Family Business

Max Reisman, 98, the former chairman and chief executive officer of a South Philadelphia-based pretzel company who is credited with creating the peanut-butter-filled pretzel nugget, died Monday, April 23 at his daughter's home in Kingston, Pa. Mr. Reisman, who lived in Highland Beach, Fla., formerly lived in Wynnewood. He was born on Sept. 18, 1913. in South Philadelphia, a son of Jacob and Eva Reisman and the youngest of five brothers and one sister. Mr. Reisman was a graduate of Overbrook High School.

Real estate developer Herbert Barness, 74, a prominent Republican powerbroker and fund-raiser, died yesterday at his home in Doylestown. To residents of Bucks County, the name Barness was virtually synonymous with real estate. His parents, Mary and Joe Barness, launched the family business 73 years ago when they built a house with a detached garage and a chicken coop in Warrington. Today the Warrington-based family business, the Barness Organization, is one of the largest developers of houses and shopping malls in the area.

A Mass of Christian Burial was to be celebrated today for Michael A. Bruno, son of the late crime boss Angelo Bruno, at St. Monica's Catholic Church at 17th and Ritner streets. Michael Bruno, a lover of classical music who was devoted to his family, died Saturday. He was 67. The son of Angelo and Susan Bruno never became a "made" member of La Cosa Nostra, according to authorities. Born in Philadelphia in 1932, the young Bruno attended public schools and graduated from Southern High.

Douglas James Cooper, an international jeweler and rare-gem dealer whose clients included Arab sheiks, Hollywood stars and Philadelphia society, died Friday at his home, Buttonwood Farm, in Bryn Athyn. He was 57. Mr. Cooper, who prided himself on being a "jeweler by birth," was well- known for a series of advertisements for his business, F.J. Cooper Inc., that ran in the New Yorker and other magazines in the 1960s and 1970s. The advertisements, which featured Cooper and occasionally his wife posing with magnificent treasures, helped transform F.J. Cooper Inc. from a family-run shop on Chestnut Street into a glamorous international business with an elite clientele.

The family business in "Family Business" is burglary. Young Francois discovers this when a newspaper article unearthed by a schoolmate reveals that his father is in jail, not the hospital, as his mother had said. Far from making him ashamed, this knowledge greatly excites the boy. When his dad (Johnny Hallyday), along with his sidekick, Max (Guy Marchand, a ringer for Bob Hoskins), returns home, Francois insists on going along on their "projects. " Costa-Gavras, who wrote and directed "Family Business," is known for such political thrillers as "Z," "Missing" and "State of Siege.

In an age of giant corporations and fast-food franchises, one family-owned business in King of Prussia has withstood the test of time. In 1890, Swiss immigrant Henry F. Michell and his brother Frederick started a small retail vegetable and flower seed business at 10th and Market Streets in Philadelphia. Today, the Henry F. Michell Co., which moved to King of Prussia in 1960, is celebrating its 100th anniversary. And just as it was 100 years ago, Michell's is still a family business.

The Yardley mother had been sitting on the steps of her favorite ice-cream parlor, eating her cone and plotting. "I plan to be there at least once a week before it closes," she said later. "I'm just buying things and putting them in the freezer and hoping" that all that accumulated ice cream lasts and lasts and lasts. When the Goodnoe Farm Dairy Bar closes forever - at 10 p.m. on Labor Day - Patti Smialkowski hopes she will have enough ice cream banked in her freezer so that the parlor will not be a memory.

Acme Markets knows Henry Whalen & Son. So does IGA. So do landscapers, nurseries and churches. But ask a neighbor of the largest wholesale flower-growing business in Delaware County where it is, and you might get a quizzical look. "There are people on my street that don't know where the business is," said James Whalen, owner of the 8 1/2-acre operation. "We keep a low profile. " The Drexel Hill business, which Whalen calls "a little bit of country," is hidden in a valley behind a woods at the end of Wilde Avenue.

Around the turn of the century, American steel production reached 10 million tons annually. This helped to make this country one of the greatest industrial nations in the world. The Bessemer smelting process, an abundant supply of coal and iron ore, a huge unskilled workforce made up of new waves of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, and the development of large steel corporations were contributing factors. Locally, the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Co. followed the same pattern of growth as the large national "big steel" operations.

Harry "Hobby Harry" Epstein, 78, a former longtime South Philadelphia furniture store owner, died Thursday at his home in Coconut Creek, Fla. Born in South Philadelphia, Mr. Epstein was raised in the family business, Epstein's Furniture & Floor Covering, 1702 E. Passyunk Ave., which was founded by his father, Joseph. Mr. Epstein started doing small chores in the store at age 5. By the time he was a young man, his normal workweek was 60 to 70 hours. After 48 years, Mr. Epstein retired from the family business and began working at Levitz Furniture in Wilmington.