From the Bronx to Madison Avenue, by way of Greenwich Village: How Murray Mondschein became Fred Leighton

Mexican Wedding Dresses make way for Antique Jewels

If you followed my two-part series, “Looking for the Real Fred Leighton” (one and two), to its denouement, then you know that sometime in the early 1960s, Fred Leighton Imports Inc. was sold to Bronx-native Murray Mondschein. Articles and obituaries for Mondschein place the sale anywhere from 1955, 1959, 1962, or 1963, though I believe it was most likely around the time of Leighton’s death in 1963; Mondschein was living in California in the late 1950s, a time when the real Fred Leighton was still heavily involved in the business and often quoted in the press.

New York Times, February 25, 1979.

As I wrote:

Born on July 23, 1932, Mondschein was the son of a Bronx cabbie and a homemaker. After serving in the Army in Italy, he moved to California and opened a flower shop in the San Fernando Valley in 1957. Murray’s Flower Fair, first in Sherman Oaks and then Encino, offered not just the normal array of fresh flowers but also “imported plants, stylized arrangements, artificial fruits and flowers, unusual gifts, and dried and preserved flowers,” with Mondschein acting as a party planner, arranging “complete parties including the decoration, catering, flowers, rental equipment and everything else necessary to provide a festive occasion with the least amount of effort.” In early 1960, he sold the business and returned to New York, where he purchased Fred Leighton Imports Inc. at some point in the following years.

While in Italy with the Army, Mondschein was responsible for “camp beautification,” foreshadowing his lifelong passion for beautifying homes and women. His post-Army beautification project started with the flower shop in California, before leading him home to New York and Fred Leighton’s. Coming from flowers, it is unclear why Mondschein was interested in purchasing Fred Leighton Imports Inc. or even how he came to know of the business. Likely his first task was moving the store; while I was unable to figure out if the lease for 15 East 8th Street came with his purchase of the company (as far as I know, Fred Leighton did not own the building), sometime between 1963 and 1965 the Fred Leighton shop moved a few blocks from 15 East 8th Street to 177 MacDougal Street—it seems most likely that the move happened at the time of the sale in 1963, as the building at 15 East 8th Street torn down with the Brevoort East apartment building rising twenty-six stories in its place in 1965.

Like 15 East 8th Street (once Leighton took over the ground floor), 177 MacDougal Street featured a large plate glass window—the perfect stage for showing off the bright, “exotic” goods for sale. Leaning into the burgeoning youth movement, Mondschein changed the store’s logo from restrained and wordy (FRED LEIGHTON’S MEXICAN & AMERICAN INDIAN CRAFTS) all-caps, sans-serif to a very dynamic, all lower-case, outlined serif font huge across the front of the store—legible from far away, it now beckoned potential customers from down the street, drawing them into a much more playful environment than it had been previously. Filigreed ironwork surrounding the front door and window complemented the more romantic serif logo.

The storefront of Fred Leighton’s Mexican & American Indian Crafts, at 15 East 8th Street, as it appeared on the cover of a 1960 catalogue for his import company.

The storefront of Fred Leighton at 177 MacDougal Street. Photo by Don Charles, New York Times, May 10, 1968.

In what might be one of the sweetest meet-cutes I’ve heard of in a long time, in 1965, several stores on MacDougal were victimized by the same shoplifters. When one was apprehended carrying merchandise from Fred Leighton, Murray Mondschein went to pick it up from the police department, where he met one of the other victims: Glorya Krauss, the owner of Chiaroscuro, a new boutique down the street from Leighton’s. All black and white, with only black and white items for sale, Chiaroscuro was Glorya’s new experiment after nine years of successfully running another boutique, Glorya, on West 8th. Within a few months, Glorya and Murray were married.

Chiaroscuro, as it appeared in Women’s Wear Daily, July 30, 1965.