The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

founded in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, by Joseph Magnin, 4th son of

Isaac Magnin Isaac Magnin (1842–1907) was a Dutch-born American businessperson, Carving, carver and Gilding, gilder. He was the co-founder of I. Magnin, an upscale women's clothing store in San Francisco, California. Early life Isaac Magnin (or Moeijen) was ...

founder of the

I. Magnin I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, ...

department store. Joseph Magnin Co. and I. Magnin Co. were rivals.

History

The San Francisco Examiner Sun Jul 21 1918

In 1913 Joseph Magnin left I. Magnin & Co. and bought into a partnership of the Newman-Levinson store, which changed its name to Newman-Magnin and in 1919 to Joseph Magnin Co. The store was located at the corner of Stockton and O'Farrell Streets. At the time, I. Magnin Co. was located at Grant and Geary Streets. However in 1948 when I. Magnin built the new flagship store at Stockton and Geary streets, the two flagship stores were less than a block apart. Initially Joseph Magnin was a midrange purveyor of apparel and

millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

and was viewed as a second-rate I. Magnin. Within the

garment industry Clothing industry or garment industry summarizes the types of trade and industry along the production and value chain of clothing and garments, starting with the textile industry (producers of cotton, wool, fur, and synthetic fibre), embellishment ...

, Joseph Magnin Co. was known as "the other Magnin". For many years Joseph Magnin Co. operated in the shadows of I. Magnin. I. Magnin had many established providers of better fashions and demanded exclusivity. Vendors were barred from selling to Joseph Magnin if they wished to continue to do business with I. Magnin. To partially address this, Joseph Magnin rented the vacant 4th floor of the Stockton/O'Farrell store for a number of years to newly emerging local talent, the designer/manufacturer Eleanor Green, for her design studio and factory. Joseph Magnin at times did use

consumer confusion Consumer confusion is a state of mind that leads to consumers making imperfect purchasing decisions or lacking confidence in the correctness of their purchasing decisions. Confusion Confusion occurs when a consumer fails to correctly understand o ...

on the Magnin name to their advantage by calling the store J. Magnin in signage, advertisements, and store bags. The store also self identified as JM.

Post-war era

After World War II, under the leadership of Joseph's son Cyril Magnin, the Joseph Magnin Co. went more upscale and began courting the younger woman's market. JM advertisements were distinctive as being glamorous, sophisticated, trendy and youthful. One newspaper ad went to print without the Magnin name. Cyril was furious until he was told the item had sold out since everyone knew it was a JM ad.

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

purchased the suit she wore when she married

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

in 1954 at JM. As of 1960 the store was one of the first in San Francisco to employ

Asian-Americans Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peopl ...

in customer service. In 1967. JM was responsible for buying

Lynda Bird Johnson Lynda Bird Johnson Robb (born March 19, 1944) is the elder daughter of the 36th U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. She served as chairwoman of the Board of Reading is Fundamental, the nation's largest chil ...

trousseau Trousseau may refer to: *A dowry *The wardrobe of a bride, including the wedding dress or similar clothing *A hope chest, glory box or its contents *Trousseau (grape), a wine grape also known as Bastardo ** Trousseau Gris, a white mutation of the ...

. The store also included the 'Wolves Den' department for men only. Men could shop in a clublike area while seated, served martinis, smoking cigars, and being shown merchandise by JM's most attractive women.

Sale and Demise

In 1969 Cyril Magnin arranged for the Joseph Magnin Co. to be purchased by Amfac, Inc. of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

.Alternate Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. Amfac owned Liberty House, among other stores on the West Coast and Hawaii. Cyril remained the chairman of the board of JM. Joseph Magnin grew to a chain of 32 stores. In 1977, Amfac sold Joseph Magnin Co. to investors led by the Hillman Company and Gibbons, Green & Rice. Hillman sold the stores in 1982; in 1984, Joseph Magnin Co. filed for bankruptcy and closed its stores.Alternate Link
via

South Coast Plaza store

The two-story Joseph Magnin store in

South Coast Plaza South Coast Plaza is a regional shopping mall in Costa Mesa, California. The largest shopping center on the West Coast of the United States, its pre-COVID sales of over $1.5 billion annually were the highest in the United States. Its 275 retail ...

