Miller, Jerry

Grandson of I. Miller, the founder of a shoe manufacturing firm established in the late 1800's, Jerry Miller began his career in shoe fashions in the late 1940's when he worked for Mademoiselle Shoe Co., a forecasting firm. Miller married the Parsons-trained Margaret Clark and in the early 1950's they set up their own company, the Margaret Clark Design Studio. In 1954, the two founded their own wholesaling shoe company, Shoe Biz, selling Clark's design under the label "Margaret Jerrold." Other brand names included Pancaldi (Walter Steiger, principle designer) Edouard Jerrold (Jann Johnson, principle designer) and Shoe Strings (Donald Hubbard, principle designer). Margaret Jerrold shoes were known for their high style and fine workmanship. In 1960, her designs appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. Margaret, a graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Fine Arts and Parsons School of Design designed shoes that were sold in Lord & Taylor, Saks, Nordstroms and Nieman-Marcus.

In 1960, and in 1961 she received the National Shoe Retailers Award and in 1964 the Nieman-Marcus award. In 1964 she retired due to poor health.

In the mid 1960's Miller turned his attention to retailing, and leased shoe departments in such stores as Bendel's. He later moved to Europe where he set up shoe manufacturing operations in Greece, Spain and Italy. By 1979 he had extended his empire to the Phillipines and was producing over 40 million pairs of shoes in sixty factories worldwide. Shoe designers like Moya Bowler and Walter Steiger designed a full range of shoes from evening wear to active sports. His Shoe Biz line was launched with great fanfare in 1977. Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Harper's Bazar all favorably covered this effort, but in 1982 this line of foreign-produced shoes folded due to the economic climate. Miller's shoes, from the day of Margaret Jerrold to Shoe Biz, were known for their trendy, fast and avant-garde style and outstanding advertising and promotional efforts.