Sidney Frank Dead
Sidney Frank, the maverick booze baron who started the super-premium liquor revolution with Grey Goose vodka, died last week in San Diego. He was 86. The cause was heart failure, according to his publicist, Sarah Zeiler. Frank was ranked No. 164 on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list in October, with a net worth of $1.8 billion.
Sidney Frank was born in Norwich, Conn., in 1919, the son of a poor orchardman. As a kid, he often gazed at the Manhattan skyline while traveling by train to visit a cousin in Brooklyn, dreaming of making it big. In 1937, Frank convinced an admissions officer at Brown University to let him enroll based on his strong handshake. He dropped out after a year because he couldn't afford the tuition but forged some powerful friendships.
His roommate was Edward Sarnoff, son of then-RCA President David Sarnoff. Visits to the Sarnoff's lavish mansion in New York left a lasting impression. "Ed's sheets were so soft," Frank told Forbes in a June 2004 interview. "My mother used to sew flower sacks together to make sheets, so cotton sheets were a real treat. I knew I had to marry a rich girl."
After proposing six times, Frank finally convinced Louise Rosenstiel to marry him in the late 1940s. "Skippy" was the daughter of booze maven Lewis Rosenstiel, owner of Schenley Distillers, then the largest liquor distiller in the country.
Frank had a successful career with Schenly and then went out on his own to market the famous Jägermeister. In 1974, Frank stumbled on the obscure German liqueur in a New York bar. Tasting of root beer, black licorice and Vicks Formula 44, older Europeans had been drinking the stuff since 1935 for its medicinal purposes, rather than its strong buzz. At the time, Jägermeister was selling just 600 cases per year in the U.S. Seeing opportunity, Frank flew to Germany to meet then-Jäger Chief Executive Walter Sandvoss and came home with the rights to sell the drink from Maryland to Florida. Other suppliers faltered, and Frank picked up the rest of the country.
In 1986, Frank had a brilliant idea: "People love sex." He parlayed the drink's early success in southern college towns with the Jägerettes, a group of scantily clad girls who would flirt with male students and convince them to down shots of Jäger instead of Jack Daniels. Last year, sales grew to 2 million cases per year.
In 1999, he paid $2.6 million to settle sexual harassment complaints from 100 women who were among the 1,000 hired as "Jagerettes" to promoting the sweet liquor Jagermeister at parties. The company admitted no wrongdoing.
With Jägermeister established, Frank set out to create his fortune in vodka. He was convinced rich folks would pay $15 for a martini or $10 for a cosmopolitan if the drinks were mixed with the world's best vodka. He sent executives to France to create the vodka, because he believed the French create the best in everything. Grey Goose girls were tapped to sell the vodka at high-end lounges and nightclubs. Sales grew exponentially, eventually catching the eye of executives at Bacardi.
Frank eventually sold Grey Goose for something like 2 billion dollars.
His next project, tragically ended by his untimely death, was to become a wine industry titan and to do the wine industry what he did for spirits.
We mourn the passing of this industry giant, who did so much to market alcohol and spirits to the American consumer.
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