California Apparel News

Longtime Los Angeles textile industry executive Al Friedman died of heart failure on July 10 in Los Angeles. He was 90 years old.

Friedman is remembered by many in the local textile industry as a mentor, a teacher and a dedicated member of the community.

“Al was the first sales manager to a lot of guys in the industry, including me,” said Ken Weinbaum, vice president of sales and marketing for QST Industries, whose family was close to Friedman and his family for many years.

“I’ve known him for almost all of my life,” said Weinbaum, who worked with Friedman in the mid-1970s at Mark Textiles.

Hal Kaltman, owner of Hal Kaltman Textiles and president of the Textile Association of Los Angeles, first worked with Friedman in 1962 at Acme Thread and Supply.

“Al was my first sales manager. He took me aside, and we went out to the Valley. Al introduced me to everyone,” Kaltman said, adding that thanks to Friedman, he met and worked with the couture designers of the day, including William Travilla and Rudi Gernreich.

Friedman joined Marvin Kroner at Acme Thread and Supply in 1951 and then went to work with Larry Irwin at Mark Textiles in 1967, where he remained until his retirement last year.

Irwin, now vice president of sales for Mark Textiles, said many of Friedman’s former proteacute;geacute;s attended the funeral to pay their respects.

“There were quite a few people who are now owners or retired owners or managing a business like myself, and he was their mentor,” Irwin said. “He taught them all because he was the expert at the time. He taught some very successful people in this industry.”

Friedman “knew the history of the Los Angeles garment industry,” Weinbaum said. “He had a passion for the industry. He put his heart into it. He loved it.”

Weinbaum recalled that Friedman carried fabric swatches in his coat pockets instead of in a briefcase.

“He would write an order on a napkin—that was before bar-coding and before computers,” Weinbaum said.

Irwin recalled similar stories of Friedman’s sales initiative.

“In those days, when he was younger and more active, he’d be in the back room of all the cutting factories finding out what they were using and getting samples,” Irwin said. “That was the nature of his sales—never stop servicing your customer, whatever it took to get it done.”

Irwin called him a “super salesman” who won over everyone he met.

“He was a very simple, straightforward man with a tremendous work ethic I haven’t seen in anybody since,” Irwin said. “You can honestly say he was beloved by his customers, his coworkers and even his competitors. He was one of those rare people that no one had a bad thing to say about.”

Friedman’s sociable professional demeanor carried over into his personal life, according to his daughter, Susan Melcher.

“He was outgoing and friendly, he talked to everybody and he knew everybody,” she said. “He loved being around people.”

Friedman was born in 1915 in St. Louis, Mo., and moved to Southern California in 1924. He attended Los Angeles High School and the University of California, Los Angeles prior to the establishment of the university’s Westwood campus.

He was predeceased by his wife, Gert.

He is survived by his daughter, Susan Melcher; his son-in-law, Carey Melcher; his granddaughter, Megan Melcher; and his sister, Henrietta Alpert.

A funeral was held on July 13 at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles. —Alison A. Nieder