Bank account

Stefano Massini’s play opens with a man in a frock-coat reaching New York after six weeks at sea. The year is 1844 and young Henry Lehman has just emigrated from Bavaria to make his fortune. He started modestly with a general store in Montgomery, Alabama, serving local farmers. When wildfires destroyed the cotton crop on which the community relied, Lehman’s business ought to have failed but he saw his opportunity. Whatever possessions the farmers had lost they would have to purchase again. From him. He was joined by his brothers, Manny and Mayer, and they invented the profession of brokerage, ‘middle-men’ they called themselves, buying raw cotton from farmers and selling it on to the clothing factories. The Civil War brought fresh destruction and fresh opportunities. Manny Lehman applied to the governor of Alabama for public funds to rebuild the shattered state. Lehman Brothers became a bank and it remained a family business until the crash of October 1929 when it was saved from liquidation by outside investors.