Burdine's by Seth H. Bramson

Author:Seth H. Bramson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

It was the height of the Depression, yet this 1935–36 winter season view shows two FEC passenger trains ready to depart from the downtown Miami depot behind two of the railway’s 800-series steam locomotives. The Mark Store, formerly Cromer-Cassel and later Richards, is visible center left. Burdine’s, to the east of the Dade County Courthouse (the tall building center right behind the trains) is not quite visible in this view.

Even with the new escalators, the elevators were upgraded, and beautiful young women in white gloves operated them. The store joined the Associated Merchandising Corporation in February 1938, allowing it to take advantage of a major department story purchasing and research organization, which at the time was presided over by Lincoln Filene of the famed Boston store group. AMC was made up of twenty-six high-level department stores, and with that affiliation, Burdine’s was able to take advantage of expanded buying and fashion exchange and information opportunities.

With the completion of the renovations and rebuilding, Burdine’s let the world know what it was truly about, and a 1939 national advertisement, which appeared in either Collier’s magazine, the Saturday Evening Post or, possibly, Life magazine really ballyhooed the new store and its new look. Above a beautiful artist’s rendering of the new store were the words, “New Home for Burdine’s World Famous Sunshine Fashions,” while below the rendering was a descriptive of the new Flagler Street store: “Ready now is a great, new Burdine store. Thrillingly, dramatically beautiful, it is an appropriate setting for the most exciting collection of Sunshine Fashions we have ever assembled. More so than ever these new Sunshine Fashions will preview nation-wide trends for next Summer in smart resort-wear and accessories. More so than ever you will find it fashion-wise to BRING YOUR TRUNKS—EMPTY!” At the bottom of the advertisement, on either side of the words, “Our Forty-First Year of Resort Fashion Leadership,” are the year the store was founded, “1898,” on the left and the year in which the ad was placed, “1939,” on the right.

The firm was, absolutely and unquestionably, intent on being recognized nationally as the premier sport, swim- and resort wear emporium in America, if not on the face of the earth. All of the store’s employees, all of the store’s advertising and all of the store’s marketing and promotional efforts tied in with and were completely supportive of that theme.

Burdine’s, with an aura of exclusivity, glamour, quality and refinement, began to attract national attention as shoppers and visitors ranging from American congressmen and senators to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were made to feel welcome and at home at “the Florida store.” Of course, the visit by the former king of England always drew a crowd, and Mr. Whitten, with the cooperation of his department managers, made sure that he was undisturbed while shopping; to make things easier for the duke, who was serving as governor of the then British-owned Bahamas, truckloads of clothing and other items of interest were taken to the royal yacht, docked at the Port of Miami, right on Biscayne Boulevard.

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