http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07016/754105-122.stm Obituary: Meyer ‘Mike’ Feinberg / Owned novelty store in Strip District, supplied Steelers fans with towels
<b>March 26, 1921 - Jan. 14, 2007</b>
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The aisles of Mike Feinberg Co. in the Strip District were just as joyful as ever yesterday, the shelves brimming with toys, party supplies, knickknacks and novelties for every happy occasion.
But behind the counter, longtime store employee Diane Blizman had tears in her eyes.
Post-Gazette
Mike Feinberg in his shop in 1993, holding a Rat-in-a-trap novelty item.
Click photo for larger image. Ms. Blizman, 53, choked up as she talked about her boss, store owner Meyer “Mike” Feinberg, who died Sunday evening at Covenant at South Hills nursing home in Mt. Lebanon. He was 85. “He was the best boss,” said Ms. Blizman, who worked for Mr. Feinberg for 33 years. "He treated you really well. If you had a problem, you went to him. He’d try to help you out with it – no matter what, personal or business.
“They don’t have bosses like him anymore.”
Mr. Feinberg, who was born in the Hill District and graduated from Schenley High School, returned from his service as an artillery gunman with the Marines in the Pacific during World War II to open the Mike Feinberg Co., a Downtown toy store that would eventually become a Strip District fixture.
He started out on Fourth Avenue in the mid-1950s, selling wholesale toys such as bicycles, boxed goods and the like, said Sylvia Feinberg, his wife and business partner for 56 years.
“But the bigger department stores started selling bikes and he couldn’t compete,” she said. So they focused on the small stuff – party supplies, decorations, trifles and trinkets.
“It evolved,” Mrs. Feinberg said of the store that moved to Penn Avenue in the Strip in 1959.
A big part of the evolution was Mr. Feinberg’s focus on hospital gift shops, a niche market that he found to be lacking decades ago. He made sure the shops were stocked with everything they might need to cheer someone up, and today his company serves 6,000 hospitals around the country.
But it was the little shop of pleasantries on Penn Avenue that gave Mr. Feinberg his joy.
“He came in every day, six days a week,” said his grandson, Michael Friedberg, 26, who has worked as a manager at the store for the past six years. "He’d open up, he’d read the paper, he’d have breakfast at DeLuca’s and eat lunch at Roland’s.
"He put his heart and soul into this company and loved everyone and everyone loved him. He’d be behind the register, back in the office, in the shelves, or standing out here [at the front counter] talking with the customers.
“There was no retiring with him,” said Mr. Friedberg. “Why would you want to retire at this? They called him The Party King for a reason, and this was his kingdom. He loved it here.”
“That was the way he worked,” said Mrs. Feinberg, who still works at the store. "And the salesmen loved him. Many times, they’d come in from out of town and they’d be staying in hotels. And he’d have a happy hour in the store.
“He never knew how to say ‘no’ to a salesman because he was a salesman.”
The best-selling items in the store have been the Steelers paraphernalia that no loyal fan could live without.
“We were the first ones to have the Terrible Towel,” said Mrs. Feinberg. "Myron Cope gave us the right to do it, and we supplied them all over the city. It was hard work. We had to buy the raw towel, send it to a dyer to get the right color, and then we sent it to a printer.
“We did it, believe me. And we had people sitting on our back docks waiting for the towels to come in. It was unbelievable.”
Shoppers who get past the Steelers section find themselves wandering in a world of pocket-size pleasures. Everything you could imagine for a festive occasion, whether it’s as formal as the figures atop a wedding cake or as fun as a party horn.
And then there are the things that are timeless.
“The rubber chickens, that’s been there a long time. That’s a good item. That was one of my husband’s favorites,” said Mrs. Feinberg.
The shop, she said, was a reflection of her husband’s fun-loving spirit.
“He was charmed by everything,” she said.
The family-owned business which employs 25 workers – most of whom have worked there for more than 15 years – will close at noon tomorrow.
In addition to his wife and grandson, survivors, all of whom live in Mt. Lebanon, include his son, Alan Feinberg; his daughters, Elaine Goldblum and Marcia Hellman; his brother, Harry Feinberg; another grandson; and a granddaughter.
Visitation is scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow at Temple Emanuel of the South Hills, and will be followed by a funeral service there at 2 p.m. Arrangements are being handled by Ralph Schugar Chapel.
Donations may be made to Family Hospice & Palliative Care, 50 Moffett St., Pittsburgh 15243 or Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road, Pittsburgh 15243.
