He was a colorful character covered in the newspapers, a "songster" composer of popular songs, Shriner, and who famously married in 1920.
[1] The first F. B. Silverwood store opened on May 8, 1894 at 124 S. Spring St., carried only men's furnishings, had four employees and had sales of $38,000 (~$1.34 million in 2023) that year.
[2] It closed in 1974 shortly after Silverwoods opened a new downtown store in Broadway Plaza (now The Bloc Los Angeles) on Seventh Street.
At that time there were four branches (Long Beach, Bakersfield, Maricopa and San Bernardino)[5] plus the flagship.
In later decades the store was purchased by Hartmarx and focused on business suits until the end, later becoming out of sync with clothing preferences of Southern California men.