FOOD: The Stouffer Boys

  • Share
  • Read Later

(2 of 2)

Since Father Stouffer died, the boys and their mother have held 85% of the stock. Bankers have repeatedly urged the boys to sell part of their share holdings to the public. Real-estate men advised against their opening on Fifth Avenue, on Manhattan's Pershing Square (where four restaurants, all of whose names began with S, had previously failed). Stouffer restaurants at both places are a success. In Cleveland, Vernon and Gordon's intrepidity won them a name for gangbusting. When shakedown artists Campbell and McGee terrorized Cleveland businessmen (TIME, March 21, 1938), Safety Director Eliot Ness begged for cooperation. Of all the merchants in Cleveland, only the Stouffer boys came forward. Their testimony helped send Campbell & McGee to jail.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. Next Page