His son Robert Hayman accepted the honor at a reception hosted by Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel during Rodeo Drive Celebrates Fashion
To celebrate its 50th birthday, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, the Rodeo Drive Committee hosted a fashionable soiree on the Rodeo Terrace of Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel as part of its fourth annual Rodeo Drive Celebrates Fashion event.
After mingling over hors d’oeuvres by the hotel’s executive chef Colin Bedford, the group — which included Mayor Craig A. Corman, Councilmember Dr. Sharona Nazarian, Dr. Julian Gold, Councilmember Lester Friedman, Blair Schlecter, Lisa Bloch, Councilmember Rebecca Pynoos, Rodeo Drive Committee Vice Presidents Kiersten Dunn, Kay Monica Rose and Risa Misawa, and representatives from Rodeo Drive boutiques and Two Rodeo Drive — gathered around a podium.
Rodeo Drive Committee President Kathy Gohari kicked off the remarks and praised the late Rodeo Drive visionary, Fred Hayman. “Nearly 50 years ago, Fred Hayman recognized something extraordinary about Rodeo Drive,” she began. “Not simply its potential as a luxury shopping destination, but its ability to become one of the world’s greatest streets.”
She continued, “Fred brought together a remarkable group of visionary retailers and business leaders to establish the Rodeo Drive Committee … an organization whose mission continues to guide us today.”
Mayor Corman called Hayman “the Grandfather of Rodeo Drive — whose imagination, leadership and passion helped make this city and the street what it is today.”
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His son, Robert Hayman, then thanked everyone for the honor bestowed upon his late father. “Rodeo Drive and Rodeo Drive Committee, I’ve been hearing those names for 40, 50 years,” he said. “And in the beginning, we had people like Aldo Gucci, Herb Fink, Jerry Magnin, they all got together — they were members or they were involved somehow. And they were all engaged passionately in what they were doing. They didn’t always get along, but it was like a family arguing with each other, figuring out what’s the right thing to do?”
He continued, “At the end of the day, they crafted a vision — and I believe they were all a part of this. And I think my father certainly was a big part of it as well.”
Rose Apodaca, a fashion journalist who wrote the 2011 biography, Fred Hayman The Extraordinary Difference: The Story of Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Glamour and the Showman Who Sold It All, shared some anecdotes. She called him an elegant, charming man — who had a vision about fashion, before the red carpet and stylists existed.
“Fred kind of was the originator on that level,” she shared. “He was a savvy, self-promoter for Rodeo Drive, and he would go on ABC and talk about what people were going to be wearing at the Oscars … and the truth is, he was dressing, through his store, a lot of the celebrities that would be attending.”
Apodaca recalled how Hayman — the son of Holocaust victims who escaped to New York — worked his way up at the Waldorf until Conrad Hilton enlisted him to open The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Hayman took over a little shop called Giorgio and then moved to Rodeo, which he aspired to make comparable to shopping boulevards like Fifth Avenue and Bond Street.
She attributed his success to putting his money where his mouth was, his meticulousness (with the store windows and staff), and his aesthetic eye. She also credited him with being among the first in L.A. to mix retail and entertainment (“retail-tainment”)— enlisting Merv Griffin as an emcee for events, and for putting a bar in his store, serving alcohol to men while women shopped. A 1952 silver Rolls-Royce would even drop off purchases — or people who’d had a few too many.
Said Apodaca, “Fred’s history was very much the history of Beverly Hills.”
Jasmin Rosemberg
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