ABSTRACT
The sweatshirts, which featured a silkscreen image and last name of one of the composers on both front and back and retailed for, were the brainchild of San Francisco Adman Howard Gossage, who came up with the idea in the midst of a beer commercial project. The garments were available in over 1,000 department store outlets, including upscale chains such as Neiman-Marcus and Bonwit Teller. Celebrity purchasers included Van Cliburn, Janis Paige, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Fiedler, who was photographed by Life wearing the Beethoven version at a Boston Pops Orchestra rehearsal in Peoria, Illinois. Known to classical music enthusiasts as the "three B's", Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig von Beethoven, and Johannes Brahms became the subjects of a sweatshirt craze in early 1962.
