Northshore Magazine

December2011

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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Next time you're in downtown Haverhill, look up at the new Essex Street Gateway Mural and you'll see a wonderful example of art imitating life. ¶ At the center of the four- story mural—honoring the city's highest achievers—is an image of the legendary movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, who once owned all five theaters in town before conquering Holly- wood as the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The mural depicts Mayer with an audi- ence of other Haverhill heroes watching a movie, and on the flickering screen is a man working at a shoe-making machine. That man is Stuart Weitzman—America's shoe designer to the stars—who took over his late father's Haverhill shoe factory in 1965 at the young age of 24 and turned the business into a multi-million-dollar global empire spanning 70 countries. The Haverill-to-Hollywood connection doesn't stop at the mural. Just as Mayer was the toast of Tinseltown as head of MGM, Weitzman's super-glamorous shoes adorn the feet of a galaxy of movie stars and en- tertainers, from Angelina Jolie to Beyoncé, gracing red carpets from the Oscars to the Emmys and from the Grammys to MTV's Video Music Awards. Weitzman can barely contain his pride at being included in such esteemed compa- ny along with Mayer, John Quincy Adams, comic book hero Archie Andrews (created in 1941 by Haverhill illustrator Bob Mon- tana), and many other local luminaries. "You could say I'm the protagonist be- cause I got the whole wall in the movie screen shot," Weitzman says with a chuck- le. "I'm honored to be the representative of an industry that basically no longer exists in America but had its birth and much suc- cess for almost 200 years in Haverhill." It's been almost 40 years since the once- booming shoe industry died out in Haver- 138 hill and Weitzman moved his operations to Europe, but he was excited to return last August for a community painting session of the mural, to visit his father's factory, and catch up with old friends and colleagues. "I met women who are the children of people who worked with my father, and they brought shoes from his time," he says. "They gave me eight or nine pairs. It was quite thrilling for me to see those shoes. Some of them are absolutely beautiful." Raised in Long Island, New York, Stu- art Weitzman was set for a career on Wall Street after graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. However, his father, Seymour, who in the 1950s had established a successful shoe factory and business in Haverhill called Mr. Seymour, had other ideas, and so the young Weitzman began an apprenticeship that would change the course of his life. "As kids, we always think we know eve- rything, and the experience of our parents is lost on us, until we grow up and realize just how wise they were," Weitzman says. "I remember working with him in the fac- tory and saying, 'I'd like to go to California and be our salesman.' All I could see was the surf and beautiful girls in bikinis. What did I want to be in a factory for? I'm gonna learn the shoe business by selling [shoes]. And my father said, 'No, you're not, you're going to sit right here and work with our last makers [a shoemaker's mold for shaping a shoe or

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