The Bourse Nut Parlor (a.k.a. Saint Laurent/rive gauche in an earlier day).- PHOTOS INCLUDED

Saint Laurent/rive gauche

16 South 4th Street

Phildelphia, PA 19106

215.592.9090


There was no email address,
because the personal computer had not been invented,
nor was there a thing called:
The Internet!

(October 1980 - March 4, 1988)

PHOTOS BELOW


In 1980, I was there at the unveiling of Saint Laurent/rive gauche as part of the original store staff.   In 1987 the stock market crashed and on March 4, 1988 Saint Laurent/rive gauche sold its final charmeuse blouse, its last three inch patent leather belt, and a size 8 grain-de-poudre pencil skirt (brown) at 90% off retail and closed its doors for the last time. 

In the following weeks I went to closing on the brand new townhouse that I had built, and went about the business of putting myself on the unemployment lines.  Nothing like moving into a brand new house and losing your job all in the same week!  Really: no pressure!

As General Manager of the store I still had duties to the owner of the store, and unfortunately and in spite of our best efforts, the shelves and racks were still heavily laden with the now cut-rate couture.  I inventoried what remained on the racks and shelves and shipped those high quality 'shmatta' to a jobber in NYC.
  
"Going Out of Business Sales' are brutal.  The owner of the store had assessed the damage of the October '87 stock market crash.  We were in Paris for the fashion shows only days after the crash, and although we proceeded with optimism, it was fairly obvious that there was no possibility of keeping this sinking ship afloat. In December the owner gathered the staff together and declared his intentions to close the store in the spring of 1988. We publicly announced the Going Out of Business Sale in January.  We had targeted the first week of March as our final week of business.   This meant an eight week march towards a guillotine that we had to build ourselves, put our heads into, and then watch the blade come down to do its job.

The lower floor of the store had housed our men's boutique and as its inventory diminished (and our menswear salesman decamped to another job) inventory from the lower floor of the boutique was moved to the upper floor.  The upper level was easily divided into 'departments',  and the shoppers seemed to enjoy the closeout price atmosphere that we had created.

The bargain hunting 'Closing Sale' shoppers had stripped our mannequins of their blouses, skirts, dresses, suits, hats, scarves, and other pret-a-porter.   What does one do with eighteen naked mannequins?   Well, being the creative personality that I am I arranged the naked mannequins on the grand staircase to recreate the various fashion shows and 'defile-de-mode' , that had been exhibited there only months before.  Each mannequin had its own step.  One side going downstairs, the other coming upstairs: all, naked as a jaybird - but not anatomically correct thank you!   Robert Altman's wonderful film Pret a Porter recreated my 'fashion statement' when the final fashion show was done in-the-nude!  Dear reader, I've lied to you, those mannequins were not naked.  They were all wearing hats.  Voluminous, fancy, wide brimmed hats, little feathered 'fascinators', fedoras, straw 'boaters' or whatever was hanging around from years of unsold 'collections'.   It was quite the effect/affect - I wish I had a picture!

When the last customer left, and UPS picked up the last box to be shipped to the NYC jobber, I vacuumed the carpets, cleaned my desk, turned off the lights, and left the key under the mat for the store's owner to do what he pleased with the designer furnishings and fixtures that remained inside.

Shortly thereafter, the Saint Laurent space became a nightclub named Harlow's.  Harlow (a.k.a. Richard Finochio) was a transgendered restauranteur who had an earlier success in that (the restaurant) business.  Everyone looks good in Saint Laurent, and I suppose if you look good in a Saint Laurent frock, you'll look fabulous in a (former) Saint Laurent boutique.   I was not involved in the development of the nightclub, but imagine that the allure of the previous tenant's 'couture' blinded everyone to the bad business decision that this was to become.   The essential architecture of the Saint Laurent boutique remained, and it was a beautiful space both as a boutique and a night club.  I never went to Harlow's in its heyday.   I recall going into the club early one evening when it was virtually empty.   My office had been preserved, and the rest of the space had been opened and modified, but it was still chic.  

At some point Harlow's closed and the space was sub-divided.  The interior (mall entry -being pictured below) being aptly and ironically turned into The Bourse Nut Parlor.

The Bourse is currently undergoing another transformation and is expected to reopen in 2018.  All vestiges of Saint Laurent, Harlow, and The Bourse Nut Parlor are gone.   

While I may have indicated that my Saint Laurent years were my best years, or my most successful years, they really weren't.  They were certainly very glamorous years, and because of the glamour, they are stories that I tell time, and time, and time, and time......... oh, you get the picture.  Actually, I haven't told you the stories.  I've told you that I worked in Paris. Really, I went to Paris and I did work there, and I went to New York and I did work there, to do the work that made my work in Philadelphia possible.  I worked in Philadelphia, on Independence Mall for eight years.  I started my career as a salesman and ended my career as the General Manager and Buyer for Saint Laurent/rive gauche, Boutique Femme et Boutique Homme Phila., Ltd. 16 S. 4th St., Philadelphia, PA, 19106.

1980 - 1988 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times:  the true story is, that long before 16 S. Fourth Street was selling cashews, pecans, and walnuts, it truly was The Bourse Nut Parlor.






BELOW

1982: 16 S. 4th Street 









BELOW:

2015

16 SOUTH 4TH STREET










BELOW:
1980 INTERIOR, LOWER LEVEL
SAINT LAURENT/rive gauche
Interior design by Andree Putman
Chairs:  LeCorbusier (?)










BELOW:
1980
Lower level interior Saint Laurent/rive gauche women's accessory boutique
Tom Scanlon (salesman), Sallie Feldman (saleswoman), George Wichner (President, Paris Collections/YSL -later president of Roger Vivier and Valentino)









1982
Lower Level Saint Laurent rive gauche conversion to men's boutique












BELOW:
2015 EXTERIOR THE BOURSE
5TH STREET ENTRANCE


2015 INTERIOR









BELOW:
1980 MALL ENTRANCE
Saint Laurent/rive gauche
dba: Boutique Femme Phila. Ltd.


BELOW:

2015
THE BOURSE NUT PARLOR
"AS IT IS, SO IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN" - TOM SCANLON 2015


2015
THE BOURSE











BELOW:
1981(?) UPPER LEVEL
Saint Laurent/rive gauche
Ann Roantree (Parsky)/ Tom Scanlon







BELOW:
2015
UPPER LEVEL STRIPPED TO BARE WALLS WITH GRAND STAIRCASE COVERED AND FLOORED.  INDUSTRIAL LOOK VENTILATION SYSTEMS, CUBICLES, TRACK LIGHTING, AND WHAT APPEARS TO BE CARPET TILE.



















BELOW:
TOM SCANLON
1980












BELOW:

1982(?)
Ann Roantree (Parsky), Tom Scanlon, Clarissa Koppius



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