Battle of the Bulge

Elsie Frankfurt, who had studied designing at Southern Methodist University, was distressed by the unesthetic appearance of her married sister Edna. She was pregnant. Said Elsie: "You look simply horrible. We've go to do something."

Setting her designer's mind to work, Elsie soon had a dress that made Edna look both slender and stylish. A clamor for copies convinced Elsie and Edna that they should go into business. They pooled $500, hired three seamstresses and rented a small shop in a strategic location--the Medical Arts Building, where most Dallas obstetricians have offices. Thus, ten years ago, began a business that has grown until it is now a U.S. merchandising sensation: Page Boy maternity clothes.

Now there are 100 employees and four Page Boy-owned stores (in Dallas, Los Angeles, Indianapolis and San Francisco), plus 250 other retail outlets. Last year the Page Boy grossed $1,026,584, on which the sister-partners netted better than 10%. This week, with profits still bulging, the Frankfurt sisters are starting work on a new Dallas building which will enable them to boost production 50%.

The business is run with gay informality. Elsie, still single, is "administrative director" ("It took me an hour," she says, "to think up that title"). She does a little of everything, including shopping over long-distance telephone. Sample: "Jack, this is Elsie. Elsie--who else calls you from Dallas? Get me some colors, I've got to have colors. Need gabardine, about 10,000 yards. Haven't a yard of brown left. Okay? Now don't forget."

Edna, the cause of it all, is "in charge of production and merchandising." A third sister, Louise ("Tootsie"), who joined the team after finishing college, in 1941, now does all the designing. Last week the sisters had a new number they thought exciting: a Page Boy convertible. A few simple alterations transform it into a stylish post-maternity dress. Tootsie, recently married and pregnant, made the perfect model for it.

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