Former type Department store Fate Converted to Macy's Ceased operations 1996 Founded 1896 | Industry Retail Defunct 1996 Founder Arthur Letts Parent organization Broadway Stores | |
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Products Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Headquarters Los Angeles, California, United States | ||
The broadway department store commercial 1985
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1896 by English born Arthur Letts, Sr., who later went on to develop Holmby Hills, The Broadway became one of the dominant retailers in Southern California and the Southwest. In 1950, the company merged with Sacramento-based Hale Brothers to form Broadway-Hale Stores.
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The Broadway bought out competitors in Los Angeles (B.H. Dyas, Milliron's, and Coulter's), San Diego (Marston's), and Phoenix (Korrick's). In later years The Broadway opened stores in Nevada (Las Vegas), New Mexico, and Colorado. In 1979, it was split into two divisions: The Broadway Southern California, based in Los Angeles; and Broadway Southwest, headquartered in Phoenix (for the non-California stores).
The Broadway's parent Carter Hawley Hale Stores ran into financial difficulties which resulted from poor management decisions and hostile takeover attempts. In 1996 the chain was acquired by Federated Department Stores and the majority of locations were converted to the Macy's nameplate. Several stores in affluent areas where Macy's already had locations were closed, refurbished and reopened as Bloomingdale's, while Federated sold many of the remaining stores to Sears.
Though the chain had been closed for over seven years, The Broadway Building in Hollywood, including its iconic "The Broadway" sign was featured in the climactic final scenes of the 2003 film Hollywood Homicide starring Harrison Ford.
History
Letts started the Broadway Department Store on February 24, 1896 by purchasing the name, assets, fixtures, and the building lease from the bankrupted firm of J.A. Williams and Co. for a sum of $8377. The previous owners had a good location in a recently constructed building at the corner of Broadway and Fourth Streets, but had all of its assets seized by their creditors for failure to pay its bills after just four short months of operations. In contrast, Letts was able to pay off all of his creditors in a short period of time after acquiring the assets for the failed store by the quick sale of the same assets and by watching his expenses.
In a short period of time, the business was doing so well, that it had to expand into adjacent store fronts. A decade later, it had outgrown its home in the Hallett & Pirtle building and required a new home. It was decided to have a new nine-story building with nearly 11 acres of floor space to be built in several phases at the same location with construction starting in 1913 while the current store remained in business.