Herbert Goldsmith, a garment entrepreneur and theatrical producer best known for co-founding the Members Only clothing brand, has died at age 92.
Goldsmith was living in a care facility in Roslyn at the time of his death on Feb. 22, according to an obituary published in The New York Times.
Born in 1927 to a Bronx homemaker and a garment worker for Chief Apparel, Goldsmith was drafted by the U.S. Army toward the end of World War II, and served as a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio in Northern Italy. Upon returning to America, he attended Long Island University, now LIU Post, in Brookville, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in advertising.
After working for Chief Apparel until his father died, in 1961 Goldsmith founded Europe Craft Imports with business partner Edwin Wachtel, achieving steady, moderate success throughout the decade.
In the late 1970s, on a buying trip in Munich, Germany, Goldsmith noticed a slim-fit jacket with a knitted bottom and epaulettes on either shoulder. Combining the design with a chintz, light fabric he found in New York that came in a rainbow of colors, Goldsmith gave the creation a name inspired by a sign he often saw at a Long Island country club: “Members Only.”
The jacket debuted in 1980 to modest success, which ballooned when the company signed soap opera star Anthony Geary as its spokesperson in 1982. Members Only reached over $100 million in sales by 1984, and its later ads, which featured messaging against drug use and advising young people to vote, won Clio Awards, the advertising industry’s highest honor.
After Members Only was named the world’s No. 1 outerwear brand for men in the late 1980s, with sales pushing past $125 million, Goldsmith left the garment industry in 1992 and turned his attention to theatrical producing. His company, Herbert Goldsmith Productions, produced or associate-produced various shows on Broadway throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, including revivals of “Annie” in 1997 and “Glengarry Glen Ross” in 2005, winning a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for the latter.
Goldsmith is survived by three daughters and four grandchildren, as well as his second wife, Myrna. His first wife Dolores (nee Turkel), a speech therapist, died in 2009.
