Mr. Samuels & Mr. Slavick

San Francisco's swankest jewelry shop is Shreve's on Grant Avenue, but many a middle-class housewife prefers Samuels', "The House of Lucky Wedding Rings," on Market Street. Albert S. Samuels, a hustler who started in business two years after the 1906 Earthquake, used to give a theatre party every year for couples who had been married with his rings. The parties stopped in 1922 because he could not find a theatre large enough to hold all his guests.

Last month Jeweler Samuels published a mighty two-page advertisement in San Francisco Sunday newspapers announcing a special one-day sale of Rogers & Bros, silver plate at $25 for a 50-piece set. The firm had once sold $10,000 worth of silverware in one pattern in a single day, said the advertisement, and had been quietly waiting for the proper time to break the record of $12,000 in one day held by another city. "Imagine our dismay then," continued "The House of Lucky Wedding Rings," "when the news reached us shortly thereafter, that on August 28, 1933, the Slavick Jewelry Co. of Los Angeles, had held a one-day sale which so far surpassed all previous records as to make them look like the efforts of amateurs. The Slavick concern set a mark that astonished the entire silverware industry. They sold $44,000 worth of silver in one day, all of one brand, one pattern. . . .

"So of course we, at the Samuels concern, were discouraged and considerably abashed. We had hoped to overtake the record and here suddenly the record was put far beyond reach. We couldn't see a glimmer of hope of any event that would enable us to challenge it. So we gave up the idea and tried to reconcile ourselves to see it held elsewhere. But it griped us. And to have that record held in Los Angeles of all cities! . . .

"And then came the great news: That the Government was buying silver and prices were climbing.

"Once again we recognized a chance to hold an event that might bring home the coveted record. Our order for silver for our Fall sale had already been placed. . . . Could we get any more? Could we get five times as much before prices were withdrawn? We wired our orders. And they were accepted.

"So tomorrow we attack this world's record of $44,000. We hope to sell $50,000. . . . It's really absurd to expect we can accomplish this task. It means selling 250 sets an hour for eight hours--four sets every minute--one set every 14 seconds. But, in spite of its absurdity, we're going to try. For that record is held in Los Angeles and what Los Angeles can do San Francisco can do better. At least that's the way our college boys and our football teams figure. They've done it and so can we.

"We expect at least five hundred mail orders--we had as many as 160 once before. We expect several hundred people to phone us their orders. We shall have six girls on the telephones ... a score of extra salesmen in our San Francisco store." The day of the great Samuels silver sale dawned cold and grey. Soon it began to rain. It rained all day. Enough patriotic San Franciscans went to Samuels' in slickers and galoshes to keep the extra crew of clerks busy. But as a record-breaking sale it was a wet, soggy flop.

Few days later honest Jeweler Samuels published a modest announcement headed SAD NEWS! "We failed in our attempt to break the world's record in a one-day sale of silverware. So many of our customers have asked how we came out that we feel that this report should be given. The mark we were aiming at was the $44,000 sale of the Slavick Jewelry Co. of Los Angeles. . . . Our sale fell short by many thousand dollars, total sales here being $25,413,11.

"At that it was more than three times as much as our former San Francisco record and a very gratifying day's business. Inclement weather likely had its effect and many of our expected mail-order customers were discouraged from sending in their orders by the late arrival of their Sunday papers. . . . Our congratulations to Mr. Slavick in his retention of the record. Like the good sport he is, he wrote: 'I was with you in spirit yesterday and hope your sale reached your expectations.' "

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