My father, Maxwell A. (Rudy) Rudolph was the scion of an east coast dress manufacturing company called Rudolph-Marged founded by his father Morris Rudolph and his father's brother-in-law Solomon Marged. I think the origins were in Philadelphia, but by the 1930s their company was based in New York City's garment district. At the time, I believe it was a major dress company. My mother, nicknamed Sergee, moved to NYC after one year at UCLA, for career purposes. I believe she got an initial job as a model for the company that my father was an executive at; but by 1939 she married the "boss's son," and I think continued to work with my father in the city, delegating much of the raising of me (born 1941) and my sister Nicki (born 1943). By the end of WWII, she and my dad moved back to her family's home city of Los Angeles (arriving on 11/11/1945), and with the partial backing of my dad's father started their own company: Sergee of California ("dresses for women 5'4" and under," if I recall correctly). My dad would be CEO, my mom chief designer. My mom's younger brother Jimmy was one of the salesmen, and my mom's mother Esther, was an occasional model at fashion shows. The company had an entire building devoted to the business, with over a hundred employees, multiple pattern cutters, sewers, and an entire front office that I spent partial summers at, and got to know the mostly Hispanic workers. I don't think my father was a good businessman (although I KNOW that his father was.) My grandfather would often visit California to advise my dad and I think infuse the business with funds (I don't know this for a fact, just an impression.) Sometime in the late 1950s my father apparently had union problems, and decided to sell the business to a guy named Jack Needleman. This sort of precipitous action was typical of his bi-polar condition that eventually led to my parent's divorce in the early 1960s.
