Phil Mole Senior.
The Phil Mole family background:
* Phil Sr. was born in 1894, passed away in 1973 (MGRHS)
* Phil Sr. did trick bike & unicycle riding with his brother in the early days.
* He opened a retail Bike Shop on Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles in the early 1930’s; it expanded into 3 stores.
* In 1937 A.J. Musselman asked Phil Sr. to be sales manager for the coaster brake company. He was with Musselman until the start of WW-II at which time Musselman was turned over to defense work.
* After the war Phil Sr. worked for the John T. Bill Co., first as an outside salesman, then as the General Manager. Mr. J.T. Bill died in 1944.
* Phil Sr. acquired the company from Mrs. J.T. Bill in 1950. His three children joined the company;
     1952 Phil Jr. as an outside salesman.
     1954 Pete as the inside assistant to his father (after Pete retired from the Armed Forces and finished working at Paramount Pictures for 8 years).
     1959 Katie as the office and credit manager.
The company was initially located at 955 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA, then moved to another industrial building at 1042 South Grand Ave in downtown Los Angeles. Coincidentally, three other major Distributors were also located within a few blocks of them; (1) Harry Wilson Sales Agency, the Schwinn Distributor, (2) United Imports, the Steyer Distributor, and (3) The L.W. Keenan Co., managed by Les Keenan.
In 1973 The Mole family purchased and moved into a modern industrial warehouse and office building in Glendale, CA at 4116 San Fernando Road. The picture gallery contains a photo of the Mole family breaking ground for their new modern building. Outside sales people were Harry Lindblad, Gale Hafer, Phil Mole Jr., Greg Ulm, Henry Torres, John Finkenbiner and Johnny Paladino (Johnny’s parents owned a retail Bike Shop in Santa Ana, CA). The inside warehouse manager was Bill Kindig. Over the years, the company sold a full line of parts, accessories and sundries. The major bicycle brands carried were; Pierce, Armstrong, Raleigh, Columbia, Rollfast, Olmo, Webco, and Hutch. As the bicycle industry and business went through significant changes, they found it advantageous to liquidate the company and in 1987 sold the industrial building. I recall that the Mole family and the John T. Bill Co. were very well respected by the Bicycle Dealers, Industry Suppliers and their competitors. My father, Leo Cohen Sr., had a nice working relationship with Phil Sr. Pete and I have been friendly business associates and competitors for almost 50 years. He has kindly added several treasures to my bicycle memorabilia collection. Pete is currently (June of 2009) the General Manager of Dahon USA, the amazing worldwide leader of folding bicycles in the Bicycle Industry (www.dahon.com). Dahon is an ecologically conscientious company.