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52-413: Founded by Benjamin W. Sangor , ACG was co-owned by Fred Iger from 1948 to 1967. Iger's father-in-law, Harry Donenfeld , head of National Periodical Publications (later known as DC Comics), was also a co-owner in the early 1960s (though Donenfeld was severely incapacitated and out of the business after an accident in 1962). ACG was distributed by Independent News Company , which also distributed by (and

104-658: A Benjamin Sanger (with an "e") married Etta Weidenfeld at the Hotel Martinique in Manhattan , New York City , though it is unclear if this is the same Sangor and if so, whether he had been married previously — since by 1940, his grown daughter Jacquelyn Sanger (as her last name is spelled in The New York Times ) of Chicago had married pulp magazine publisher Ned Pines , founder of Standard Comics . At some point, Sangor had

156-685: A closed store in Panorama City , California, 2010 demolished In November 2024 /gallery> By the 1990s even its rivals began to lose ground to low-price competition from the likes of Target and Walmart , which eroded even more of Montgomery Ward's traditional customer base. In 1997, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , emerging from protection by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 1999 as

208-402: A fellow by the name of Jim Davis ... [who] set up a studio, and Jim got hold of a lot of artists, and they started to produce [comics] material." This was the beginning of what is colloquially referred to as the "Sangor Shop", a studio of writers and artists that, like other such "packagers" of the time, created comics on demand for publishers testing the fledgling medium. The corporate structure

260-445: A loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street, between Rush and State Streets. In 1883, the company's catalog had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. In 1896, Ward encountered its first serious competition in the mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Ward had total sales of $ 8.7 million, compared to $ 10 million for Sears , and both companies struggled for dominance during much of

312-403: A new president, Sewell Avery , who cut staff levels and stores, changed lines, hired store rather than catalog managers, and refurbished stores. These actions caused the company to become profitable before the end of the 1930s. Ward was very successful in its retail business. "Green awning" stores dotted hundreds of small towns across the country. Larger stores were built in the major cities. By

364-464: A number of key new management people, including Edward Donnell, former manager of Sears' Los Angeles stores. The new management team achieved the turnaround reducing the number of suppliers from 15,000 to 7,000 and the number of brands being carried dropped from 168 to 16. Ward's private brands were given 95 percent of the volume compared with 40 percent in 1960. The results of these changes were lower handling costs and higher quality standards. Buying

416-561: A wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital , which was by then its largest shareholder. As part of a last-ditch effort to remain competitive, the company closed over 100 retail locations in 30 U.S. states, abandoned the specialty store strategy, rebranded the chain as simply Wards , and spent millions of dollars to renovate its remaining outlets to be flashier and more consumer-friendly. GE Capital reneged on promises of further financial support of Montgomery Ward's restructuring plans. On December 28, 2000, after lower-than-expected sales during

468-562: A wife named Francis. An entrepreneur, Sangor established B.W. Sangor & Company by at least October 1925, when the concern issued stock to develop the resort community of Pinewald, New Jersey , on Barnegat Bay . This included the development of an 18-hole golf course and the Spanish Renaissance -style Royal Pine Hotel, built by the Sangor Hotel Corporation. About 8,000 lots were sold between 1928 and 1929. The firm

520-652: The CyberVision 2001 in 1978, developed by the Authorship Resource, Inc., of Franklin, Ohio , and primarily manufactured by United Chem-Con. However, mounting competition from other computer companies as well as manufacturing problems compelled the three companies to pull the plug on the CyberVision product by the early 1980s. By 1980, Mobil realized that the Montgomery Ward stores were doing poorly in comparison to

572-516: The Golden Age of Comic Books . Harry Donenfeld — publisher of DC Comics precursor National Comics and a friend with whom he often played gin rummy — helped capitalize the new venture. Donenfeld's Independent News Distributors provided distribution to newsstands. ACG published via several imprints including Creston Publications and Michel Publications (both listed as at 420 DeSoto Ave., St. Louis 7, Missouri ), and Best Syndicated Features (at

