Photograph of Gimbels sales woman with customers.  Eighth-floor sales at Gimbel’s department store. About a quarter of the city’s workforce was employed in the retail and wholesale trades at midcentury, and that figure held steady throughout the century.

In 1947 Labor Arts co-historian Henry Foner co-authored with Norman Franklin a musical comedy, “Thurdsays ‘Til Nine,” which was presented by the CIO’s Department Store Employees’ Union.  The play depicted a slice of life in the R.H. Maybe department store.

Image from the District 65 Collection.

See this image in the Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives exhibit.