John Peterman

John Peterman (born 1941)[1] is an American catalog and retail entrepreneur from Lexington, Kentucky, who operates the J. Peterman Company. He grew up in West Nyack, New York as the son of a banker and secretary.[2] He is known for founding the J. Peterman Company after finding a cowboy duster on a business trip.[3] He is also known for being fictionalized in the TV series Seinfeld.[4] Peterman was also a Minor League Baseball player, Kentucky rancher, and author.[5]

John Peterman
Born1941 (age 81–82)
West Nyack, New York
EducationCollege of the Holy Cross, 1963
Occupation(s)Founder, Chairman of J. Peterman Company
Years active1987–2000, 2001–present
Known forFounding the J. Peterman Company
Being fictionalized in the TV series Seinfeld
Notable workPeterman Rides Again
Spouse
Audrey Peterman
​
(m. 1964)​
Children4
Parent(s)Charles Peterman, Sally Peterman
Websitehttps://www.jpeterman.com/

Early life

Peterman was the third of four children born to Charles and Sally Peterman. He had two brothers and a sister.[6] Charles Peterman became a loan officer and, later, the assistant vice president[7] of the Irving Trust Co. after working his way up from the mailroom. John Peterman grew up in Van Houten Fields, an agrarian commune in West Nyack, New York. Those who were part of the community built their own houses and grew a portion of their own food. Peterman learned to garden, tend chickens, and participate in other physical labor.[1] His mother worked as an administrative assistant after her children started school.[6]

As a high schooler, Peterman attended Clarkstown High School and participated in basketball, baseball, and football. He was recognized in the local newspaper for his performance in all three sports.[8] In baseball, he played second base and was voted All-P.S.A.L Baseball first team selection as a second baseman.[9] He graduated from Clarkstown High School in 1960.[8]

Education and baseball career

Peterman graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts[2] in 1963 with a Bachelor of Science in economics.[6] He played third base on the Holy Cross baseball teams that went to the College World Series in 1962 and 1963. As a junior in 1962, he had a .362 batting average, and as a senior in 1963, he had a .291 batting average and led his team with 17 runs batted in.[10]

He also played minor-league baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization for two seasons as a second baseman.[11] In 1963, Peterman had a one-day tryout with the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium where he played next to Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Tony Kubek, but did not sign with the team.[12] His baseball career ended in his early 20s after a leg injury.[13][14]

Business career

Sales

Peterman had a career in sales for 20 years after his baseball career ended. He worked as a regional sales manager in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama for General Foods and Castle & Cooke.[3] During his time in sales, Peterman sold dog food, cereal, pineapple, tuna fish, and inspirational tapes. In 1981, he was managing fertilizer accounts but was dismissed.[2]

Corporate consultant

Peterman became a corporate consultant after deciding “that was the first and last time I was going to be fired.”[3] As a corporate specialty-foods sales[1] consultant, he helped people make deals with other companies, and it allowed him to travel. During a meeting to help a client find an advertising company, Peterman met Donald Staley and they began to work closely together. They agreed to collaborate on any entrepreneurial ideas they envisioned, which led to several businesses.[3]

Entrepreneur

Together, Peterman and Staley started a mail-order company to heal sick houseplants as well as a manufacturing business making beer cheese; both were successful.[3] The beer cheese business was originally Hall's Beer Cheese and Peterman bought half the company. While he was selling beer cheese, he found a horseman's duster that would propel him into the retail business. The beer cheese was being sold downstairs and the retail business was upstairs until Hall's was eventually sold.[15]

J. Peterman Company
Main article: J. Peterman Company

In 1986, Peterman was on a business trip in Denver, Colorado, and decided to explore Wyoming. He went to Jackson Hole and bought a horseman's duster because he liked it.[16] After wearing it consistently, he and his friend Staley decided to sell more of the coats, putting an advertisement in The New Yorker. That led to the sale of about 70 coats and the J. Peterman Company was created.[17] In the fall of 1988, the company's first catalog was published, with black and white drawings and a literary copy style. Color illustrations were introduced to the catalog in 1989.

Peterman found unique items to sell in the catalog and Staley wrote the product descriptions. Bob Hagel was the first J. Peterman Co. illustrator and art director. He made the decision to draw and paint the clothes from the catalog without bodies, so they appeared like "well-traveled ghosts."[18] The catalog drew the attention of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Clint Eastwood, and Tom Hanks. The company continued to grow and, in 1995, the TV show Seinfeld debuted J. Peterman as a character played by John O'Hurley. After the character's first appearance, Peterman agreed with Seinfeld’s lawyers that he would approve the scripts in which his fictional part had a role.[19] The J. Peterman Co. also sold movie replicas of the "Heart of The Ocean" necklace from the 1997 film Titanic. The company sold $1 million worth of necklace replicas along with other costume and prop replicas.[20]

The J. Peterman Co. was unable to sustain its rapid growth and, in 1999, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was bought by Paul Harris Stores. However, in 2000, Paul Harris Stores went bankrupt and Peterman was able to buy back his namesake brand.[20] The J. Peterman Company catalog was relaunched and Tim Peterman, John Peterman's son, was the CEO of J. Peterman Company until 2014. As of 2018, the president of the J. Peterman Company was Kyle Foster.[21] The company developed Peterman's Eye, a social networking site, and an online catalog that offers mail-order inventory, as well as unique antiques.[22]

