All language subtitles for PBS.Secrets.of.Selfridges.720p.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

This London department store

holds some incredible secrets...

..and the unique story of a man

who rose from rags to riches...

to take the American Dream
across the Atlantic.

Harry Gordon Selfridge
was the maverick that
shook up British society.

He knew what the customer wanted

and gave it to them in style -

transforming ordinary shopping
into an extraordinary adventure.

He was a genius from nine
to five, a fool at the weekend.

This is the true story of
Selfridges department store

and the visionary American
who built it.

This program is made possible
by contributions
to your PBS station

from viewers like you.

On London's world-famous
Oxford Street...

..one building stands imperious
above the rest.

This is Selfridges.

Founded in 1909,

over a century it has become
an icon of the capital.

I can't imagine Oxford Street
without Selfridges.

Selfridges is an institution -
a neo-classical gem.

Twice voted 'Best Department
Store in the World'...

..it holds 13 acres
of retail space,

spread over six floors.

A huge food hall,
nine restaurants

and three storeys
of women's fashion.

Selfridges has
an entire department

dedicated solely
to tailor-made denim.

It boasts Europe's largest
designer shoe gallery.

And the aptly-named Wonder Room,

stocks only the most
luxurious brands.

The modern store is
a commercial success story.

In 2012, it posted profits
of $200 million.

But Selfridges' significance

goes far beyond
commercial success.

It has an astonishing
hidden history.

The store helped change
British society -

liberating women,
shattering class divisions

and reinventing shopping.

Selfridges
is the department store

that shook up old Britain.

And at its heart is an enigma -

founder and inspiration,
Harry Gordon Selfridge.

The American outsider
who came to be known as
'The Earl of Oxford Street'.

This man gave Britain energy

and he gave us excitement
for shopping.

And he brought this
American 'can do' approach.

Until recently
this retail genius
and irrepressible personality

had been almost forgotten.

Now, through private documents,
family archives

and expert interviews

Selfridge's story has been
pieced together once again.

His biographer, Lindy Woodhead,

has been at the forefront
of his rediscovery.

Harry Selfridge himself
is little known in America.

And I was talking to
an historian

at the Chicago Institute
about this,

and I asked her why
there was so little written
about Harry in America.

And she said, 'Oh, well,
my dear, probably because
he left us.

And she said, 'Is there much
written about him in London?'

And I said 'No'. And she said,
'Well, why is that?'

I said probably because
he was an American.

So now we can fuse
the two together

and Harry's come home.

It seems Selfridge's destiny
was shaped by his childhood.

A totally self-made man -

he was molded and motivated
by severe hardship.

Adversity within the family
will always mold a child.

Sometimes they won't be able to
cope with it,

and other times
it makes them much stronger.

Harry Gordon Selfridge
was born in 1856

into a poor family
in rural Wisconsin.

Harry Selfridge
was an only child.

So he grew up with his mother

who had been deserted
by her husband.

Robert Selfridge had left
to fight for the Union forces
in the Civil War.

He survived - but chose never
to return to his family.

As a result Harry became
extremely close to his mother.

What he knew as a child

was that he was going to have to
help support his mother.

It made him very protective,

and it made him
protective of women.

Selfridge grew up ambitious to
improve his circumstances

and escape from poverty.

Soon, the bright lights
of Chicago were calling.

In 1879 Selfridge landed
a job at the city's
newest department store,

Marshall Field's.

(Trolley bell rings)

Chicago was the frontier town
of late 19th-century America.

People were really free
with their money

and they were spending money to
show that they'd made it.

And Marshall Field's
was the shop

that was catering
to those wild tastes.

It was at Marshall Field's that
Harry Selfridge nurtured
his talent for retail.

He started off as
a stock room boy, apparently,

at Marshall Field's

and he worked his way up.

And that's where he started to
innovate with advertising,

promotion, architecture.

Selfridge blazed a trail
through the ranks.

Marshall Field's became the most
popular store in Chicago,

thanks in no small part
to Harry's bright ideas.

He introduced this kind of
catchphrase which said:

'Only so many days
until Christmas.'

That's still used today.
You know, that kind of,

'You've only got so many days to
buy your Christmas presents.'

That was him.

Within eight years Selfridge was
the store's General Manager

and a well-known face.

But by 1901, he'd been
at Marshall Field's
for more than 20 years.

His career progression in
Chicago had run its course.

He was feeling frustrated
about his inability

to sort of rule things
and to run things

and to innovate
without any restriction.

Selfridge was essentially
ambitious, impulsive,

a showman.

Selfridge dreamed of opening
a grand store of his own.

Work trips had previously
taken him to London

and the glamour of the Old World
had turned his head.

London really was
the center of the world.

It was at the heart still
of an empire
that spanned the globe.

It was enormously important for
manufacturing,

for industry, for finance,
for fashion.

You know, practically every
sphere London dominated.

But there was one commercial
sphere where London lagged
behind: department stores.

The gap in the market was giving
Harry Selfridge ideas.

He was looking
at the retail market

and there were some
amazing new shops

being built in Paris,
which were described as
Cathedrals of Shopping.

