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| Purple suede bag and matching coin purse by Marman, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
Special post: Marman Bag Co. and Its Mysterious End
When The Vintage Purse Museum acquired a Marman handbag, we were intrigued because we’d never heard of this company. We found several things that were curious about this particular bag. 1. Its coin purse was labeled, but the handbag wasn’t. (Not that this means it didn’t originally have a label.) 2. The vibrant purple color was unusual, although we knew it was a trend for bags and accessories in the early 1940s. 3. Why could we find no other bags online with the Marman label and very few advertisements for this brand in the newspaper archives?
Here’s what we learned.
Marman Bag Co. was a division of the General Shoe Co., based in Nashville, Tennessee. General Shoe Co. started out in 1924 as Jarman Shoe Co., founded by James Franklin Jarman, J.H. Lawson and William Wemyss, all originally shoe salesmen for Nashville-based Carter Shoe Co.
Jarman Shoe Co. became General Shoe Co. in 1931, then in 1959 it became Genesco, which still operates today. (Retail stores bearing the name Jarman Shoes were in business until 2004.)
In 1948, General Shoe Co. was helmed by J. F. Jarman’s son, W. Maxey Jarman (1904-1980.) The handbag division, Marman, was probably named for Maxey. However, we found evidence that Jarman/General Shoe sold handbags under different brand names prior to 1948.
These 1940s bags were color-coordinated to complement General Shoe’s “Fortunet” line of shoes. It appears that they began making the Marman bags shortly after Maxey began helming the company.
In 1950, there was a labor dispute at Marman Bag Co., but a vote was taken and the majority of employees decided against joining an established union. Unionization was a common and complex issue for handbag companies in the mid-century. Through our previous research, we learned that some makers did attempt to give their employees fair compensation and work hours to circumvent unionization, but ultimately most workers unionized.
In February 1952, a small newspaper clipping stated that Marman Bag Co. was commissioned by the US Navy to make 7,512 women’s black handbags. In March 1952, Marman and its parent company received safety awards. In July 1952, it was announced that Lee Shanbron and Gordon Publow would purchase Marman Bag Co.
Per our research on a genealogy website, we learned that Leo “Lee” Shanbron (b. 1904, Connecticut-d. ?) married Ada Lipsky Shanbron (b. 1905-d. 1979) in 1924 and they had a son, Norman (b. 1925-d. 2011). Initially we thought that Mr. Publow and Mr. Shanbron may have named Marman after Mr. Publow's wife, Margaret, and Mr. Shanbron's son, Norman, but the date of their acquisition of Marman Bag Co. ruled this out. We can't be completely sure that the company was named for Maxey Jarman, but it seems more than likely.
We found newspaper advertisements for Friedman-Shanbron handbags dated 1939-1946. We don’t know if this Shanbron was the Lee Shanbron who came to own Marman.
Ada Shanbron was a captain in the American Women's Voluntary Services (AWVS) during WWII. According to the 1940 US Census, Lee Shanbron was a handbag manufacturer. Sometime prior to 1953, he was president of Wilshire Bag Co. in Brooklyn, NY. The same Nashville, Tennessee address directory that gives this information says the couple were renting a home Nashville, which jibes with the purchase of Marman Bag Co.
Lee Shanbron’s business partner, Gordon Powell Publow (b. 1917 Michigan-d. 1983) was married to Margaret Morgan Publow (b. 1920-d. 1985) and they had three children.
Genealogy records indicate he was employed by Toledo Wire & Iron in 1941. In 1950, Gordon Publow was general manager of Dominion Leathercrafters. We learned through a small classified ad in a Texas newspaper that Dominion Leathercrafters was a division of General Shoe Co. This led us to finding an advertisement for a Dominion Leathercrafters handbag.
In 1953, Gordon Publow was president of Wilshire Bag Co.—Lee Shanbron’s company—at its Nashville location. The Vintage Purse Museum believes that Wilshire Bag Co. was the parent or partner company of Marman Bag Co. as their time frames overlap. It’s likely that Mr. Shanbron connected with Mr. Publow through a common resource—either an individual, a supplier or perhaps at a leather goods or handbag industry conference—while Mr. Publow was working at General Shoe Co./Dominion Leathercrafters in Nashville and Mr. Shanbron was at Wilshire Bag Co. in New York. This is yet another example of how intertwined the handbag industry was and still is.
After the pair took over Marman Bag Co., it continued to have labor disputes until the mostly-women workers were assisted by the Stove Mounters International Union of North America, AFL, which, in 1952, helped the handbag employees in their efforts to unionize. We found a 1953 legal document that alleged some strong-arming by (male) anti-union employees, but a hearing found that the company’s owners were not responsible for this. In March 1953, there was an announcement that the employees of Marman were being assisted by the Stove Mounters; however, we could find no additional articles nor advertisements for Marman Bag Co. after 1953.
The address given for Marman Bag Co. in the early 1950s was 413 S. Second St., Nashville. We couldn’t figure out when Marman closed its doors or who took over the building afterward; however, we don’t think it lasted much longer after its labor issues. This would partially explain the dearth of Marman-labeled bags available today. Today, the address 413 S. Second St. in Nashville, Tennessee doesn’t exist and appears to be a parking lot near Nissan Stadium.
By 1960, Gordon Publow was working as superintendent of Aladdin Industries in Nashville. Per the information we learned from newspaper archives and a genealogy website, Mr. Publow was an executive in a number of industries, while Mr. Shanbron was involved in the handbag business from an early age.
The Vintage Purse Museum's beautiful purple suede Marman handbag is more than likely from 1951-1952, based on its style and color. While purple was a trending color in the 1940s, upon further research we learned that, much like every fashion cycle, it came back again in the early 1950s. We found advertisements for purple suede handbags, gloves and shoes.
We reached out to relatives of Mr. Shanbron and Mr. Publow, as well as to Genesco and a historical resource in Tennessee to try to learn more, but have not heard back. We will update this post if we do. If you have information, please email info@vintagepursemuseum.com.
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