By Garland Pollard
So we are watching American Life, in its redux of the Saturday night early 1970s CBS lineup (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart) and we look at the credits at the end. MTM Productions gives thanks to clothing by House of Worsted-Tex and Norman Todd. Today, lets look at House of Worsted-Tex, the men’s clothing brand. We will have to save Norman Todd for another day.
A bit of timeline: 
Early years: Have cinch on the Ivy League market. See at at right from www.cyberattic.com. Totally un-Ted Baxter.
1950: Botany Mills, Inc., and H. Daroff Sons, Inc., manufacturers of Botany Brand 500 clothing, announced jointly the purchase by the Daroff organization of the trade names of the Baltimore manufacturer of Cohen, Goldman Co., Inc., which included the Gort-McLeed brand and The House of Worsted-Tex.
1952: Trademark for Worsted-Tex registered February 26, 1952 by House of Worsted-Tex, Inc. Corp. of Pennsylvania, at Aisquith and Curtain Streets, Baltimore.
1960: H. Daroff Sons, Inc. and the House of Worsted-Tex, Inc were purchased by of Botany Industries, Inc.
1962: Manfred Goldman, a retired clothing maker, was found dead in a hotel room in Tokyo. The AP reported it was “under circumstances that led Tokyo policemen to believe that he had been killed by a robber.
1968: Wool jackets posed with American Motors AMX sportscars in Signature magazine.
1975: Blacklisted by the Arab League
1992: Trademark expires at hand of McGregor Corp., 135 West 50th St., NY
Today, the sister brand Botany is around, and its “Best Part of Becoming a Man”, seen at right, is reviving the position of the company.
2 responses so far ↓
1 dig sandy // May 20, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Botany “500″, and supposedly Worsted-Tex, was owned for years by Meshulam Riklis’s Rapid-American Corp. conglomerate, which also owned McGregor, McCrory stores, and Faberge among many others. Not sure if Mr. Riklis’s heritage (he was Turkish) had anything to do with the brand being banned by the Arab League–seems they’d want to support him!
2 Patti Silverman // Jan 2, 2011 at 1:25 pm
My husband recvd a lightweight outer jacket (nylon) from
Hyster Outsource awhile ago that he totally!!!!! loves.. The brand
on the label is Norman Todd. He desperately wants to get another
one to replace his current. Please help. Where can we go to find
this manufacturer? It is nylon (he doesn’t want polyester).. we
have looked everywhere.. Thanks
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