Robert Hall Clothes

Robert Hall Clothes, Inc., popularly known as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished circa 1938–1977. Based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. According to a Time magazine story in 1949, the corporate name was an invention. The founder and head was garment merchant Jacob Schwab, who "plucked the name out of the air." It started as a single store in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1937. Schwab had been treasurer of United Merchants and Manufacturers, the parent company of Robert Hall, since 1922.  By 1946 Schwab was among the highest-paid executives in America, earning more than $440,000 a year.