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624-738: The New Jersey Supreme Court against Sangor and Anthony M. Then — the chairman and president, respectively, of the Toms River Trust Company — charging embezzlement and larceny of $ 81,320 in securities. On November 2, the two were convicted after a three-week jury trial in Ocean County Common Pleas Court and each sentenced to one to three years in prison and a $ 1,000 fine. They appealed their convictions in 1936, and their sentences in 1937, but eventually surrendered themselves on January 31, 1938, to serve time at

676-577: The War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as commander-in-chief . In 1945, Truman ended the seizure and the Supreme Court dismissed the pending appeal as moot. After World War II, Sewell Avery believed the country would fall back into a recession or even a depression. He decided to not open any new stores, and did not even permit expenditure for paint to freshen

728-505: The intellectual property assets of the former Wards, including the "Montgomery Ward" and "Wards" trademarks, for an undisclosed amount. DMSI applied the brand to a new online and catalog-based retailing operation, with no physical stores, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa . DMSI then began operating under the Montgomery Ward branding in June 2004, selling many of the same kinds of products as

780-449: The 1960s. The company survived the 1954 Senate subcommittee hearings on the dangers of comic books , even retaining its somewhat diluted horror title Adventures into the Unknown . However, in 1955 ACG canceled four long-running humor titles: the talking-animal series Giggle Comics and Ha Ha Comics , and the teen-humor titles Cookie and The Kilroys . An October 1, 1952 "Statement of

832-467: The 1970s. In 1973, its 102nd year in business, it purchased a small discount store chain, the Miami -based Jefferson Stores, renaming these locations Jefferson Ward. Mobil , flush with cash from the recent rise in oil prices and looking to diversify, bought a controlling share of MARCOR in 1974, only to acquire the company outright in 1976. The company was an early entrant in the home computer market with

884-552: The 20th century. By 1904, Ward had expanded such that it mailed three million catalogs, weighing 4 lb (1.8 kg) each, to customers. In 1908, the company opened a 1.25-million-square-foot (116,000 m ) building stretching along nearly one-quarter mile of the Chicago River , north of downtown Chicago. The building, known as the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House , served as the company headquarters until 1974, when

936-636: The Appellate Term of the New York Supreme Court over a claim that the company had breached state insurance law because of a clause giving the widow of a purchaser a clear deed. At some point during this Great Depression era, the company went bankrupt, and by June 1930, a Pinewald amphitheater was being planned for construction by George A. Raker & Co., whose company principal had been Sangor's general manager two years earlier. In February 1935, previously quashed indictments were reinstated by

988-611: The Christmas season, the company announced it would cease operating, close its remaining 250 retail outlets, and lay off its 37,000 employees. At its height, the original Montgomery Ward was one of the biggest retailers in the United States. After its demise, the familiarity of its brand meant its name, corporate logo, and advertising were considered valuable intangible assets. In 2004, catalog marketer Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), an Iowa direct marketing company, purchased much of

1040-457: The Jefferson Ward model. The burden of servicing the new stores fell to the tiny Jefferson staff, who were overwhelmed by the increased store count, had no experience in dealing with some of the product lines they now carried, and were unfamiliar with buying for northern markets. Almost immediately, Jefferson had turned from a small moneymaker into a large drain on profits. The company sold

1092-520: The Jefferson stores, and decided that high quality discount units, along the lines of Dayton Hudson Company's Target stores, would be the retailer's future. Within 18 months, management quintupled the size of the operation, now called Jefferson Ward, to more than 40 units in the Delaware Valley and Richmond metropolitan areas, and planned to convert one-third of Montgomery Ward's existing stores to

