Albert J. Saphin was a Vaudeville and minstrel performer elected to The Lambs in 1951. He was “Lewis” in a Vaudeville act Lewis and Dixon. He switched careers to sales.
In 1946 he opened one of the first retail stores to sell appliances, focused on television sets. He took out full-page ads in newspapers and rented hotel ballrooms to sell the latest models. The Monarch-Saphin Deparment Store openings were treated like movie premiers, with spotlights, entertainers, and models. He had showrooms in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island.
Albert J. Saphin died in 1982.