Industry | Manufacturing |
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Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Universal Statuary Corp. was an American, Chicago-based, statue manufacturer. [1] Jack and Leo Lucchesi were brothers that founded the Universal Statuary Corp in the 1930s. Jack ran the business, Leo ran production. The company produced piggy banks, plaques and (by the late 1930s) large store displays, including Indian statues for western themed restaurants. In the 1950s, they produced chalkware lamps, usually featuring paired male and female figures, and other home decor that is widely collected today.
The company employed many immigrant artisans to design the chalkware and plaster figures and produce the statues, lamps, home decor pieces and display advertising figures. Jack's wife was from Guatemala. Universal made a concerted effort to bring Italian and Guatemalan immigrants to America and help them out. Universal was also famous for the contract work performed for Sears, Wards and many big advertising firms for their unique 'Point Of Sale' displays and promotions. [2]
Universal began in a multi-story Chicago Ave. where they made mostly plaster/chalkware products. In the 1950s they moved to a new second single story building located on Ogden Ave., where they began working with experimental composites. There they transitioned from chalkware to resins and came up with a material "FiberClad InFrangible", and guaranteed it would not break or chip. [2] The company employed plastic in the 1970s. [3]
The Lucchesi family sold the company in the early 1980s. [4] James L. Dorman owned the company in the late 1980s and it was headquartered in Milwaukee. The company employed about 130 people in Chicago in the late 1980s. [5]
Collectors provide a market for resale of the statues, but they are not generally valued highly in monetary terms. [6] In 1996, the company was owned by B. Paul Brueggemeier and was having to leave its factory at 850 North Ogden to make way for a town house development. [7]
The company also made lawn ornaments from resin and bookends. Statuettes featured whimsical figures of animals or children and were sold at Sears and other outlet stores. [8]
A mannequin is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. Previously, the English term referred to human models and muses ; the meaning as a dummy dating from the start of World War II.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as well as bronze elements to be fitted to other objects such as furniture. It is often gilded to give gilt-bronze or ormolu.
Zenith Electronics, LLC, is an American research and development company that develops ATSC and digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics. Zenith was previously an American brand of consumer electronics, a manufacturer of radio and television receivers and other consumer electronics, and was headquartered in Glenview, Illinois. After a series of layoffs, the consolidated headquarters moved to Lincolnshire, Illinois. For many years, their famous slogan was "The quality goes in before the name goes on". LG Electronics acquired a controlling share of Zenith in 1995; Zenith became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1999. Zenith was the inventor of subscription television and the modern remote control, and was the first to develop high-definition television (HDTV) in North America.
Lands' End is an American clothing and home decor retailer founded in 1963 and based in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, that specializes in casual clothing, luggage, and home furnishings. The majority of the company's business is conducted through mail order and Internet sales, but the company also has 28 retail stores, primarily in the Upper Midwest and Hawaii. From 2002 to 2014, Lands' End was a subsidiary of Sears Holdings.
A die-cast toy is a toy or a collectible model produced by using the die-casting method of putting molten lead, zinc alloy or plastic in a mold to produce a particular shape. Such toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber, glass, or other machined metal parts. Wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection molding, but the two methods are distinct because of the properties of the materials.
Jonathan Ogden Armour was an American meatpacking magnate and only surviving son of Civil War–era industrialist Philip Danforth Armour. He became owner and president of Armour & Company upon the death of his father in 1901. During his tenure as president, Armour and Co. expanded nationwide and overseas, growing from a mid-sized regional meatpacker to the largest food products company in the United States.
Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1867, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most important business and had helped make Chicago and its Union Stock Yards the center of America's meatpacking industry. During the same period, its facility in Omaha, Nebraska, boomed, making the city's meatpacking industry the largest in the nation by 1959. In connection with its meatpacking operations, the company also ventured into pharmaceuticals and soap manufacturing, introducing Dial soap in 1948.
Chalkware is an American term for popular figurines either made of moulded plaster of Paris (usually) or sculpted gypsum, and painted, typically with oils or watercolors. They were primarily created during one of three periods: from the late 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, during the Great Depression, and during the 'mid-century modern' era as decorative lamps, figurines and wall decor from the 1940s-1960s. Those created during the earlier period were intended as a more serious decorative art, often imitating the more expensive imported English Staffordshire potteries figurines such as Staffordshire dog figurines; those during the second period, by contrast, were more typically somewhat jocular. Early chalkware was often hollow and is difficult to find unblemished.
The Great Indoors was a chain of home decor stores in the United States, founded by Sears in 1997.
A garden ornament or lawn ornament is a non-plant item used for garden, landscape, and park enhancement and decoration.
Richard W. Bock was a German-born American sculptor known for his collaborations with the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He was particularly known for his sculptural decorations for architecture and military memorials, along with the work he conducted alongside Wright.
The Snark is a line of lightweight sailboats, the most popular of which is the two-person, lateen-rigged sailboat Super Snark manufactured and marketed by Meyers Boat Company of Adrian, Michigan. The Snark was initially marketed by Snark Products, Inc. of Fort Lee, New Jersey and has been marketed with numerous slight variations, most prominently as the Sea Snark, Super Snark and Super Sea Snark. Other Snark models include the Sunchaser, and the Sea Skimmer. Among discontinued Snark models are the Triumph trimaran, the Mach I, the Sundancer and the Sea Swinger.
Firstar Corporation was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based regional bank holding company that existed from 1853 to 2001. In 2001, Firstar acquired U.S. Bancorp and assumed its name, moving its headquarters to Minneapolis.
Ben Cooper, Inc. was a privately held American corporation founded in 1937 which primarily manufactured Halloween costumes from the late 1930s to the late 1980s. It was one of the three largest Halloween costume manufacturers in the U.S. from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. The company's inexpensive plastic masks and vinyl smocks were an iconic American symbol of Halloween from the 1950s to the 1970s, for which Cooper has been called the "Halston of Halloween" and the "High Priest" of Halloween.
The Washington Monument is a public artwork by American artist Richard Henry Park located on the Court of Honor in front of the Milwaukee Public Library Central Library, which is near Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bronze sculpture is a full-length portrait of a 43-year-old George Washington, and stands on a granite pedestal; a bronze woman points up at Washington while a child, also made out of bronze, gazes upward. It was sculpted by Richard Henry Park and was erected in 1885 with philanthropic financial support from Elizabeth Plankinton. The statue was restored between July 2016 and January 2018.
Gundam Plastic models, Gundam Plamo, or Gunpla are model kits depicting the mecha machinery and characters of the fictional Gundam multiverse by Bandai.
The Siegel-Cooper Company was a department store that opened in Chicago in 1887 and expanded into New York City in 1896. At the time of its opening, the New York store was the largest in the world.
The Randolph Street Market Festival is a hybrid indoor-outdoor market held outdoors the last weekend of each month, May through October, and indoors the third weekend of October, November and December.
Arnstein & Lehr was a national law firm founded in Chicago in 1893, with offices in Chicago, and Springfield, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa, and West Palm Beach, Florida. The firm represented business enterprises in significant legal victories in the United States and Puerto Rico. Its representation of Sears, Roebuck and Co. since 1895 is one of the country's longest continuous attorney-client relationships. On September 1, 2017, Arnstein & Lehr, LLP combined with Saul Ewing to form Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, LLP with 14 offices and over 400 attorneys.