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1144-651: The Ownership, Management, and Circulation" published in ACG's Forbidden Worlds #15 gave its publisher's name as “Preferred Publications, Inc., 8 Lord St., Buffalo, New York” and the owners as Preferred Publications and "B. W. Sangor, 7 West 81st Street, New York, N. Y." The editor was listed as “Richard E. Hughes, 120 West 183rd St., New York, N. Y.” and the business manager as "Frederick H. Iger, 50 Beverly Road, Great Neck , Great Neck, L. I. , N. Y." An October 1, 1950, statement published in ACG's Cookie #29 gives identical data, with

1196-549: The Unknown (starting with #154), and John Force, Magic Agent , in his own title in 1962, then later in Unknown Worlds (#35, 36, 48, 50, 52, 56), with a few stories in Forbidden Worlds (#124, 145) and Adventures into the Unknown (#153, 157). ACG's superheroes failed to catch on. Sales of Forbidden Worlds and Adventures into the Unknown slumped after superheroes were put into their pages, and Hughes responded by dropping

1248-400: The adverse effect on the delivery of goods in wartime. Avery had refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an executive order seizing all of Montgomery Ward's property nationwide, citing

1300-536: The chain's 18-store northern division to Bradlees , a division of Stop & Shop , in 1985. The remaining stores closed. In 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years and began an aggressive policy of renovating its remaining stores. It restructured many of the store layouts in the downtown areas of larger cities and affluent neighborhoods into boutique -like specialty stores, as these were drawing business from traditional department stores. In 1986, fellow MARCOR firm, Container Corporation of America,

1352-481: The comics for Pines until 1945. In 1943, ACG started to publish its own work under such names as B&I Publishing , Michel Publications and Regis Publishing . It acquired the publisher Creston Publications in 1943, making Creston into an ACG imprint. By 1948, it was publishing comics under the name of American Comics Group. Its titles were typical of the times, including horror , crime , mystery, romance , and talking animal comics. In 1948, it began publishing

1404-703: The company in the near future. In March 1988, the company management undertook a successful $ 3.8 billion (~$ 8.45 billion in 2023) leveraged buyout , making Montgomery Ward a privately held company. <gallery> File:Montgomery Ward Bluefield, WV.jpg|A Montgomery Ward Building in Bluefield, West Virginia File:Abandoned Montgomery Ward.jpg|A vacant Montgomery Ward store, Regency Mall , Augusta, Georgia File:Vacant Montgomery Ward Huntington Beach.JPG|A former Montgomery Ward store, Huntington Center , Huntington Beach, California , demolished in 2010 File:Electric Ave Logo - Montgomery Wards.JPG|An "Electric Avenue" logo on

1456-512: The creative personnel at various times who produced content for the Sangor Shop were John Celardo , Dan Gordon , Graham Ingels , Jack Katz , Bob Oskner , and Art Saaf . Sangor closed the studio in 1948. Five years earlier, in 1943, Sangor had formed American Comics Group , with the editorial address 45 West 45th Street in Manhattan, to publish comics during the 1940s boom period known as

1508-476: The editorial address), before eventually using ACG as the umbrella brand sometime after the war. The editor was Gerald Albert through 1945, followed by Richard E. Hughes . Sometime after returning from the U.S. Army in the 1940s, Donenfeld's son-in-law, Frederick Iger — no relation to fellow early comics pioneer Jerry Iger — invested with Sangor by forming the B & I Corporation, which published as an imprint of ACG. By at least 1947, B & I Publishing

1560-470: The end of the 1930s, Montgomery Ward had become the country's largest retailer, and Sewell Avery became the company's chief executive officer. In April 1944, four months into a nationwide strike by the company's 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the company's Chicago offices. The action was ordered due to Avery's refusal to settle the strike as requested by the Roosevelt administration, concerned about

1612-697: The entire ACG superhero line and returning both series to their original fantasy formula in the Winter of 1967. By 1968, the company had ended publication, except for its commercial comics division, Custom Comics , established in 1950, which lasted until the early 1980s doing work for a variety of clients such as the A. C. Gilbert toy company, Montgomery Ward , Tupperware , and the United States Air Force . Source: Benjamin W. Sangor Benjamin William Sangor (February 25, 1889 – January 26, 1953)

