Francine Gottfried (born 1947) is a former clerical worker in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

. Gottfried gained rapid recognition in September 1968 when an escalating number of men started observing her during her daily commute. Referred to as the " Wall Street's

Sweater Girl The term "sweater girl" was made popular in the 1940s and 1950s to describe Hollywood actresses like Lana Turner, Jayne Mansfield, and Jane Russell, who adopted the popular fashion of wearing tight, form-fitting sweaters that emphasized the wom ...

" by the press, her appealing physique became the focal point that attracted crowds whenever she appeared in the financial district.

Fame

Gottfried started working at

Chemical Bank Chemical Bank, headquartered in New York City, was the principal operating subsidiary of Chemical Banking Corporation, a bank holding company. In 1996, it acquired Chase Bank, adopted the Chase name, and became the largest bank in the United Stat ...

in the

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

on May 27, 1968. By late August, a small band of admirers had noticed her as she traveled the same route each day. They timed her daily arrival and spread the word to their co-workers. For three weeks, the crowd of gawkers grew steadily larger until, on September 18, there were 2000 people waiting to watch her stroll by. By this point, the crowd itself had become the phenomenon drawing the crowd. On September 19, over 5000 Financial District employees left work and poured into the streets at 1:15pm to watch Gottfried exit the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

station and walk to her job at the Chemical Bank New York Trust Company's downtown data processing center. Police closed the streets and escorted her through the mob, which damaged three cars as men climbed on their roofs to gain a better view. Stockbrokers and bankers leaned out of windows overlooking Wall Street to watch as trading came to a virtual halt. "

Ticker tape Ticker tape was the earliest electrical dedicated financial communications medium, transmitting stock price information over electrical telegraph, telegraph lines, in use from around 1870 to 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through ...

s went untended and dignified brokers ran amok," wrote ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' magazine. Photographers from all the daily papers and ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', and ''

'' took her picture. "A Bust Panics Wall Street As The Tape Reads 43" read a headline in the '' Daily News''. The following day, Friday, September 20, the corner of Wall and Broad was jammed with 10,000 spectators and press who waited for Gottfried in vain. Her boss had called and asked her to stay home to put a stop to the disturbances. Gottfried, who lived at home with her parents in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. It was an independe ...

, was not seeking fame and started taking a different route to work. "I think they're all crazy," she was quoted as saying. "What are they doing this for? I'm just an ordinary girl." On October 4,

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for work or a project such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists wh ...

s took other busty women to Wall Street as rivals for Gottfried's attention: Mrs. Geri Stotts, an office manager flown in from

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

by a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

radio station, and Ronnie Bell, a stripper in a New York

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

house.

Responses

Although Gottfried made it clear to interviewers that she was willing to entertain movie and modeling offers, her

15 minutes of fame 15 minutes of fame is short-lived media publicity or celebrity of an individual or phenomenon. The expression was inspired by a quotation misattributed to Andy Warhol: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Attributed to ...

were soon over and she quickly faded into obscurity. Brief accounts of the crowd-gathering phenomenon she triggered subsequently appeared in a number of sociological and pop historical books, some treating it as a survival of the so-called "bosom mania" of the 1950s. A folk song about her, slyly contrasting the crowd that went to see her with the one welcoming presidential candidate

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

nearby, was published in '' Broadside'' magazine. Artist and prankster Joey Skaggs offered a facetious show of support by hanging a 50-foot black bra from the

U.S. Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

building on Wall Street opposite the stock exchange. She dined with the

Apollo 10 Apollo 10 (May 18–26, 1969) was the fourth human spaceflight in the United States' Apollo program and the second to orbit the Moon. NASA, the mission's operator, described it as a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing (Apollo 11, two ...

astronauts, and ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' awarded her a "Dubious Achievement" award, depicting her with other "dubious achievers" on the cover of the January 1970 issue. She was referenced as a cultural icon of the era in

Thomas Hauser Thomas C. Hauser (born February 27, 1946) is an American author known for his biographies and novels and writing about boxing. Biography Hauser graduated from Mamaroneck High School in 1963, Columbia College in 1967 and Columbia Law School i ...

's novel ''Finding the Princess''. The events of September 1968 made an impression on second-wave feminists in the city, and in March 1970, they retaliated in a raid on Wall Street which they dubbed the "Ogle-In", in which a large group of feminists, including

Karla Jay Karla Jay (born February 22, 1947) is an American retired academic. She is a professor emerita at Pace University, where she taught English and directed the women's and gender studies program between 1974 and 2009. A pioneer in the field of l ...

Alix Kates Shulman Alix Kates Shulman (born August 17, 1932) is an American writer of fiction, memoirs, and essays, and a prominent early radical activist of second-wave feminism. She is best-known for her bestselling debut adult novel, ''Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Qu ...

, and a number of women who had participated in the sit-in at ''

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century ...

'' a few weeks before, sexually harassed male Wall Streeters on their way to work with catcalls and crude remarks.Jay, Karla. ''Tales of the Lavender Menace,'' (Basic Books, 1999), pp. 132–133. File:Francine Gottfried 02.jpg, Francine Gottfried File:Geri Stotts 01.png, Geri Stotts File:Ronnie Bell.png, Ronnie Bell File:Sheilah Moore and Suzanne Zulkowski.png, Sheilah Moore (left), Suzanne Zulkowski

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottfried, Francine 1947 births 1960s fads and trends Living people Sexuality in popular culture Clerks People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn Financial District, Manhattan Sexism in the United States 20th-century American Jews 1968 in New York City Sweaters 21st-century American Jews