, in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

, (branch #30), opened in the mall's Carousel Court on March 14, 1968. This store was notable for its original architect,

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

, and the architects and designers who worked on its 1979 renovation. Architects Massimo and

Lella Vignelli Lella Vignelli (August 13, 1934December 22, 2016) was an Italian architect, designer, and entrepreneur. She had "a lifelong collaborative working relationship" with her husband and business partner, Massimo Vignelli, with whom she founded the d ...

, and

Gere Kavanaugh Gere Kavanaugh (born 1929) is an American textile, industrial, and interior designer. She is the principal of Gere Kavanaugh Designs. Early life and education Gere Kavanaugh was born in 1929 and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned a BFA from ...

designed some of the store interiors, including the in-store restaurant, Le Soupçon, which featured a plethora of market umbrellas. The renovation was a poster child of then-CEO

Edward Gorman Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. (November 2, 1941 – October 14, 2016) was an American writer and short fiction anthologist. He published in almost every genre, but is best known for his work in the crime, mystery, western, and horror fields. His no ...

's effort to "breathe new life" into its stores at the end of the 1970s. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' remarked: "The Costa Mesa store--remodeled and reopened last month, is that prototype. Its were designed … to reflect JM's focus on the unique and contemporary, with shelf units, counters, even dressing rooms on wheels for flexibility in arranging merchandise, lighting on interchangeable ceiling tracks, and a "meandering" path laid out through the departments instead of in the standard grid pattern."

Branches

Joseph Magnin had as many as 49 stores at one point, and 24 by the time of bankruptcy and closure. Stores included:

San Francisco

* Stockton at O'Farrell at

Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

* Three

Embarcadero Center Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of five office towers, two hotels, a shopping center with more than 125 stores, bars, and restaurants, and a fitness center on three levels located in San Francisco, California. There is an outdoor ice sk ...

* Montgomery at Bush * Fox Plaza * Stonestown Galleria * Fox Plaza, Civic Center area

Rest of the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

* San Mateo, East 4th Ave. at San Mateo Dr. *

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

Stanford Shopping Center Stanford Shopping Center is an upscale open air shopping mall located on California State Route 82, Route 82 (El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real) at Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, California. It is on the campus of Stanford University alt ...

* San Jose, Valley Fair *San Jose,

Eastridge Eastridge, officially Eastridge Center, is a shopping mall in San Jose, California, located in the Evergreen, San Jose, Evergreen district of East San Jose. Eastridge opened as the largest mall on the U.S. West Coast, West Coast in 1971 and has b ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

Kaiser Center Kaiser Center, also called the Kaiser Building, is a 28-story office building located at 300 Lakeside Drive, adjacent to Lake Merritt, in downtown Oakland, California, designed by the architectural firm of Welton Becket & Associates of Los Ange ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

, 2560 Bancroft Way * Hayward, Southland Mall *

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

, Broadway Plaza *

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, Sun Valley *

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, La Pampa * S ...

Coddingtown Mall Coddingtown Mall is one of two enclosed shopping malls in Santa Rosa, California. Opened in 1962, the mall is anchored by JCPenney, Macy's, Nordstrom Rack, Target, and Whole Foods Market. It is fully owned and operated by Codding Enterprises. His ...

Sacramento metropolitan area The Greater Sacramento area refers to a metropolitan region in Northern California comprising either the U.S. Census Bureau defined Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade metropolitan statistical area or the larger Sacramento–Roseville combined ...

Downtown Plaza Downtown Commons (or DOCO), formerly known as Sacramento Downtown Plaza, Westfield (Shoppingtown) Downtown Plaza and Downtown Plaza, is a two-level outdoor mixed-use entertainment and shopping complex operated by JMA Ventures, LLC, located along ...

* Florin Center * Country Club Centre * Citrus Heights, Sunrise Mall

Other Northern California

* Carmel Plaza *

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton ...

Southern California

Airport Marina Hotel The Airport Marina Hotel was an 800-room, first-class hotel located at the 8601 Lincoln Boulevard at the southwest corner of Manchester Avenue, in Westchester, Los Angeles, near Los Angeles International Airport. Its architect was Welton Becket; ...

(a.k.a. Amfac Hotel), Lincoln Bl. at Manchester Ave., Westchester near

LAX Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

* Broadway Plaza (now "The Bloc"),

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

Canoga Park Canoga Park is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Before the Mexican–American War, the district was part of a rancho, and after the American victory it was converted into wheat farms and t ...

