[1] He failed to find suitable employment, so with a start-up fund of $250, he began selling nuts to passers-by from a stand located on Broadway and Forty-Third Street.
90% of his workforce were African-Americans, and in 1957 he employed former Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson as a vice-president in charge of the company's welfare and minority programs.
Employees, from counter hands to executives, received fringe benefits including sickness and medical insurance, pension plans, interest-free loans, profit sharing and bonuses.
In 1960, he provided $5 million funding towards a medical research center at his old Columbia University alma mater, named the William Black Building.
Black divorced her in 1951 (though she remained treasurer of the Chock Full o'Nuts business) and married divorcee Jean Martin (1919–2004), who was a singer on his sponsored television shows.
His last wife was Page Morton (1915–2013), who was also a singer, and made famous the Chock Full o'Nuts "Heavenly Coffee" jingle on radio and television.
[7][8] Page Morton Black died in 2013 at Premium Point, New Rochelle, New York, in her home Bon Repos that her husband had purchased from Thomas Franklyn Manville, Jr. in the 1950s.