Mutual Antipathy

While the names of Maxey Jarman and Walter Hoving are hardly household words in the U.S., both men can lay claim to being top merchandisers. And they are now putting on a show making obvious the fact that they have just about as thorough a dislike for each other as exists anywhere in American business.

Jarman, 61, a Baptist deacon and collector of nonobjective painting, built his father's Nashville, Tenn., shoemaking firm into a $760 million-a-year shoe-and-clothing combine called Genesco Inc. As chairman, he controls some 1,500 retail outlets grouped under 50 firms, including I. Miller, Bonwit Teller, Roger Kent, Henri Bendel. Hoving, 68, stands 6 ft. 2 in. tall and looks every inch what he is: the supremely suave chairman of the grand Fifth Avenue jewelers, Tiffany & Co.

"Pretty Sleepy." It used to be that Hoving worked under Jarman for Genesco, and headed both Bonwit Teller and the then Genesco-owned Tiffany. The two men developed a strong mutual antipathy, and in 1958 Jarman pointedly noted that Hoving was four years short of Genesco's mandatory retirement age, suggested that he start thinking about grooming a successor. Hoving sat tight until 1960, when Jarman finally kicked him out of Genesco. The following year, Hoving got control of Tiffany as head of a syndicate that bought the jewelers from Jarman.

The latest outburst of the JarmanHoving feud came last week, and it concerned control of Julius Garfinckel & Co., which runs not only the District of Columbia's highest quality fashion store, but also, as a subsidiary, Manhattan's famed Brooks Brothers. For at least six years, Hoving has tried, and failed, to take over Garfinckel & Co. Jarman recently made a tender offer of $43.50 per share for 575,000 of Gar-finckel's 1,075,000 outstanding shares. At a press conference, Jarman said that Garfinckel's was a "pretty sleepy" company, which had neglected its opportunities. "We hope to add some life," he said. He admitted that Brooks Brothers was doing all right, but could stand some expansion.

"Dubious Claims." Garfinckel's management filed an antitrust suit in Federal Court in Washington, charging that a Genesco takeover would suppress or reduce competition among clothing and retail shops in New York, Washington and other cities. Garfinckel's asked for treble damages for the $500,000 it claimed it had already lost in business and property value because of Jarman's takeover efforts.

Hoving eagerly jumped to battle with his old foe. At his own expense, he wrote to fellow Garfinckel stockholders, saying that he did not think Jarman's business methods were "very commendable" and urging everyone to refute Jarman's "dubious claims" about Garfinckel's. Speaking for Jarman, who was on vacation in Nassau, Genesco President Ben H. Willingham retorted that Hoving was conducting a "personal vendetta" against Jarman.

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