Mandee Co-Founder Becomes Children's Book Author at 87

After spending 65 years as a retail clothing chain owner and 35 years as a husband, father, and grandfather, Franklin Lakes resident Bernard Mandelbaum has decided to embark on a new adventure – becoming a children’s book author.

Though the 87-year-old has built up a myriad of experiences in different aspects of business, writing is a new challenge for him.

Mandelbaum grew up in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. After his father died, his mother owned and operated a candy store there when he, his three brothers, and sister were young.

Mandelbaum joined the navy during World War II. He was stationed in Okinawa, Japan when the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending the war.

“I was discharged in the spring of 1946,” Mandelbaum told Patch.

“My brothers had been overseas, too. Two in the army and one in the marines. After I got home, we started working on a retail business. In 1948, two of my brothers and I started The Big M Corporation.”

The company started with one retail clothing store, Mandee, which opened in Kearny in 1948. The store, which was named for a childhood nickname friends gave the Mandelbaum brothers, sold trendy, popular clothing and accessory styles for women.

“When you first go into business, you think about putting food on your table, about supporting your family,” he said.

“But then, when you start having employees, you realize that they are relying on your company to support their families. You want to have more opportunities for them, so you expand.”

Expansion happened quickly. The Big M Corp. soon opened its second Mandee store in Glen Rock, and developed two other store concepts – Annie Sez, which sold designer brand merchandise at discounted prices, and Afaze, an accessory boutique store. The chain eventually expanded to 185 locations across the east coast.

Mandelbaum married in 1980 and moved to Franklin Lakes. He and his wife raised five children, and Mandelbaum continued working in different aspects of the Big M Corp. as the company expanded.

He officially retired at age 65, but stayed on working on different projects in the stores. When his family decided to sell the company this May, Mandelbaum said he started looking for a new job.

“I can’t do nothing,” he said. “I always need to be working on something.”

So, he started writing children’s stories.

“I’m a very avid reader, I read all the time,” he said. “And all of these stories and ideas just occur to me. So, I started to write them down.”

For his first book, The Magic Pants, Mandelbaum got the idea from stories he used to make up to help put his youngest daughter to bed when she was young.

“I remember telling my kids stories, and seeing the look in their eyes. It was glossy, almost, so excited. It’s hard to explain, but that look in their eyes really inspired me to write some of my stories down.”

After recommendations from friends, he hired local artist Susan Sinek to illustrate the book. He published it in October, and the book is now available on Amazon.

It follows the story of a poor boy, Tom, who finds magic pants that produce a $1 bill every time he puts his hands in the pockets.

Under his pen name, Paul Bernard, the writer has three more books in the works - two about an old woman named Mrs. Streudel and her poodle Yankee Doodle Doodle, and one about a farm and all of the animals that live on it.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with them,” Mandelbaum said of his books.

“Maybe they’ll get published and end up on The New York Times Bestseller List. But really, I am not in this for the money. I’m doing this for the joy of writing. And, if I can make someone else happy by reading my stories, that’s all I could ask for.”