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Profile
the
Month
ALBERT J. ROSENZWEIG
LBERT
ROSENZWEIG,
sales
married blonde Ruth Bitzele. They
manager for the Midwest Divi- have a strapping son, Michael (Mick-
sion of the van Munching Company, ey)a handsome chunk of man who,
has often been apprehended by un- despite his 13 years, is 5 feet 5 inches
foreseen events. Shortly after he got tall and weighs 155 pounds. He is a
going, at some time or another during coming baseball and football star, and
his career, an act of God or nature at an early age received a life-saver's
HE cycle of interruptions of Ros-
ie's life had not yet quite ended,
however, for in 1946 the United Air
lines bought up his lease for ticket
offices. For a while irrepressible Rosie
opened up a liquor store in another
part of Chicago, but because both hk
parents died in 1948, he felt sort of
run down. He sold the store with a
good profit and took a long vacation
at Hot Springs, Arkansas. To com
plete his cycle of intrepedations, this
interfered
with
his
carefully
laid
certificate from the Red Cross.
plans. He prays that this will not
happen to his latest association, which
he feels has made up in one stroke for
all the time he may have lost.
Mr. Rosenzweig or "R
as
he
is nicknamed, came to the beverage
business through the
grocery field. Born
in Chicago on July
15, 1903, where his
father had a retail
grocery, "Rosie"
was an average stud
ent in Grammar and
mmm
time his wife was the victim of an
accident exactly similar to the one
Rosie had suffered some years before.
N 1931 it was the depression which She was a passenger in a bus which
caught up with Rosie. He took to ran into a P°st and she was subse-
the road selling coffee wholesale. In quently laid up with exactly the same
1938 the coffee market went bad, but injuries as her husband had received.
Rosie, never stumped by exigencies of matters stand now, they feel that
fate, started selling chocolate for Wil- the Hot Springs vacation did both a
bur-Suchard. Again he made a smash- °f g°°d and that the hot waters
ing success of it, but a jinx continued
burned all untoward incidents out of
to follow him. The sample bags had their systems,
become heavier and heavier. One day,
High School. He liked baseball and
bowling, but he modestly admits that
on the diamond he was just a utility
player. "I could be used for anything
was
because I liked the game, but
never outstanding." There was one
important quality, however, which
made "Rosie" a good prospect for any
employer: he could grit his teeth and
overcome any kind of handicap. He
left high school with the aspiration of
being an engineer. Optimistically, he
started working for the Automatic
Telephone Company, which was in
troducing dial telephones to America liquor store, "the most unusual store
for the first time. Rosie was hired as in Chicago." Instead of the old-fash-
assistant draftsman, drawing plans ioned grocery type of shelves, with
for exchanges and private offices. At their cold, forbidding look, he de-
the age of 22, his father became ill and veloped an entirely new kind. To the
Rosie had to take over the business of
getting out of his car, Rosie slipped,
dragging his sample bags behind him.
He twisted his back and dislocated his
spine. He had to be operated upon
and spent fifteen months in Chicago's
Michael Reese Hospital. Coming out
in 1939, Rosie couldn t carry any
thing. That's what made him look
for something that would carry itself.
He found it in whiskey. His first
week's pay check was $9.60, but it
may go a long way to prove that
Rosie has the Midas touch, to know
that at the end of the year his income
ranked with the top whiskey salesmen
in the business.
In 1944 he opened his own retail
OSIE, who often had two strikes
on him, but never struck out, feels
that on August 15, 1948, he really
began to live. It was then that he be
came associated with the van Munch
ing Company. The day he started he
said: "This is going to be it." After
a year and a half of association he
feels that his work is even better than
he expected. He says:
work for the Baron,
don't feel
feel
work
with him." Rosie has brought numer
ous connections and a great know-
how to his new job. And this is what
Mr. Van Munching has to say about
Mr. Rosenzweig: "We have developed
the midwestern area as the second
most important Heineken's territory
in the United States." Rosie in turn,
gives fair warning to the New York
Division that he will not rest until
the Chicago Division outdrinks New
startled customers they appeared as york as far as Heineken's is con-
selling salami and sauerkraut. Just as staircases in a sort of Christmas chapel
the cash register kept ringing to high-
arrangement
with
each
individual
er profits, Rosie's fortunes were again bottle gloriously lighted up. People
interfered with. When he was 27 who never used to come into his
years old, the National Tea Company liquor store just stopped in to look at
took over the lease of his business. the pretty interior which made the
After inspecting the books, it did not most powerful potions look like gifts
cerned. On one of his recent visits to
Omaha, Nebraska, he succeeded in
having Heineken
placed
in every
railroad car of the Union Pacific Rail-
take the new company long to hire
from
heavenwhich
they
should.
Rosie as District Manager of the com- Naturally, Rosie did a thriving busi-
pany, in charge of twenty stores. ness. The "National Liquor Review"
Now feeling himself established, he had a picture of his shop on its cover.
For this he got an assist from
Feltman, President of the
Grey-
haired, neatly trimmed Rosie is off to
a running start.
road.
Roy
Capitol Liquor Company.
The Editor
