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    From a photograph taken in the late 1960’s, RIEBE’S ARTISTS’ MATERIALS on the site where it has stood since 1952 on Route 110, Melville.

Gerard Riebe in Conversation

With Dana Paul Perna

Gerard Riebe: Alright, so what do you want to ask me?

DPP: If you want to reveal your name, age and where you were born, I will include that — it may interest some readers?

GR: I am Gerard Riebe. I was born on May 17, 1930 at 3008 93rd Street, Jackson Heights — that's where I was born

DPP: Congratulations! When did this business begin?

GR: 1922

DPP: In New York City. Was its original name Riebe's?

GR: Yeah, Erwin M. Riebe Company.

DPP: Who started it and where was its original location?

GP: My father started it — and he started it on 3rd Avenue and 59th Street on the second floor; moved from there to 159 East 60th Street; from there he moved to 149 East 60th Street. He opened the store in Melville in 1952.

DPP: When did you begin to work in your father's business?

GR: 1946 — August 1946.

DPP: and when did you succeed him?

GR: I succeeded him in 1970 when he passed on.

The front door of Erwin M. Riebe's Artists' Materials as it once looked, once upon a time, at 149 East 60th Street in Manhattan.

DPP: Not only were you a retailer for painting and drafting supplies, you were also a manufacturer of various art materials. What were some of these materials, what was its product's name and did you, personally, work in the production of these products?

GR: The products were made by Nobema Products Corporation which was established in 1901. My Father brought them out in the 1930's. I worked in the color-manufacturing department, in the office, in the warehouse — all over the place.

DPP: And you actually made the colors?

GR: I actually made artists' colors, YES!

DPP: Paints? Pastels? Anything in particular or the whole line?

GR: Artists' oil colors, artists' watercolors, artists' poster colors. And I also developed the formula for the Speedball waterbased block printing inks.

DPP: I didn't know that...
GR: ...before we sold out our color manufacturing to Hunt Manufacturing Company.
DPP: OK, I didn't know that —
GR: — now you know!

DPP: I did not know you were on the cutting edge of the technology of — good, very nice. When did Riebe's arrive at its present location on Route 110 in Melville?

GR: 1952

DPP: and this is the location it has always been?

GR: Yeah, right!

DPP: Do you remember what Route 110 was like in 1952, at that time as opposed to the busy mess that it is now?

GR: Yeah, it was a two-lane road.
DPP: a two-lane road.
GR: and we had a big parking lot in front of the store which is no longer there. It's now a street.

DPP: What else was on the street then? Just you and the hardware store (which closed in December 2005) and that was about it, or were there a few other?

GR: ME, the hardware store and the deli across the street.

DPP: and all the rest were farms?

GR: Oh, just trees and bushes....and stuff.

DPP: It must have been nice, which means that 2007 marks its 55th anniversary year. How do you feel about knowing that fairly significant event, that a company is 55 years old?

GR: The base of the company is more than 55 if it started in 1922.

DPP: Yes, but at this location, 55 years.

GR: I feel fine! Why shouldn't I?

DPP: Well, so many businesses have failed and few ever last 85 years. What do you site as one reason why yours has been a success?

GR: 'Cause we cater to our customers!

DPP: You retired from the business. When was that?

GR: 1995, May 17, 1995. Never forget that!

DPP: But you still enjoy coming in to work when you are on Long Island, right?

GR: Yes.

DPP: How has the industry changed over the years and what do you think accounts for this change, if you would be so kind as to pontificate?

GR: The industry has changed tremendously due to the computers. We're, basically, now in a fine arts business rather than the commercial arts. There's very little commercial art today. It's mostly all the fine arts, student art, hobby art — which we do not cater to hobby craft, but we do cater to the hobby arts — and the fine artist who we try to do the best we can for.

DPP: You used to open up a little early for draftsman, right?

GR: I used to open up at 8:00 (am), 8:30, 8:15 so that the guys on their way to Grumman and Fairchild could pick up supplies, the drafting supplies which they don't use anymore. Plus Grumman and Fairchild are no longer there.

DPP: Alas, yeah. You are not an artist yourself but who are some of the artists you have served?

GR: OH, GOD! There are just to many to name. I would not want to put some names there and leave others out. That's unfair —
DPP: Well, that's alright —
GR: — but many of your heavy duty Long Island artists have shopped here.

DPP: Many brands still in catalogues correspond to the names of the people who developed the product they are named after. Who are some of the people, many I assume are gone now, who you knew over the years?

GR: Terry Higgins of Higgins Ink Company. Joe Grumbacher from Grumbacher. Lenny Bocour from Bocour Artist Colors. Louis Boxer — Art Tone Ink Company. Hunt was out of Philadelphia since it was a corporate conglomerate and, today, they're well diversified. They bought out Bienfang Paper Company — I knew Grace from Bee Paper Company. I knew the president of A.W. Faber Castell here in the states. I knew, personally, Anco who used to make wooden easels and stretcher strips — they're no longer in business. I knew Artist Canvas who are no longer in business. I knew President E.H.Nacy Fredericks — they are no longer in business but have been taken over by Tara. Who else? That's about it who I can think of off hand.

DPP: And did you sell Nobema as a company or?

GR: Nobema moved out of New York into Jersey City at my Father's behalf and he was not fully competent at the time. And he made a large mistake and Nobema went under.

DPP: So it wasn't bought out by anyone?

GR: No.

DPP: Sorry, man. Many items from companies can advertise thru the computer. How did salesmen go about getting their products to you years ago?

GR: Personal contact. They'd send out sales people. I dealt with them from '46-'69 in Nobema in the wholesale end. In '69 I took over the operation of this store, running it as a manager before my Dad passed.

DPP: Are there any good anecdotes you wish to share with my readers?

GR: (he laughs) On a cold wintry day, a customer came into the store with a heavy fur coat on. My Aunt was here — that was December of 1969. She came into the store, stomped her feet to get the snow off of her shoes and shook her coat. As she's shaking her fur coat, she was naked underneath!

DPP: Well, that's a good one. It's clean — in its own sleazy way — but that's good. If you had one hope for the future, what is it?

GR: Well, that the company continues for another hundred years. I don't know if it will or not, but I have hopes that it will. My Son (Bob) is running it now and, hopefully his Son (Erich) will go into it.

(NOTE: there is a partner in the business, Bryan DiBartolomeo.)