Jules Lederer (1917–1999) was an American business executive and innovator.

Early life

Born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, he dropped out of school in ninth grade, having to work from the time he was 13 to support his family. He made his living as a salesman.

Career

In the 1950s, Lederer was president of the

Autopoint Company The Autopoint Company was a manufacturer of pencils and desk top accessories in Chicago for about 50 years from the 1920s to around 1970. History Autopoint was founded by Frank C. Deli, Michael M. Kaufmann, and John P. Lynn around 1920. Th ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and in 1960, he joined

Morris Mirkin Morris Mirkin (1919 – June 27, 1985) was an American businessman who founded Budget Rent-a-Car. Biography Mirkin was born to a Jewish family in Sioux City, Iowa, the son of immigrants from Russia. Mirkin served in the U.S. Air Force during Wo ...

, who founded

Budget Rent a Car Budget Rent a Car is an American car rental company that was founded in 1958 in Los Angeles, California by Morris Mirkin. Budget is a subsidiary of the Avis Budget Group, with its operations headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. History ...

company in 1958. The pair incorporated as Budget Rent a Car Corporation in 1960. Budget Rent a Car is now a unit of

Avis Budget Group Avis Budget Group is American car rental agency holding company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. It is the parent company of several brands including Avis Car Rental, Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental, Payless Car Rental and Zipcar. ...

. Budget Rent a Car became popular in its early days by renting cars at lower prices than its competitors, and it gained a following among a growing business and leisure travel market by renting cars from offices outside of airports. Additionally, Lederer is credited as one of the first to apply franchising to the rental car industry.

Personal life

In 1938, Lederer married Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

ceremony in

Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. They had one daughter,

Margo Howard Margo Howard (née Lederer; born March 15, 1940) is an American writer and former advice columnist. She is the only child of businessman/innovator Jules Lederer and Eppie Lederer (better known as Ann Landers after her long-time advice column ''As ...

(ex-wife of actor

Ken Howard Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. (March 28, 1944 – March 23, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in ''1776'' and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show '' The Whit ...

), before divorcing in 1975. According to his ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' obituary of January 23, 1999, Lederer was selling hats at T. S. Martin Department Store in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

, when he met Friedman, who was engaged to another man; she and her identical twin sister Pauline Esther "Popo" were shopping for bridal veils for their double wedding. Jules and Esther fell in love and were married in a double ceremony. The two sisters would eventually become the writers of the widely syndicated advice columns, ''

Ask Ann Landers Ann Landers was a pen name created by ''Chicago Sun-Times'' advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002) in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated ad ...

'' and ''

Dear Abby Dear Abby is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name. History According to Pauline ...

'', respectively. Lederer's daughter

Margo *** People * Margo (actress) (1917–1985), Mexican-American actress and dancer * Margo (magician), American magic performer and actress * Margo (singer), Irish singer * Margo (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name P ...

also became a newspaper columnist, writing for the ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

''. Married for 36 years, when the Lederers were divorced, Ann Landers described it in her next column as "one of the best marriages that didn't make it to the finish line." Lederer later moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he remarried and had a daughter, Anthea Lederer, with his second wife, Elizabeth.

Death

Lederer died of a heart attack at his home in London, aged 81. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth; his daughters, Margo Lederer Howard and Anthea Lederer; a brother, Sol; a sister, Madelyn Ferris; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

References

20th-century American Jews Businesspeople from Chicago 1999 deaths 1917 births 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1910s-stub