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1664-584: The exception of the publisher and co-owner being listed as "Michel Publications, Inc. 420 DeSoto Ave., St. Louis 7, Mo. ” Almost all stories after 1957 were written by editor Hughes under a variety of pseudonyms. Besides the satirical superhero the Fat Fury , other ACG superheroes of the period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books included Magicman (starting in Forbidden Worlds #125), Nemesis in Adventures into

1716-449: The existing stores. His plan was to bank profits to preserve liquidity when the recession or depression he anticipated hit, and then buy up his retail competition. Without new stores or any investment back into the business, Montgomery Ward declined in sales volume compared to Sears. Many have blamed the conservative decisions of Avery, who seemed not to understand the postwar years' changing economy. As new shopping centers were built after

1768-527: The following month. On August 5, 2008, the catalog retailer Swiss Colony purchased DMSI. Swiss Colony—which changed its name to Colony Brands Inc. June 1, 2010—kept Montgomery Ward alive and relaunched the Wards website September 10, 2008, with new catalogs mailing in February 2009. A month before the catalog's launch, Swiss Colony President John Baumann told United Press International the retailer might also resurrect

1820-542: The largest industrial structures in their respective locations. The Baltimore Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. In 1926, the company broke with its mail-order-only tradition when it opened its first retail outlet store in Plymouth, Indiana . It continued to operate its catalog business while pursuing an aggressive campaign to build retail outlets in

1872-624: The late 1920s. In 1928, two years after opening its first outlet, it had opened 244 stores. By 1929, it had more than doubled its number of outlets to 531. Its flagship retail store in Chicago was located on Michigan Avenue between Madison and Washington streets. In 1930, the company declined a merger offer from rival chain Sears. Losing money during the Great Depression , Ward alarmed its major investors, including J. P. Morgan, Jr . In 1931, Morgan hired

1924-489: The long-running horror title Adventures into the Unknown . This was the first of a trilogy of ACG horror/supernatural titles that also included Forbidden Worlds (1951–1967) and Unknown Worlds (1960–1967). In 1949, ACG began publishing two long-running romance titles, Romantic Adventures (later changed to My Romantic Adventures ), and Lovelorn (later changed to Confessions of the Lovelorn ). Both titles lasted into

1976-522: The new medium. As Sangor's future business partner, Frederick Iger , recalled in a 1990s interview: Ned Pines needed artwork. They were using it at a tremendous rate. And he casually mentioned to Sangor that he could use another source of art. And that gave Sangor an idea. He had some friends out in Hollywood [who] were associated at the time with the Fleischer Studios . He went out there and contacted

2028-547: The offices moved across the street to a new tower designed by Minoru Yamasaki . The catalog house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a Chicago historic landmark in May 2000. In the decades before 1930, Montgomery Ward built a network of large distribution centers across the country in Baltimore , Fort Worth , Kansas City , Oakland , Portland , and St. Paul . In most cases, these reinforced concrete structures were

2080-564: The original company. The new company does not honor its predecessor's obligations, such as gift cards and items sold with a lifetime guarantee. David Milgrom, then president of the DMSI-owned firm, told the Associated Press , "We're rebuilding the brand, and we want to do it right." Four years later, in July 2008, DMSI announced it was on the auction block, with the sale of its assets scheduled for

2132-426: The owners as Preferred Publications and "B. W. Sangor, 7 West 81st Street, New York, N. Y." The editor was listed as "Richard E. Hughes, 120 West 183rd St., New York, N. Y." and the business manager as "Frederick H. Iger, 50 Beverly Road, Great Neck , Great Neck, L. I. , N. Y." Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co.

