Henry Jacques Gaisman - Mastermind!

Discussion in 'General Shaving Talk' started by GlennConti, Aug 16, 2019.

  1. mr-razor

    mr-razor Well-Known Member

    great thread, Glenn. Thanks for sharing!
     
    Ron R, brit, jmudrick and 1 other person like this.
  2. GlennConti

    GlennConti Well-Known Member

    brit and Ijustmissedthe50s like this.
  3. GlennConti

    GlennConti Well-Known Member

    So, guys whatever happened to Gaisman's fortune? Follow the money baby! Well when he died it passed to Catherine V Gaisman his wife. They never had any children. When Catherine died the assets passed to The Catherine and Henry J Gaisman Foundation from her estate. This foundation is managed by Eric Waldman as Chairman and Kimberly Waldman Director. Eric is Catherine's nephew. Eric spends 20 hours per week figuring out where to spend the foundation's money and Kimberly spends 10 hours per week figuring out how to spend the foundations money. Kimberly and Eric take no salary for their duties as foundation managers. The foundation in 2016 had about $140 million. They gave out about $7 million that year as grants. However the foundation does have some expenses for Eric's services it seems. He has to travel a lot. Travel expenses were $51,775 and rent on his offices were $48,000 and office expenses were $25,311. Now a good chunk of the portfolio owned by the foundation is Procter & Gamble stock also a bunch of Exxon Mobil stock. So, you wouldn't think that owning shares of stock requires much management - would you? Well the foundation paid High Mountain Capital Partners (I believe) $2,228,579 to manage the portfolio in 2016! Weird right? Well guess who is the managing partner at High Mountain? You guessed it Eric Waldman!!! I don't begrudge anyone anything. More power to him. I just wonder if Catherine would approve?

    http://gilletteadjustable.com/wp-co...-136129464-gaisman-foundation-inc-2016-12.pdf

    Disclaimer: I am not an accountant. If I misinterpreted the foundation's tax returns, sorry.

    Again, the portfolio returned $4,794,481 in 2016 (most of that was dividends and interest!) and management fees were $2,228,579. Or a 46.5% commission in 2016. I guess Eric hasn't heard of the S&P 500 Index ETF shares yet at 0.03% commission (or $42,000 per year).
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2019
    PLANofMAN, Ijustmissedthe50s and brit like this.
  4. GlennConti

    GlennConti Well-Known Member

    6A6DB7AD-6990-4181-8745-C17EC4A9E9A2.jpeg Park Avenue office suite in New York City at $4000 per month rent to conduct the foundation’s business.
     
    PLANofMAN and brit like this.
  5. GlennConti

    GlennConti Well-Known Member

    Kitty Gaisman passed in 2010 and she rests with her husband in New Rochelle NY.

    267DD5DF-9BF7-49E7-90FE-CB45CC16DABA.jpeg
     
    PLANofMAN and brit like this.
  6. GlennConti

    GlennConti Well-Known Member

    EBF504D0-34C9-44B1-AD6C-710303C5E232.jpeg

    A Renoir painting Henry bought in 1970 for $280,000. His wife donated it to a museum on her death I believe.
     
    PLANofMAN, brit and Rev579 like this.
  7. brit

    brit in a box

    awesome..
     
    GlennConti likes this.
  8. riverrun

    riverrun Well-Known Member

    I have put both the original patent and the reissue online, clearly showing the differences:

    https://razors.click/patents/US1658435/
     
    Rev579, brit and jmudrick like this.
  9. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    More money going in than out. I'd say Catherine would probably approve.

    Wish I could make a living doing that.
     
    brit likes this.
  10. romsitsa

    romsitsa Well-Known Member

    Three holed blades were still produced after the slotted design was introduced. Although blury, this is an early US "New" type blank, lacquered.
    6e24c3ff63790b78bc42b7eaa153a663eaf33b16.jpg
     
    brit likes this.
  11. romsitsa

    romsitsa Well-Known Member

    As for why Gillette bought Autostrop instead of fighting them, I guess:
    To settle the "war" before invenstors became too nervous.
    Austostrops strip method was miles ahead of Gillettes manufacturing method.
    With all due respect, it took years even for the US courts to figure out that while Gillette and Gaisman patents looked identical, actually served different puroses, and even more importantly, that all patents were invalid for a lack of novelty.
    So in 1930 a merger most likely looked to be the best idea, and imho, it really was.
     
    brit likes this.
  12. brit

    brit in a box

    awesome..:cool:
     
  13. jmudrick

    jmudrick Type A Man

    Read through that whole thread again. Good times.

    Sent from my Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) using Tapatalk
     
    brit likes this.
  14. IAmTheJody

    IAmTheJody Gillette-i Master Staff Member

    Notice that the Kroman blades were in this production... 1 million packets or 5 million blades... The Kroman blades were a complete failure for Gillette. Brittle, broke easy, and even though they were printed right on the blade "Rust Resisting", they rusted horribly, and customers obviously weren't keen on paying a premium for such bad quality blades. They were promptly discontinued. Not sure how that affected their bottom line, but it must be included. Rather interesting though to see Gillette releasing two new blades at the same time.
    [​IMG]
    The Colgate-Palmolive promotion... I have a NOS promo:
    IMG_20210625_095847b.jpg IMG_20210625_095829~2a.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2021
    brit and Enrico like this.
  15. jmudrick

    jmudrick Type A Man

    US Gillette sales numbers were abysmal during this (early New) period and blades represented the most important dollar component...plus two national in print apologies in '32 for bad blades (a year after first considering said apology)...safe to say there was substantial bottom line impact beyond consumers just worrying about corporate intrigue. My guess anyway.

    Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2021
    brit and IAmTheJody like this.
  16. PLANofMAN

    PLANofMAN Eccentric Razor Collector Staff Member

    Moderator Article Team
    Jody, you failed to mention that the Kro-Mon blades were also recalled from vendors with remaining stock and destroyed by Gillette. That event, along with the very short production run, makes those blades one of the rarest and hardest for the Gillette collector to find.
     
    brit and IAmTheJody like this.
  17. IAmTheJody

    IAmTheJody Gillette-i Master Staff Member

    Definitely. A single blade, a packet, a full 50-packet carton... All rare and worthy of a home in someone's collection. 10ish years ago when I was a hardcore Gillette collector, I was lucky to have a NOS still sealed 50-packet carton. I tried to find my old thread I know I posted about them but had no luck. It's definitely more of a prized collection piece than even some of the rarer razors themselves.
     
    brit, PLANofMAN and jmudrick like this.

Share This Page