Interview with Harvey Fried

Swanson, Gary

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.

0:57:58

2004-12-22

Clothing industry

Garment Industry
Historic Garment District Museum
Fried-Siegel Company
Garment District
Kansas City Apparel Association
Style Line Manufacturing Company
Brownfield, Ann

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.

Video Recording

Garment Industry Oral History Collection(SC229) See finding aid: https://kchistory.org/document/garment-industry-oral-history-collection-...

Downtown KCMO

SC229, Series 2

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