Personal life

Peterman was married to his wife, Audrey (née Aramini, born to Ann and Albert Aramini) in 1964. They have four children:[2] Robyn, Sean, Timothy, and Matthew.[23] Peterman's daughter Robyn Peterman Zahn, a writer and former actress, is married to the actor Steve Zahn. They have two children, Henry James Zahn and Audrey Clair Zahn.[24] Sean was a cattle and grain farmer until he was killed July 23, 2015, in a farming accident in Lexington, Kentucky.[25][23] Tim Peterman was CEO of J. Peterman Company from 2008 until 2014, and helped build the company's web presence.[26] Around 2014, Matt Peterman started working at the J. Peterman Company as Creative Director after spending time in Los Angeles, California, in the film business.

Peterman owns a cabin on a 550-acre parcel of land in Lexington, Kentucky, that was formerly farmed by his son Sean.[1]

In 2001, Peterman presented a lecture titled "The Painful but Essential Art of Failing" at his alma mater, College of the Holy Cross.[27]

Works

After the J. Peterman Company filed for bankruptcy and was bought by Paul Harris Stores, Peterman wrote a book, Peterman Rides Again, a 2000 memoir that explores his life from his early baseball career to finding products for the catalog while traveling.[28] It also chronicles the rise and fall of the J. Peterman Company and Peterman's lessons in entrepreneurship.[29] The book was published November 6, 2000 and has 225 pages.[30][31]

Seinfeld caricature

Peterman was fictionalized in the TV sitcom Seinfeld, played by John O'Hurley, as Elaine Benes' (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) boss in the last three seasons. O'Hurley has said that his distinctive manner of speaking as the character was inspired by "'40s radio drama, combined with a bit of a bad Charles Kuralt."[4]

References
  1. Vinjamuri, David (2008-03-31). Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 22–49. ISBN 9780470282083.
  2. "Suburban Cowboy John Peterman Rides the Long Coattails of His Dude-Ish Duster to Catalog Success". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  3. de Witt, Karen (30 April 1997). "A Legend in His Own Ad Copy, and on 'Seinfeld'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  4. Adventurer: Seinfeld's J. Peterman. Forbes.com Video Network. Retrieved Jun 6, 2009.
  5. "In search of the real J. Peterman". Retail Dive. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  6. Jurgelski, Susan. "Putting on the ritzy / The man, the myth, the legend, the catalog and the new line of furniture". LancasterOnline. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  7. "Rockland County Times 21 October 1971". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. Basson, Sam (1960-01-14). "Spice of Sports" (PDF). Orangetown Telegram. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  9. Basson, Sam (1959-06-18). "Lions Share to Rams, Suffern, Bucs in All P.S.A.L. Baseball Selections" (PDF). Orangetown Telegram. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  10. "Bio - John H. Peterman". goholycross.com. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  11. "John Peterman Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
  12. Walters, John (1998-11-02). "Yankee Stadium for Sale Home Plate and Old Seats at J. Peterman's Ain't Cheap". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  13. "The real J. Peterman turns to a Texas company for a baseball product in his spring catalog". Dallas News. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  14. "John Peterman Has 40 Million Reasons To Smile". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  15. "How J. Peterman Is Resurrecting Retail". Ace Weekly. 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  16. Gallagher, Jacob. "Remember the J.Peterman Catalog? It's Still Going Strong and so is Mr. Peterman". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  17. "A Brief History of J. Peterman, the Real-Life Catalog That Survived Seinfeld". InsideHook. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  18. Alpern, Emma (2018-03-23). "The Reason J. Peterman Catalogs Use Art Instead of Photographs". Racked. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  19. Peterman, John (September–October 1999). "The Rise and Fall of the J. Peterman Company". Harvard Business Review. Brighton, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Publishing. Retrieved June 24, 2021. I did review the scripts. After the first time O'Hurley appeared as me on the show, Seinfeld's lawyers contacted me, and we agreed that I would sign off on the scripts in which my character had a part.
  20. Fishman, Elana (2017-12-13). "How Titanic's Iconic Necklace Almost Sank an Entire Company". Racked. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  21. Unglesbee, Ben (April 27, 2018). "In search of the real J. Peterman". Retail Dive. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  22. Frank Silverstein (2009-01-25). "J. Peterman rides again". MSNBC. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  23. "Sean Peterman". Legacy. July 27, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  24. "Robyn Peterman". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  25. "J. Peterman's Son Killed In Farming Accident". Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  26. Schiller, Kristan (2012-07-06). "Bouncing Back from Bankruptcy to Reinvent a Brand". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  27. McNamara, Katharine (Spring 2001). "The Single Most Important Job" (PDF). Holy Cross Magazine. 35: 41.
  28. Peterman, John (2000). "Nonfiction Book Review: Peterman Rides Again by John Peterman, Author Prentice Hall Press $25 (288p)". PublishersWeekly.com. ISBN 978-0-7352-0199-6. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  29. "College of the Holy Cross | Holy Cross Magazine". www.holycross.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  30. "Peterman Rides Again". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  31. Peterman, John (2000). Peterman Rides Again. Paramus, N.J.: Prentice Hall Press. ISBN 0-7352-0199-4.
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