Memories Archives ~ Taffy's

On the Occasion of her 90th Birthday

July 7, 2016 by Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) Leave a Comment

From Steven, her son:

Here is the speech which I intended to give at Mom’s 90th birthday. Somewhy, I did not not do it. I read it to her last year. We both decided it was not as good as the Indians winning the World Serious.

Drink to her. Drink to her life. May you all strive and attain your dreams, as she did.

… but please, do not drink that shitty Gallo Chardonnay.

On the Occasion of her 90th Birthday

In Japan, at an event such as this, we always say a few words before we feast. So tonight, as the family member who has known her the longest, I would like to say a few words about my Mom and about family.

For 62 years she has been my advisor, my friend, my role model, and my mother. What ever is good inside me, came from her. As you all know, she has always been there for me, no matter what kind of rotten escapade or stew I had found my way into.

The word “stew” crystallizes the point I want to make here. In Jewish tradition, we do not mix milk and meat. Why? The biblical injunction reads “do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk”, or in other words, don’t make someone stew in their own juice; remember to be compassionate at all times.

As my Mom taught me, the Yiddish word for compassion is rachmones, which comes from the Hebrew rechem, meaning womb, to remind us that to be compassionate is to take someone into your womb, to make them as family.

For each of us here tonight, my Mom has been there during troubled times: with compassion, with love, and with her, how I should I say, unique advice, helping to cool the stews in which we have sometimes found ourselves boiling. She has brought each of us into her family. That’s why we are here together tonight, as family, to celebrate and to mark an event in her life.

I remember each of you with my Mom on her kooky adventures: Kathy and Taffy in the convent in Fiesole; Judy and Taffy at Camp Wigwam for little Jewish Indian boys; Rita and Taffy seducing the Kennedy press corps in Hyannisport; Suie and Taffy on the bus from JFK to Cleveland during a blizzard when the planes couldn’t fly… I could go on and on, and later, after more wine, and perhaps to your dismay, I will.

And I remember all of those family members who are not here tonight: John Begg, Alex Martin, Aunt Roie, David Humphrey … the list of the Taffy Family members is as long and as luminescent as the tail of a comet crossing the sky.

Mom, you have always been exactly yourself. With no pretense, with no duplicity, with apologies to no one, and with compassion for all, you have always walked your path, whether it is over the mountain, around the mountain, or straight through the mountain. You have always walked your path, the path of your heart.

Gentlepersons, fill your glasses please …

So on behalf of all us present tonight, on behalf of all of the others so near, yet so far and away, to you, Mom … we are all fucking proud to be in your family and we love you.

L’Chaim … to life…

Life’s a Banquet

September 22, 2015 by Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) Leave a Comment

Sometimes all it takes is Auntie Mame to remember Taffy.

Taffy’s at 1776 Broadway

November 27, 2014 by 3 Comments

When I was younger, Taffy owned a Taffy’s store at 1776 Broadway in NYC. It was sold, along with the rest of the stores, to Capezio, years ago. I don’t have a photo of it as Taffy’s, but pretend this is Taffy’s.

Until my early teen years, we would sometimes get to go to New York City for Thanksgiving and watch the parade.

That’s what it looks like today. If you rent it out, know that one of the craziest people in the universe used to have a store there, and we had great parties.

Me? I used to sit in the window, watching the parade.

Happy Thanksgiving. Lift a glass of chardonnay.

Stylish, Smart, and Sassy: “Taffy’s” Founder Taffy Epstein Dies

August 19, 2013 by 2 Comments

Studio dancers and teachers everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to Taffy Epstein, who based her costume company and line of coast-to-coast dance retail stores on the then-radical ideas of style, quality, and convenience. She died June 10 at age 92.

Art Stone says he built his own successful costume company by “copying everything she did. I learned more from her than anyone in the industry,” he says of his longtime friend. “She was the leader-the first to come out with a color costume catalog, the first to open more than one store. She was quite a woman, and I w ill miss her desperately.”

Epstein was born Harriett Gombossy on July 20, 1920, in Akron, Ohio.

An amateur hoofer, she shared a love of the arts with her h sband, Harvey Epstein, a shoe designer. Noting the growing interest in tap shoes, the two opened a shop In 1954. Officially Cleveland Dance Footwear, it was known as
“Taffy’s place,” the Epsteins’ daughter, Susan Epstein, told Dance Studio Life. Taffy Epstein, a woman with impeccable style and an indomitable “Auntie Mame” attitude, plunged in. In the days when leotards were unshapely cotton garments and many dance students sported recital costumes sewn by their moms, Epstein demanded well-designed, top-quality garments. One Taffy’s store expanded to become a chain of 14, from Seattle to Dallas to New York City.

Taffy’s was the first retail distributor of Danskin tights, Susan Epstein said, and the first to design and sell dance dresses. To support studio industry retailers, Taffy Epstein worked toward the creation of the United Dance Merchants of America. She hired innovative employees and listened to them, threw legendary parties, feverishly followed the Cleveland Indians, and never stopped taking risks.

In 1990 Epstein sold Taffy’s to Capezio– when it “stopped being “fun,” she said in published stories.

“It all just sort of happened,” Susan Epstein said of her mother’s storied career “It was the right place, the right time, and the right product.”

Taffy’s 93rd Birthday

July 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Taffy’s ashes were sprinkled, in part, in the garden at Susan and John’s. For all those thinking ‘But she didn’t eat vegetables’ don’t worry, we put her by tomatoes so she could have Bloody Marys forever.