Working for Sam

I was the first one to come to Canada in our family. I was the runaway!

After the war there were so many problems in Germany. I was 18 and wanted something different, so I came here in 1953. I only had 40 German marks ($9.37 Cdn). It was very hard at the beginning.

Two people helped me a lot. The first was Dr. Morris Zeidman, who founded the Scott Mission at 502 Spadina Ave. When I first came, there was a job open at the Scott Mission. I ended up working in Dr. Zeidman’s home for two years. I was like a daughter. He protected me. They were the nicest family.

He helped me get a job in 1955 at Sniderman’s Music Hall, which was on the second floor, above a radio store at 714 College St. The record store was run by Sam Sniderman and his older brother Sid was the first to sell car radios at the College St. store.

Sam was the other person who helped me a lot. His older brother Sid was the first to sell car radios at the College St. store. Sam later opened his famous store Sam the Record Man on Yonge St.

Circle skirts at the music hall

Sam — I called him Sammy — we got along so well. I had never had a record in my hand before, but he trusted me. I had the whole department upstairs on the second floor. I had Russian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, German, Polish, everybody, 32 languages. We had a lot of booths that you put your head in there and they played the record. We wore circle skirts with musical notes on them.

I started importing records from Polydor and Deutsche Grammophon. Sammy never had that before. We printed our own little catalogue on our printing machine and sent it out to Alberta and other places.

In 1955, my sister Karin came over. Sammy’s wife picked her up at Union Station, and Karin started helping at the store. She became an assistant manager on Yonge St. and met her husband Leonard at Sammy’s. He worked there, too. Sammy was so kind to us. He was like a father.

A family retail business

Later, my sister Karin and I ran the Old Country Shop at 355 Roncesvalles Ave. My parents opened it in the early 1960s when they came from Germany. Karin passed away in 2019. Now my niece Sabine manages the store.