[3] His sister Hope was married and divorced from art collector David M. Solinger[5][6] and mother of photographer Lynn Stern.
His sister Caral was married and divorced from Edward Lasker, son of Albert Lasker; and baseball superstar Hank Greenberg before settling down with World War II hero Joseph M.
[2] Gimbel ferried planes during World War II before working for the family company, the only child of Bernard to do so,[9] as vice president of sales in 1946.
[3] Faced with declining sales at its downtown stores, he expanded the chain into the suburbs[4][9] and using a newly established network of local buying offices in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and England, he stocked his stores with foreign manufactured copies of name brand merchandise.
[9] Both tactics worked for a time but facing the new economic reality, in 1965 he closed Saks Fifth Avenue's 34th street flagship store and soon after, in 1968, he forced his cousin, Adam Long Gimbel (husband of Sophie Gimbel), who operated the 31 store Saks Fifth Avenue chain, to retire.