, Topanga Plaza *

Century City Shopping Center Westfield Century City (formerly known as the Century Square Shopping Center) is a two-level, 1.3 million-square-foot outdoor shopping mall in the Century City commercial district in Los Angeles, California. A property of the Westfield Corporatio ...

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

: Glendale Fashion Center (opened 1966) Later, Joseph Magnin moved to the

Glendale Galleria The Glendale Galleria is a large three-story regional shopping center and office complex located in downtown Glendale, California, United States. Opened in 1976 with 1.6 million square feet of retail space, it is the fourth largest mall in Los An ...

and in 1979 a local retailer, Webb's, expanded into its space. *

Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish language, Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination ...

* Santa Barbara *

Sherman Oaks Fashion Square Sherman most commonly refers to: *Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name) ** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General *M4 Sherman, a tank Sherman may also refer to: Places United St ...

* Torrance,

Del Amo Fashion Square Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge of t ...

(

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

(opened March 14, 1968; see previous section for detailed history) *

La Habra Fashion Square La Habra Marketplace, formerly La Habra Fashion Square, is an open-air regional mall in La Habra, California, built by the Bullock's department store chain. Welton Becket and Associates were the architects. It was the last and largest of the "Fash ...

(opened August 10, 1968, ) *

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...

Desert Fashion Plaza Desert Fashion Plaza, formerly known as Desert Inn Fashion Plaza, was an enclosed shopping mall located in Palm Springs, California. The mall was originally developed by Home Savings and Loan Association, which sold the shopping center to Dese ...

- (opened 1969, ). (see also History of retail in Palm Springs) *

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

Fashion Valley Fashion Valley (also referred to Fashion Valley Mall) is an upscale, open-air shopping mall in Mission Valley in San Diego, California. The shopping center has of leasable floor area, making it the largest mall in San Diego and one of the larges ...

(opened 1969) * Ventura, Buenaventura Center

Nevada

* Crystal Bay, Lake Tahoe, Cal-Neva * Stateline, Lake Tahoe, Crescent V shopping center *

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

Meadowood Mall Meadowood Mall is a one-level, super-regional mall in Reno, Nevada, managed by Simon Property Group, which owns 50% of it. Meadowood Mall contains 125 retailers and restaurants and it is anchored by Macy's Women, Macy's Men/Home, JCPenney, and ...

* Reno, Park Lane Centre (opened November 1966, ) *

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Fashion Show Mall Fashion Show is a shopping mall located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It was developed by Summa Corporation and Ernest W. Hahn, the latter also serving as general contractor. Construction began on March 15, 1979, and the project wa ...

Denver

Cherry Creek Shopping Center Cherry Creek Shopping Center, also known as Cherry Creek Center, is a shopping mall about three and half miles southeast of downtown Denver, Colorado in the Cherry Creek Neighborhood. It is situated along East First Avenue on the banks of Che ...

* Cinderella City *

Downtown Denver Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, business, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers. The downtown area consists mostly of the neighborhoods of Uni ...

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

& Stout

Elsewhere

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

ZCMI Center Mall The ZCMI Center Mall was a shopping center near Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States that was owned by Zions Securities Corporation (now Utah Property Management Associates), which opened in 1975 and closed in 2007. At the time of ...

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Kahala Mall Kahala Mall is an indoor shopping mall in the Kāhala, Hawaii, Kāhala neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii on the East Side of the island of Oahu. In addition to its service as a major shopping center, Kahala Mall also serves as a key stop on a num ...

*Honolulu, Amfac Center, now Topa Financial Center *

Aiea, Hawaii Aiea (; haw, ʻAiea, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) located in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the CDP had a total population of 9,338. Geography Aiea is located at (21.385900, −1 ...

, Pearlridge Mall

References

Sources

* Birmingham, Nan Tilson, ''Store'', 1978, . * Frick, Devin, ''I. Magnin & Co. A California Legacy'', 2000, * Hendrickson, Robert, ''The Grand Emporiums'', 1980, * Magnin, Cyril and Robins, Cynthia, ''Call Me Cyril'', 1981, * Mullane, James Thomas, ''A Store to Remember'', 2007, {{ISBN, 978-0-9788513-0-9 * Steger, Pat, "A Fitting Tribute", ''San Francisco Chronicle'', April 6, 1999 1915 establishments in California 1984 disestablishments in California Companies based in San Francisco Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct department stores based in the San Francisco Bay Area Retail companies disestablished in 1984 Retail companies established in 1915 Union Square, San Francisco