cook (1927-2017) was a famous theatre, cabaret and concert singer.
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| Patent leather Garay bag, with heraldic motif. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
When she was a young woman, her father told her he’d give her a job, but she had to start at the bottom. At first, she worked in the Long Island City factory, but Arnold Garay eventually gave his daughter a job assisting the salesmen. She was assigned the task of returning the bags to their shelves after the salesmen were finished displaying them in the showroom. She enjoyed working with her father and was also close to her mother, who made the Garay company’s first belt. Mary, said Tami, was the talented seamstress behind Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous 1933 “Eleanor Blue” inaugural gown, designed by Sally Milgrim. (See article below.)
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| Photos top and bottom - Garay plastic-covered handbags. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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Mary died of cancer in 1965 at just 58 years old. Arnold passed away three months later at age 61, “of a broken heart,” Tami told us. Devastated by their deaths, Tami honored their memory by creating a foundation that helped fund the cancer wing of a hospital. (See article below.)
Aaron Jarvis kept the Garay brand going after the death of his partner. Tami Garay and Evelyn Bomser told us that the company was eventually purchased by entrepreneur Meshulam Riklis. Mr. Riklis, who died in 2019 at age 95, was perhaps best known as the husband of singer/actress Pia Zadora. A savvy businessman, he owned or held interest in numerous companies, including Elizabeth Arden, Samsonite, Culligan International and other well-known brands. We found the 1987 obituary of his father, Pinhas Riklis, and it said that “he headed a firm called Garay, Inc. for a number of years until his retirement.” We were unable to find out anything about the Riklises’ association with the company, as efforts to reach out to the family were unsuccessful.
UPDATE: 04/26/21. We had a second phone conversation with Evelyn Bomser and she confirmed that Meshulam Riklis purchased the Garay company in the 1970s. His father, Pinhas, was installed as president and Meshulam was rarely present as he ran many companies. Mrs. Bomser said that her husband Philip only met Meshulam Riklis once and that he was impressed by him and the questions that he asked of Philip. She told us he was treated very well as an employee during the years it was owned by Riklis. She also reiterated that her best memories of the company were when Arnold Garay was alive and that his and Mary's losses were truly devastating.
The latest Garay belt and handbag newspaper advertisements found by The Vintage Purse Museum were from the early 1980s. Also discovered online was a 1967 trademark filing for Garay handbags and belts, which expired in 1992. Interestingly, the trademark document says the business name’s first use was in 1946, which was about a decade after Arnold Garay started the company. This error could be because Mr. Garay had passed two years prior to the trademark application and the person who filled out the form didn't know of Garay's longevity. As for its closure, a 1982 National Labor Relations Board online document shows that Garay & Co., Inc. began having serious financial and labor issues in 1979. It appears to have closed its doors by 1981.
Garay handbags and belts are much sought-after wearables and collectibles today. Scroll down to see Garay bags, ads and articles and check out our photo archives for more.
Information culled from paid subscriptions to Newspapers.com, MyHeritage.com, and other online resources including Bag Lady University, as well as Tami Garay and Evelyn Bomser, to whom we are very grateful. Special thanks to the friends and relatives of the Garay and Bomser families who facilitated our communication with Ms. Garay and Mrs. Bomser.
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| Whimsical 1950s Garay totes. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
24 Sep 1954, Fri The Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Corpus Christi, Texas) Newspapers.com
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| Photo of Arnold Garay screenshot from The Bag Lady's website. |
05 Apr 1953, Sun The Times (Shreveport, Louisiana) Newspapers.com
20 Dec 1953, Sun Palladium-Item (Richmond, Indiana) Newspapers.com |
| Brown pleated faille clutch by Garay with compact and perfume bottle inside. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
25 Aug 1963, Sun The Missoulian (Missoula, Montana) Newspapers.com |
| Leopard print Garay handbag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
14 Apr 1958, Mon The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) Newspapers.com
19 Apr 1960, Tue The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com
02 May 1965, Sun Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Newspapers.com
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| Fundraising organization established by Arnold and Mary Garay's daughter after her parents' deaths. Tami Garay pictured at far right. |
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| Straw and raffia Garay tote. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Article about honoring Mr. Aaron Jarvis (partner of Arnold Garay) and Mrs. Jean Jarvis for their charitable work. The Norwalk (CT) Hour, August 11, 1958 |
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| 1933 article about Eleanor Roosevelt's inaugural dress, which was designed by Sally Milgrim and sewn by Mary Garay. |
10 Feb 1933, Fri The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) Newspapers.com
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