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Bill cared little for school or books, quit New York University after his third year because "I got itchy. I wanted to make a lot of money. I wanted a big car and a lot of clothes." In those years his favorite phrase was: "The masses are asses." After Bill had tried his hand at several jobs, he and his father decided to build a house on a piece of Long Island property which they hadn't been able to sell. Alfred quit New York University—after telling the dean that the place couldn't teach him anything more—and drew plans for a Tudor-style house. Says father Abe: "Alfred loved to draw, but he didn't know what a two-by-four was." Nevertheless, they sold that first house at a profit—and the Levitts were in the building business for good.
With Alfred designing and Bill handling the selling and organizing, they sold 600 houses in the next four years. Describing the team, Abe likes to say: "Bill wouldn't be a success without Alfred and Alfred wouldn't be one without Bill. Together they're terrific." But it was Bill who furnished the drive and salesmanship. In 1934, the Levitts built "Strathmore-at-Manhasset," Long Island, their first development: 200 houses, priced from $9,100 to $18,500. In the next seven years, they built about 2,000 more houses.
Norfolk Fiasco. Not till the war came did they try their hand at mass production. Near Norfolk, Va. they laid long, roadlike strips of concrete for foundations, then erected walls and roofs over them to form 1,600 squat houses that were little more than shacks. The development was a flop and about 230 of the units are now empty. More successful were 757 houses the Levitts built in Norfolk for the Navy. This success convinced them that low-priced houses could be profitably mass-produced. But the idea was temporarily shelved in 1943, when Bill Levitt joined the Seabees as a lieutenant (j.g.).
When he left the service in 1945, says he, "the dice -were loaded. We had known all along we could mass-produce houses if there was a market for them and credit for builders. Now the market was there and the Government was ready with the backing. How could we lose?"
Levitt & Sons built about 1,000 houses in 1946 while quietly picking up property for their Levittown project. Before the war, the land cost only $300 an acre; now it has soared to $3,600. "The potato farmers," says Bill Levitt, "got rich off of us."
The 26 Steps. There is no secret to mass-producing houses, says Bill Levitt. It is merely "size plus organization." But Bill and Alfred Levitt worked out a new kind of organization for housebuilders.
They broke down the building of a house into 26 operations, and hired 80 subcontractors to do the building. They kept their own staff comparatively small (400). Since the builders were doing the same job over & over again, they soon developed amazing speed. To speed things up further, the Levitts gave production bonuses and instituted a company-paid pension plan for their employees.