My grandfather owned both Robeson Cutlery and Robeson Royal Rochester for many years. The Royal Rochester Division was sold to General Electric by my grandfather (Louis Weiss) and my uncle (Max Weiss)
I remember as a young boy my grandfather would take me with him to Perry New York to Robeson Cutlery. During World War 2 they produced Machetes for the military along with other items. I used to go to the Plant in Rochester all the time. As you know they made all types of small appliances etc.
I had lunch with my uncle and got some info. He told me that Grandpa (Louis Weiss) and Sol Frankel were partners in the acquisition of Robeson. He said this was in 1939 and that Louis wanted to put Max Weiss in as manager of the Perry plant but, Sol Frankel did not want Max involved in the Perry plant.He (Sol Frankel) thought Max was a 'playboy'...So my Grandfather made a deal with Frankel for lessor percentage of the Perry plant in return for all the manufacturing rights of the Robeson Royal Rochester plant. (This of course was much larger in terms of the financial consideration than the Perry plant) So in (approx.) 1940 Max became head of the Robeson Royal Rochester. In 1946-47 my Grandfather gave Max 49% of the corp and he retained 51% as chairman. Unfortunately my uncle does not remember the exact dates but feels they are pretty close.
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If you don't mind, I am sharing this info here, but would rather it stayed here. It was a private letter to us. I don't know if any of the families involved are still around - the grandson was in poor health at the time of this letter.
Glad to share what I can
