Bank of United States

Born in Telz, Brandenburg, Germany in 1862, Marcus went to school in Essen and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17.

[3][5] His son, Bernard K. Marcus, a graduate of Worcester Academy and Columbia University, joined the bank as cashier in 1913 and became vice president in 1918.

[4] In April 1928, it merged with the Central Mercantile Bank and Trust Company with Bernard Marcus as the president.

On December 10, 1930, a large crowd gathered at the Southern Boulevard branch in the Bronx seeking to withdraw their money, and started what is usually considered the bank run that started the Great Depression (though there had already been a wave of bank runs in the southeastern part of the U.S., at least as early as November 1930).

[14] By the midday, a crowd of 20,000 to 25,000 people had gathered and had to be controlled by the police, and by the end of the day 2,500 to 3,000 depositors had withdrawn $2,000,000 from the branch.

As the news spread, there were smaller runs at several other branches in the Bronx as well as in the East New York section of Brooklyn.

The District Attorney's office undertook to examine the bank for possible crimes.

The Mayor of New York, Jimmy Walker, began legal action to recover $1.5 million which the city had in the bank.

[18] Some depositors started to receive their loans on December 23, 1930 and The New York Times reported that throngs of depositors lined up to receive their loans, many arriving hours before the branches opened and many were turned away because they could not be served by the end of the day.

In turn, the banks called in loans and sold assets in order to stay liquid.