Interview with Harvey Fried

Length
57:58
Date
Interviewer
Swanson, Gary
Description

Interview with Harvey Fried about his life and about the Kansas City garment industry. Fried describes the early start of the local garment industry in the West Bottoms, with the buildings in the downtown Garment District built between approximately 1898-1915, and notes Kansas City's position as a rail hub in the center of the country as being key to manufacturing and distribution. He also recounts his parents' backgrounds, his father opening the Fried-Siegel Company in 1930 and Style Line Manufacturing Company in 1939, and the companies' role producing a wide assortment of apparel. He discusses the work of garment manufacturing and distribution in detail, the predominance of Jewish ownership in the industry, and the evolution of the Fried-Siegal and Style Line into smaller firms alongside the shrinking of the local and national garment industries. He also discusses the evolution of the Garment District neighborhood to the present and shares photographs.

Interviewee
Object Type
Neighborhood
State
Country
Notes
Recording ends abruptly, mid-sentence. The Historic Garment Industry oral history project was conducted by the Historic Garment District Museum in cooperation with the Kansas City Public Library.
Institution Website
Shelf Location

SC229 Garment Industry Oral History Collection

Digital Object Identifier
MVSC-GARMENT-Fried-Harvey
Disclaimer
This oral history recording is presented as a historical document of the recollections and opinions of persons living and/or working in Kansas City when the history was conducted. Minor edits have been made to remove pauses, interruptions and verbal tics, and the recording is otherwise verbatim as it was captured. These oral histories represent the thoughts and opinions of the original participants and do not reflect the views of the Kansas City Public Library or its partner organizations in this oral history project.
Use & Reproduction

This material is protected by copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Acknowledgement
This project was funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library.