LONG ISLAND BOOKS
'Threshold Resistance: The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer'
By A. Alfred Taubman
Review By Aaron Lovell
(08/31/2007) For all of the ink spilled over the price-fixing scandal at the Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses, one would think the inner workings of the affair would make for a barn burner of a memoir. After all, gossip is perhaps the main byproduct of any high-profile criminal trial involving glamorous, bold-faced names, be they television homemakers, newspaper tycoons, or vice presidential aides. (This is usually followed by contrition and self-reflection of varying sincerity.)
Perhaps that’s why A. Alfred Taubman’s autobiography, “Threshold Resistance: The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer,” is a bit disappointing. As the chief executive officer of Sotheby’s, Mr. Taubman served nine and a half months in federal prison from 2002 to 2003 for his role in the price-fixing affair. Yet his memoir, given its subject matter, was an opportunity to provide an insider’s look at lifestyles of the rich and famous, as well as one of the most salacious high-society trials in recent years. Unfortunately, much of “Threshold Resistance” comes off as dry and formulaic.
Arranged chronologically, the book begins with Mr. Taubman’s modest upbringing in Michigan and his initial steps in business, first working with the Detroit architect Charles Agree and then starting a shopping mall development company with his father. Mr. Taubman flies through these early years. Not only does the material feel rushed, but, more important, Mr. Taubman offers little insight into what drove him to become the successful mall developer he is today — other than the fact that he was smart enough to take advantage of the demographic shift toward the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s.
Early in the book, Mr. Taubman says he is often blamed for the development of so many malls spread across suburban America. “I have never been comfortable with the accolades and blame that come with being known as one of the guys who ‘malled’ America,” he writes. It’s an interesting point and one he responds to with a discussion of enclosed retail spaces throughout history, essentially comparing his Woodfield Mall in suburban Chicago with the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
This is a specious argument at best and not completely convincing. Rather, it would have been more interesting to hear if he ever had doubts about what he was doing. Did he ever deck someone at a cocktail party for questioning his livelihood?
Regardless of the criticism, no one could argue that Mr. Taubman hasn’t led a successful life: He built up his own national mall development company (now publicly listed and called Taubman Centers) and invested in high-profile projects like the Irvine Ranch real estate development in Orange County, Calif., and the A&W chain of root beer-themed, fast-food restaurants.
At some points — when he is discussing the different classifications of department stores, for example — Mr. Taubman provides enough insight to make the analysis interesting to the lay reader. And he does a good job laying out his personal philosophy toward retail development, which he backs up with references to plenty of urban planning texts. Even the title of the book refers to a retail theory — “threshold resistance” is what keeps a customer from entering a store. Mr. Taubman has re-envisioned it as the barrier one must cross to do pretty much anything in life.
Occasionally, Mr. Taubman also goes into some of the innovative thinking that has helped him succeed in business. For instance, after buying the A&W franchise, he wanted to improve the hot dogs being served at the restaurants, so he took a trip to Budapest to quiz the city’s legendary sausage makers about their craft. (One hint Mr. Taubman reveals: Garlic is important.)
Still, his discussions of retailing, property, and urban design occasionally suffer from a lack of concrete examples. Retailing is one area of the economic landscape that almost everyone thinks about on a daily basis, and while some light is shed on the fine art of separating people from their money, it would have been interesting to hear a few more tricks of the trade. In the end, much of Mr. Taubman’s recollections of his early and middle years feel as if they’re simply being ticked off on a checklist.
Not quite halfway through the book, Mr. Taubman begins to describe his affiliation with Sotheby’s, which he helmed from 1983, when he bought a 60-percent stake for $38.5 million, to 2000, when charges of price-fixing were filed against the auction house and he stepped down as its chairman. Despite his admittedly impressive career in the retail business, his stint at Sotheby’s and the ensuing scandal are most likely the main selling points of the book. And Mr. Taubman uses the opportunity to successfully lay out his side of the Sotheby’s story — even if he doesn’t provide much grist for the gossip mill or offer many mea culpas.
Under Mr. Taubman’s control, the 250-year-old auction house set about modernizing its ways. With his background in high-end retail, Mr. Taubman sought to extend the philosophy he developed in the malls of Michigan to the halls of the centuries-old auctioneer. To this end, Sotheby’s sought to make auctions more palatable to high-net-worth individuals, not just experienced collectors, art dealers, and museum curators.
At Mr. Taubman’s urging, Sotheby’s moved toward more celebrity-oriented auctions, including a sale featuring Andy Warhol’s collection of store-bought cookie jars (which sold for an impressive $247,000) and an auction of the jewels of the Duchess of Windsor, held in Geneva in 1987. (Mr. Taubman informs us that Elizabeth Taylor, bidding by phone from Los Angeles, bought a brooch for $623,333.)
Considering the current influx of wealth seen in the United States and the ever-increasing demand for bigger and better things to buy, the move turned out to be a savvy bet. But while he dragged Sotheby’s into the more commercial 20th century, Mr. Taubman freely admits that he caught the ire of some people in the art world, who rightly must have felt that a bull was loose in the auction house.
But much like the charges that he was paving over America with malls, Mr. Taubman largely brushes the criticisms off, pausing only to dispute that he told a class of Harvard Business School students that selling art is a lot like selling root beer. (Before being cut up by a Wall Street Journal headline writer, the actual quotation was, “You may find there’s more similarity in the challenge of marketing a precious painting by Degas and a frosted mug of root beer than you ever thought possible.”)
Mr. Taubman lays out his side of the story, but doesn’t offer much of a peek into the inner workings of the auction house, the trial, or the scandal itself. He does provide readers with a few nuggets from the ensuing prison term: He was, for example, once in the recreation room in the prison when a Court TV program about the Sotheby’s case and his role in it was shown, and replayed repeatedly, much to the amusement and delight of the other inmates on his floor. He also describes flying to prison in his Gulfstream IV a day early to avoid the paparazzi. Interesting, to be sure, but not the hard-hitting gossip that people who obsess over trials will be looking for.
Too often Mr. Taubman betrays a certain cluelessness from years of living among the nation’s upper crust. In describing how Sotheby’s was viewed prior to the Taubman makeover, he writes, “Buying art was perceived as a rich person’s sport.” One might argue there’s probably a good reason for that. Other times, it seems, Mr. Taubman just suffers from poor word choice and clumsy sentence construction: Describing the more violent rapists and murderers locked in American jails, he writes, “I’m delighted that they have been separated from society.” (Emphasis mine.)
For readers most interested in the price-fixing affair, Mr. Taubman’s memoir provides another piece of the puzzle. By no means a definitive account, the book still offers a new perspective from a major player. For everyone else, “Threshold Resistance” can’t seem to decide if it’s a straight-ahead memoir, a book about retailing, an inside look at the auction business, or the cautionary tale of a successful businessman.
Mr. Taubman’s life has all the elements of a gripping story: humble beginnings, plenty of adventure, a rise to the pinnacle of American business, and a very public fall from grace. His memoir is not nearly as exciting.
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“Threshold Resistance:
The Extraordinary
Career of a Luxury
Retailing Pioneer”
A. Alfred Taubman
HarperCollins, $24.95
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A. Alfred Taubman has a house in Southampton.
Aaron Lovell writes about real estate and high finance in New York City.