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2184-604: The state prison in Trenton, New Jersey . Sangor also was an organizer of the Prudence Bondholders Protective Association, which underwent bankruptcy reorganization in 1935. In 1930, before his legal travails, Sangor had begun a decade of publishing racy magazines for men. Afterward, through son-in-law Ned Pines , he entered comic books . Pulp-magazine publisher Pines had founded the imprint Standard Comics in 1939 in order to expand from pulps into

2236-607: The war, Sears was perceived to have better locations than Ward. Nonetheless, for many years Ward was still the nation's third-largest department store chain. In 1955, investor Louis Wolfson waged a high-profile proxy fight to obtain control of the board of Montgomery Ward. The new board forced the resignation of Avery. This fight led to a state court decision that Illinois corporations were not entitled to stagger elections of board members." In 1961, company president John Barr hired Robert Elton Brooker to lead Montgomery Ward as president in its turnaround. Brooker brought with him

2288-426: Was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is an online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after the original Montgomery Ward shut down. Aaron Montgomery Ward started his business in Chicago; conflicting reports place his first office either in a single room at 825 North Clark Street or in

2340-531: Was an American publisher best known for the 1940s to 1950s comic book company American Comics Group and for operating one of the earliest studios of comic-book writers and artists packaging comics for publishers entering the fledgling medium. He additionally was a real-estate entrepreneur. Benjamin W. Sangor was born in Russia and emigrated in 1904 to the United States, where he was naturalized an American citizen in 1914 and became an attorney. On October 1, 1925,

2392-426: Was centralized but store operations were decentralized, under a new territory system modeled after Sears. In 1966, Ed Donnell was named company president. Brooker continued as chairman and chief executive officer until 1976. In 1968, Brooker helped engineer a friendly merger with Container Corporation of America , the new parent company being named MARCOR. Despite the merger, the company continued to struggle into

2444-601: Was divested by Mobil. This effectively dissolved the MARCOR division and left Montgomery Ward as a direct subsidiary of Mobil. Analysts saw the CCA sale as an effort to go back on their diversification efforts, as the debts incurred since MARCOR’s acquisition began to weigh the oil giant down, and many predicted Montgomery Ward was next to be sold. These theories were confirmed in January 1987, when Mobil stated they would be looking into spinning off

2496-543: Was divided into branches, including the Syndicated Features Corporation and the Editorial Art Syndicate. By now disbarred because of his convictions, Sangor saw his studio produce comic books and features for Pines' imprint Standard Comics and its subsidiaries Better Comics and Nedor Comics ; and for National Comics , the primary company that would evolve into modern-day DC Comics . Among

2548-458: Was located at 1457 Broadway in Manhattan by at least September 1926, the year it began developing Pinewald — although "Help Wanted" classified ads that same month give a company address of 187 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn in relation to an event to help "German-speaking men and women interested in improving their money-making possibilities." In January 1930, B.W. Sangor & Co. was sued in

2600-399: Was not a publisher at all, but rather an advertising representative for four different comic-book publishers: Creston, Michel, B & I, and Best Syndicated Features." An October 1, 1952 "Statement of the Ownership, Management, and Circulation" published in ACG's Forbidden Worlds #15 gave that comic's publisher's name as "Preferred Publications, Inc., 8 Lord St., Buffalo, New York " and

2652-543: Was part of the same company as) DC. The company evolved out of a company owned by Sangor. In the mid-1930s, Sangor and Richard E. Hughes began to produce a short-lived prepackaged comics supplement for newspapers. In 1939, the Sangor Shop (as it was informally known) began producing comics for Sangor's son-in-law Ned L. Pines . The Sangor Shop produced the characters and stories of The Black Terror , Pyroman , and Fighting Yank for Pines' Nedor Comics and produced most of

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2704-492: Was producing comics including The Kilroys #1 (June 1947). Sangor appeared before Senator Estes Kefauver 's 1950-51 United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce , which among other topics looked into possible violations of postal law by crime comics publishers. "Perhaps leery of how much information he gave to the committee," wrote historian Michael Vance, "Sangor claimed that ACG

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