If you've ever encountered one or
more of those old Newark scenic postcards, it may interest you to know that they
more than likely first passed through the hands of a Newark father or his two
sons during more than half century they were in the scenic postcard business,
selling picture postcards of Newark.
The Founding Father
The father of the scenic postcard family was Isaac Braunstein, born May 30, 1877
in Russia and was brought to America by his parents who settled in New York
City.
Isaac had established himself as a
seller of scenic post cards in the early 1900s by selling them, along with
candies and gums, on excursion boats out of New York City.
In 1904, on one such boat--the
steamship General Slocum--Isaac was a survivor of the worst disaster in the
history of New York City up until the Twin Towers 9/11 happening.
While sailing out of lower
Manhattan up the East River, the boat caught fire and 1,021 lives were lost,
mostly women and children on a church outing.
Isaac, an expert swimmer, saved
himself by jumping into the East River at 90th Street and swimming to safety.
He was engaged in the sale of
scenic postcards throughout his adult years and after having been widowed
earlier, remarried in Newark in 1920 to a widow, Hattie Newman. He was 43
and she was 34. They took up residence in Newark's old Third Ward.
Isaac's business consisted of
selling scenic postcards, which he carried in two heavy suitcases, Daily he
called on retail stores, mainly candy stores, in various Newark neighborhoods.
His mode of transportation was on
foot or by bus or trolley. He never learned to drive a car.
Source of Scenic Cards
Isaac's inventory consisted of
interesting Newark and New Jersey scenes that would have sales potential in the
greater Newark area.
His merchandise originated at the
Manhattan Post Card Company which published scenic postcards of many different
cities in New York and New Jersey.
The scenic post cards came 1,000
to a box of a design, banded into 100s. Isaac would buy 10 to 20 different
scenic views, carry them home from New York City by train and bus, and at home
sort them into lots of 100, which he would sell to the retailer for 60 cents.
The retail store-keeper would in
turn resell the cards, usually for a penny each.
Isaac operated his business out of
his living premises, a railroad flat on Stratford Place, a two-block-long
extension of Prince Street that ran from Waverly Avenue to Clinton Avenue.
When the room was needed for
living space, Isaac rented storage space in the back of Pearl's Candy Store on
Waverly Avenue, across from Charlton Street School.
He would carry 5-6,000 cards in
his two grips, along with some greeting cards. If he took in $15 to $20 on
any particular day, he would consider it a good day's business.
Steady Depression Years Income
Isaac managed to feed and support
his family during the Depression 1930s, and he began adding greeting cards to
his line because in that era very few candy stores carried them and they offered
a 100 percent profit to the storekeeper.
Dual Use of Scenic Card
The scenic Newark picture
postcards in that era served a dual purpose in the money-tight Depression years.
One could pick up a penny card in a neighborhood candy store, write a brief
message to a distant friend or relative in the message area, and mail it for
another penny. The Newark scene on the back of the card then served as an
enhancement adorning the brief message on the back.
By the end of the 1930s, Isaac
found that as the economy began to improve more and more of his sales were
coming from the greeting cards, although they required two cents postage instead
of the one cent still required for the Newark scenic cards.
As the 1940s began, leading up to
the outset of World War II, both sons, Henry and Murray, had attended Charlton
Street School while living on Stratford Place and, later, Bergen Street School
when the family moved to Clinton hill. Both attended South Side High
School
Changes in Card Business After the War
When Isaac's two sons, Henry and
Murray, were separated from military service1
after World War II, Isaac brought them into his business as partners. But
try as they might, the sons could not adapt to their father's old fashioned ways
of doing business, and they quickly learned that he was too set in his ways to
change.
So, in 1947, after a brief period,
the sons made an amicable separation, and started their own wholesale greeting
card and postcard business.
Sons Modernize Scenic Card Operations
The sons realized that no new
Newark scenic cards had been produced for many years, and that the business
would have to be updated in order to survive in the post World War II era.
They also sensed that their
father's business had moved increasingly into greeting cards, and out of the
outdated Newark scenics2, and by updating the Newark Scenic cards they would not
only be able to continue their father's business, but also move into their
father's faster-growing greeting card business, which they did.
They contacted a scenic card
manufacturer -- one of only two in the business -- and contracted with them to
produce twenty newer scenes of Newark.3
They agreed to purchase a minimum
of 7,500 cards of each design or at least 150,000 cards and made a sizeable
investment. They also selected the scenes they wished to have printed and
they engaged a professional photographer at their own expense to take the
pictures for the new scenes.
Changed Methods of Operation
They also changed from their
father's long-established method of sales operation. Where Isaac had been
selling his Newark scenic cards in lots of 100 assorted, the sons switched their
new Newark scenes to lots of 1,000 cards.
Each lot of 1,000 cards contained
20 different Newark scenes, banded 50-each-scene, and sold them in lots for $20
a lot.
Retailers sold the newer Newark scenic
cards for five cents each and, theoretically, earned $30 for each 1,000 sold.
The new Newark edition quickly
caught on and sold so well that the brothers later added an edition of Jersey
City scenic post cards as well, and continued to sell both lines as long as they
remained in business.
Competition form Sons Doesn't Deter Isaac
When the brothers started their
scenic card operation, many of Isaac's small storekeeper customers remained
loyal to him. However, others, especially larger operations, switched to
the sons for the newer Newark scenes, and for the cards' greater freshness and
profitability.
Isaac was not deterred by his
sons' business success, or the loss of some of his larger customers, still
traveling by buses, until the day before he passed away in 1961.
Isaac's Final Day and His Death
On a Tuesday, September 6, in
1961, Isaac came home from a day of making calls and complained of chest pains.
He was taken to the Beth Israel Hospital by his son Henry and died there the
next day. He was 84 years and three months old when he died.
Son Henry recalling the
circumstances and time of his death to me said, "My father was the old fashioned
type and never went to see a doctor."
Sons Business in Next 26 Years
Henry and Murray operated their
new business, which they named the Deluxe Greeting Card Company, out of a small
vacant store on Avon Avenue in the Third Ward.
As the business moved more toward
greeting cards and away from Newark scenic postcards, they moved their operation
to larger and more accessible quarters at 55 William Street in Downtown Newark,
corner of Washington Street.
The business had grown
substantially from their start in 1947 and they had expanded heavily into
greeting cards and related lines. They had also started a mail order
business, supplying boxed greeting card assortments4
to various organizations around the country, who sold them for fund-raising
purposes.
Brothers Sell Business: End of an Era
In 1973, after 26 years, the
brothers accepted an offer too good to refuse and sold their business and turned
to other occupational pursuits before their subsequent retirement, Henry in San
Diego, California, and Murray in Union, New Jersey.
For the Braunstein family, the
scenic postcard era started by Isaac more than half a century earlier,
had come to an end.
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