Dressing Modern Maternity: The Frankfurt Sisters of Dallas and the Page Boy Label

In Depression-era Dallas, Elsie Frankfurt and Edna Frankfurt Ravkind raised five hundred dollars and launched a daring new enterprise, Page Boy Maternity Clothing–the first to engineer elegance in comfort. When Louise Frankfurt Gartner joined the team, the sisters’ combined engineering, business, and PR genius made Page Boy the foremost maternity-clothing manufacturer in the United States. Dressing entertainment icons such as Loretta Young, Elizabeth Taylor, and Florence Henderson, Page Boy broke new ground in every direction. Innovative marketing and business strategies would make the Page Boy label internationally known and land the Frankfurt sisters celebrity in their own right. As a company, Page Boy would thrive until the end of the twentieth century, leaving a rich legacy in the histories of fashion and women in business. Illuminating the Page Boy story are Goldman’s insights into the history of maternity clothing in the U.S., America women in business prior to the 1930s, Jewish involvement in garment manufacturing in Dallas, and ultimately the decisions that would lead to Page Boy’s demise.