This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

How is this for a post-op? "The fashions were too forward," said apparel industry analyst Kurt Barnard. Merry-Go-Round was a huge clothing chain targeted at teens and young adults, one in which (I couldn't make this up folks) my best friend in high school worked, gaining her great respect amongst the shopping-obsessed teens we were.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Merry-Go-Round was the darling of Wall Street and the suburbs where Jessica sold $70 rayon shirts for minimum wage plus commission. Its 536 stores comprised Merry-Go-Round, Dejaiz, Cignal, and Chess King, the latter an acquisition made a few years before its demise. One blogger called the apparel "faux upscale" and wrote of the chain's merchandise, "the cheesiest, sleaziest, ugliest and most eye-searing '80s clothes you could possibly find. Velcro closures? Check. Mesh designs? Check. Excessive use of leather? Check. Odd-colored thick v-neck sweater vests? Check."

Sadly, the mid-nineties teen did not want to wear v-neck sweater vests, mesh, or paisley rayon blouses. According to the New York Times, the 1990s teen wanted ripped jeans from Wal-Mart. The company had expanded too fast, too furious, changing merchandising strategies so frequently that its edgy consumers couldn't keep up. The business was so overtly trendy it tipped over the edge. Merry-Go-Round filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1994, but couldn't stay afloat and liquidated all its assets in 1996 when its chief backer, Fidelity Management, pulled its support.

The music stopped for Merry-Go-Round, and all the mesh-covered horsies fell off. None of the children, it seems, cried.

Companies that vanished: Merry-Go-Round, the music stopped originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Paine Webber was never the biggest brokerage on Wall Street; the title of top dog was held throughout the years by its rivals, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, E.F. Hutton, Kidder Peabody, Bear Stearns, Salomon Brothers. But it was part of the solid middle, the proud family firms that began to boom in the early decades of the 20th century, many before the Great Depression, and survived for nearly 100 years.

Paine Webber was founded in 1880 by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. The firm expanded slowly in the latter part of the 19th century and by 1930 had expanded to 30 branch offices in 25 cities through the Northeast and Midwest United States. When Paine died in September 1929, his son Stephen had become a partner in the firm, maintaining the family connection. Unfortunately, Stephen got the firm mixed up in a securities fraud case involving Canadian investment trusts in the late 1930s, ending up with his securities license revoked and his firm's proud family name in the dirt.

The firm eventually recovered from the ignomy, and in 1963 moved its headquarter offices to New York City. Throughout the next few decades, it expanded through acquisitions in the Northeast and Southeast U.S. Unfortunately, Paine Webber was a follower of market trends, and in the late 1970s when it became vogue for brokerages and investment banks to combine forces, it bought Blyth Eastman Dillon. The merger turned out to be disastrous, as the company was not prepared for the immediately following bull retail market. Their systems could not support the thousands upon thousands of trades, and the company almost broke under the pressure.

Continue reading Companies that vanished: Paine Webber, proud family heritage

Companies that vanished: Paine Webber, proud family heritage originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Pan American World Airways, or Pan Am, was an international airline that was in business from 1927 through 1991, when it ceased its operations after over a decade of mounting financial losses and having to declare for bankruptcy.

The company, despite being defunct for seventeen years, is still well remembered in pop culture. The blue circular logo has made such an impression that it is put on designer travel bags to signify traveling in luxury today.

Beyond that, Pan Am will always be remembered as the airline that brought the Beatles to New York City in 1964, as well as the airline that con man Frank Abagnale, Jr., passed himself off as a pilot for, which was later immortalized in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can.

Pan Am was featured prominently in a number of other films. One of the most notable appearances was the Pan Am "space clipper" in Stanley Kubrick's science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Pan Am brand was also displayed in the movie Blade Runner, and the company is said to be one of many, along with Atari, Cuisinart, and others, that suffered from the "Blade Runner curse" -- companies whose logos were featured in the movie experienced disasters and have since gone defunct.

Continue reading Companies that vanished: Pan Am, cultural icon

Companies that vanished: Pan Am, cultural icon originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.