A person’s favorite songs surely tell you something about the individual.
In the days following the death of local icon Albert R. Boscov, the retailer, philanthropist, and all around good guy, listeners of a local radio station learned that “Some Enchanted Evening” was a favorite song of the venerable businessman.
Early this week, a local radio host played “Some Enchanted Evening,” that lovely love anthem from “South Pacific.” The host recalled that Mr. B had requested it as bumper music when he was a guest on the morning talk program, saying it was one of his most beloved songs.
Surely there were lots of other songs Mr. Boscov treasured. Those in his company through his 87 years often witnessed him singing and or dancing sometimes at the most improbable of times, the visible symbols of his love of life and people.
But there is something in the lyrics of “Some Enchanted Evening” that is so emblematic of Mr. B’s life.
Perhaps most overtly personal to Mr. B are the lyrics of true love: “Once that you have found her, never let her go; Once you have found her, never let her go.” The love story of Al and Eunice Boscov, married for 57 years and clearly devoted to each other, has served as an inspiration or anyone whose paths they crossed. “Some Enchanted Evening” was most popular in the late 1950s when the young courting couple were ardent fans of Broadway musicals.
You can almost envision a young Albert first encountering Eunice in the Adirondacks, “a stranger across a crowded room,” hearing “her laughing across a crowded room,” and calling him “across a crowded room.”
Mr. B’s official obit recorded: “That love-at-first-sight romance became a lifelong adoration of his ‘Eunie’."
As Mr. B. was enchanted by Eunice, thousands who interacted with him over his long life were enchanted by him. And he returned that feeling a thousandfold.
In the week since his passing, hundreds, actually thousands, of remembrances have been recounted in one-on-one conversations, in his wonderfully moving family-crafted obituary reproduced in a number of newspapers in the region, among shoppers and sales folk in his 45 stores, in the halls of commerce and government large and small, and on social media, particularly Facebook, postings.
That Albert Boscov was enchanted by the breadth of humanity he encountered is without question.
First came the family in which he was born. His father Solomon, a Russian émigré, in 1911 founded in a peddler’s cart on the streets of Reading what would become a century later the nation’s largest family-owned department store chain. Albert and his three siblings grew up in the family business as did so many young people of that generation. His devotion to his parents and their work ethic would be mirrored in the 16-hour-plus days he worked throughout his life. It would also be reflected in the pride and in the glistening in his eyes whenever he spoke of those early days.
Though he treasured the past, it was the future to which he looked. Marriage to Eunice produced three loving daughters and five grandchildren by whom he was clearly enchanted and rightfully so. His nephew Jim, to whom he was close personally and professionally, would step into Mr. B’s shoes to continue the Boscov’s legacy of growth and community service.
Mr. B was enchanted by the people of his hometown and by those in the towns in which his chain grew. In Reading, through his Our City Reading Inc. nonprofit, he helped renovate houses that would become homes for some 600 individuals and families. He co-founded and co-funded the innovative GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, the GoggleWorks Apartments and brought about via determined fruition the RC Theatres and Imax and the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton Reading, the final and the crown jewel of his efforts to improve the city.
His philanthropic, as well as his business outreaches in Scranton and Wilke-Barre, as well as in Binghamton, NY, also made his name one often pronounced with both affection and admiration.
That he was enchanted and unequivocably attached to Boscov’s was again made clear when, at age 79, he came out of retirement to save the chain in the aftermath a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing during the great recession of 2008. He purchased his company back for $307 million and nine months later, by fusing family money and a $35 million state loan, saw the bankruptcy discharged. And, he was present in Philadelphia the day of that discharge to thank the judge, tears in his voice and eyes, for the declaration that not only saved the stores, but saved the jobs of the more than 7,500 Boscov’s employees. Enchantment went a lot of ways that day, likely giving that bankruptcy judge an experience few of his peers would have ever had.
As spring approaches, we will bear witness to another institution saved by Mr. B’s intervention: The Berks Jazz Fest, well, actually, the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest. He was enchanted by that music genre as well.
Many of us affiliated with Berks County Living have had the good fortune to meet and/or interview Mr. B over the years. A walk with him through one of his stores was a revelation. Invariably, he’d stop and speak with sales folks and shoppers along the way. He would enchant women young and old with a kiss of the hand, an old-school gesture that usually was accompanied by a blush or shy smile on the recipient’s part.
The clothes and accessories Mr. B stocked were chosen by buyers he worked hard but whose judgment calls on both pricing and style he respected. The way Berks Countians dress and even the way they furnish their homes – their individual styles – frequently harkens back to Mr. B.
For those who visited Mr. B in his cluttered office in the basement of Boscov’s East, there was often an initial sense of incredulity. The walls were covered and the bookshelves cluttered with awards and recognitions he’d received over the years. And his desk, well if you could spot it, was covered by papers, store flyers, and newspapers. He was famous for editing all the advertisements and that red Sharpie was always at hand, if not in hand. (Take a close look at Mr. B’s statue on Second Street across from the theatre – you’ll see one in his hand!).
But in that office, he knew where to put his hands on every item as did his devoted long-time aide Vivian. It was an odd and yet enchanting environment and Mr. B had the uncanny ability to give his full attention to several folks at once. If phone calls came in, they could wait a few minutes or an hour for a response, and that included governors or senators. There was only one exception: his Eunice. Everything stopped for her and those of us who heard him take those calls would hear his voice soften and sweeten for the love of his life.
Berks County Living is a style magazine. You see that noted on our cover in our tag line. You see it reflected in the people and subjects we cover. We treasure style and respect it and do our best to share it with you. You might say we are enchanted by it.
Above all else, Mr. B had as much or more style than anyone to ever pass our way.
We salute him.
We will miss him.
And we will always be enchanted by him.
And this line from “Some Enchanted Evening” may best sum up our thoughts:
“Who can explain it, who can tell you whyFools give you reasons, wise men never try.”
May we all have that wisdom.
By Donna Reed, on behalf of Berks County Living
