When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion

Four years after resigning as president, Hortense Odlum left the board of directors and Bonwit Teller permanently. She repeatedly and vigorously renounced her own career and the idea of women in the workplace. Her arguments reflected a post-war cultural pendulum swing against working women, as the ethos of the 1950s emphasized mothers as the heart of the nuclear family. Geraldine also struggled with her new status as a divorced woman, continuing to use the last name Odlum and referring to Floyd as her husband even after Floyd remarried. After the death of her son Stanley, Geraldine’s health declined significantly, and she went to live with her son Bruce in California. Although she was less than a mile from Floyd, he never went to see her. Hortense died in 1970 at the age of 78.

In Hortense’s final year at Bonwit Teller, the store reported its highest sales ever; in the next decade however, competition from discount stores drove down profits. In 1956, Maxey Jarman, Geraldine Stutz’s mentor, took ownership of Bonwit Teller and appointed Mildred Custin as president. Mildred transformed the store, resulting in even higher profits than in Hortense’s era.