Retail entrepreneur women to be featured in docuseries

Are you aware about the trailblazing women who helped change the face of retail in the 20th century and even before? These include Lord + Taylor’s Dorothy Shaver, Bonwit Teller & Co.'s Hortense Odlum and Henri Bendel’s Geraldine Stutz.

In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum began her career in marketing her husband's store and ended up running Bonwit Teller. During World War II, Dorothy Shaver promoted American over Parisian designers and her success led her to earn $1 million in salary at Lord & Taylor. And in the 1960s, Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store.

All of this is in a book published last year. It is titled “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion," written by Julie Satow. Now, that book has just landed on best-seller lists from The New York Times and USA Today, and the story is getting traction.

But not everyone reads books, so Macy's has acquired the exclusive rights to develop a scripted TV series based on the book to raise the profile of these women. Macy’s CMO Sharon Otterman spearheaded the deal.

In this adaptation, Macy’s is looking to spotlight the often unsung role women played in shaping department stores. Macy’s Margaret Getchell, third cousin to Rowland Hussey Macy, the department store's founder, was one of the first women in retail to hold an executive role in the 19th century. As such, Getchell will be added to the screen adaptation of the documentary series, which is likely to be available for streaming by one of the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video or HBO MAX TV, when the project is completed. That deal has not been finalized, but I'll look forward to streaming it.

“These are stories of resilience, ambition and creativity — women who understood the power of storytelling and branding long before it was a business strategy,” Otterman said in a press release.

Read more: Macy’s to Develop TV Series on Women in Retail (Women’s Wear Daily)