Buzz
If you've ever been part of the Fruit-of-the-Month Club or received a Tower of Treats as a gift, you're likely familiar with the names Harry and David. But do you know who they really are? Are they actual people? And what about their last names?
Harry and David Holmes were indeed real individuals. Their journey in the fruit business began with their father, Samuel Rosenberg. Sam was a well-known hotel owner in Washington state, with a strong interest in agriculture. In 1910, he sold his Hotel Sorrento in Seattle and bought 240 acres of pear orchards in Oregon's Rogue River Valley, near Bear Creek. After Sam's death in 1914, his sons, both Cornell University graduates with a passion for agriculture, took the reins of the family orchards.
The Holmes brothers promoted their Comice pears, which they named 'Royal Riviera,' as premium products, marketing them to both the East Coast and Europe during the 1920s. However, their business struggled when fruit prices collapsed during the Great Depression. In a bid to find new buyers, the brothers traveled to New York and San Francisco to pitch their pears to potential corporate clients. While they had no luck in New York, they did have 15 boxes of unripened pears left behind in their hotel room for a week. To avoid wasting the fruit, they followed the advice of an advertising executive they had met and sent the pears as free samples, accompanied by a handwritten note on their hotel stationery, to influential business leaders and tycoons around the city.
Before long, orders flooded in. Companies were eager to replicate what the Holmes brothers had achieved, sending out gift boxes of Royal Rivieras and other fruits to their own clients and top customers. This new demand for mail-order fruit and gift packages quickly became a significant part of their business.
Bear Creek flourished, and the brothers expanded by acquiring land from other struggling growers throughout the 1930s. During World War II, they faced both challenges and opportunities. They were forced to change their last name to Holmes in response to anti-Semitic boycotts in Germany and other Nazi-controlled territories. However, they managed to overcome a labor shortage by employing German POWs from a nearby military camp to harvest their crops.
David passed away in 1950, followed by Harry in 1959. They entrusted their business to their sons, who kept it a privately owned family business until 1976. By early 2011, the company was struggling with mounting debt and declining sales, leading it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company managed to emerge from bankruptcy later that same year.
Primary image via Oregon Encyclopedia.