And those didn't exist yet
in London.

Selfridge was able
to provide something that
London was actively missing.

Selfridge was decided.

He would realize his vision
for a department store
in London.

Today, the site
Selfridge chose for his store
makes perfect sense.

Oxford Street is one of
the busiest shopping streets
in the world.

But it wasn't always like this.

In 1905 the street was
an undesirable back-water.

So when Harry Selfridge
chose to build here,

he was taking a major risk.

He was going way over to
the west end of Oxford Street

and an area which lacked
very large stores.

So this was quite
a daring thing to do.

To its advantage, the site
was directly opposite

the newly-opened Underground
train station, Bond Street.

One of the great developments
of the early 20th century,
late 19th century

was the rise
of public transport.

It meant that people could come
from further out of London
into work in London.

And it meant that women
could travel more easily
and more independently.

And Selfridge was very,
very conscious of that.

Archives reveal Harry Selfridge
tried to have

the station renamed
as 'Selfridges'

and build a tunnel to it
from his store.

And his plans for
the store's architecture
were no less ambitious.

He commissioned a series
of elaborate designs.

These submitted drafts
were recently unearthed

at the Royal Institute
of British Architects.

His initial drawings looked more
like the White House

or St Paul's Cathedral,

and had a huge dome
in the middle.

Unfortunately for Selfridge,

the authorities in London didn't
appreciate his grand designs.

When the elevations
were presented
to the planning office,

at Marylebone council,

they said,
'We're sorry, Mr. Selfridge,

I'm afraid you can't have six
storeys and a mansard roof.'

'Why not?' 'Because you'll be
taller than St Paul's.

So they had to be ripped up and
they had to be redone.

For one of the only times
in his life, Selfridge
scaled back his plans -

and they were finally approved.

As Selfridge waited for the
construction to be completed

he set about
promoting his store,

using the all-American
innovation of advertising.

Nothing like Selfridges' bold,
illustrated ads

had ever been seen
in Britain before.

These are all part of
Selfridge's fantastic campaign
to launch the store.

So they were out in the
newspapers, in the press.

This poster from
the launch campaign -

'Shopping at Selfridges:

A pleasure, a pastime
and a recreation.'

It has a picture of
a woman and a man,

quite a seductive couple.

It hints at all sorts of
possible encounters

in the shopping world.

And there's somebody actually
at the back and I've
never noticed her before.

And she's, I think,
taken off her pince-nez,

to have a good look at this
couple having tea here.

And maybe Selfridge was trying
to make a kind of gentle,
coded invitation

to people meeting indiscreetly.

Before the store
was even finished,

Selfridge spent the equivalent
of $2 million
on advertising.

It was an unprecedented
media blitz.

And the message to London
was clear:

Selfridges would offer
a whole new experience.

Modern shopping is based
entirely around the concept of
'unlimited browsing'.

Customers are free
to look around the store
as they please.

But in London
this was not always the case.

In the early 1900s, browsing
was rare and difficult.

The way shops worked
in London at the beginning
of the 20th century

was that you couldn't
look until you found something
that you wanted,

you had to go in
knowing what you wanted.

Hidden away in the upmarket
district of Mayfair

some traditional London stores
still remain.

The Piccadilly Arcade
has been here since 1909.

The same year
that Selfridges was founded.

Its shops' style of service
remains almost untouched.

Good afternoon.
I'm Mr. Rowley from Budd.

We're an old-fashioned
haberdasher.

We've been here since 1910.

And we sell shirts,
pajamas, nightwear.

But we specialize in socks.

The socks are stored away
behind a counter.

You don't look
through them yourself,
you are served instead.

Gentlemen get quite passionate
about their socks

and it's very important
they're served properly.

If a customer comes into us
and requires socks,

there's many questions
we need to ask

to ascertain
what it is that he wants.

We ask him what particular
length he would require -

as in short, medium or long -
and what material
the sock's made of.

So we do many
different fabrics
and many different colors

and many different sizes.

It's quite important for
a gentleman to come into us,

not to affect any sensitivities
of the ladies

by showing some leg.

So what we like to do is
to advise him to have

the longer sock which
goes right to the knee.

So it's a little bit
of an odd sort of conundrum

about what size you are.

And we find the gentleman
needs to be served

and to be led through
the maze of sock sizes

because it's quite difficult
to get the correct one.

In 1900s London, not only could
you not look at goods yourself,

there was heavy pressure
to buy.

'Just looking'
was simply not acceptable.

You didn't want a person
who you were paying wages to

being tied up
for long periods,

so the policy was developed

to weed out people
who weren't going to buy.

Inside department stores,

the ominously named 'floor
walker' stalked the aisles.

The floor walker was there
to deal with
potential time wasters.

And in 1900s London that
included anyone browsing.

As Selfridge himself
was to find out.

When he'd first come
to London

he'd gone into a store and
the floor walker had said,

'Is sir going to buy
anything?'

And Harry Selfridge said,
'No, no, I'm just looking.'

So he said,
'Well, 'op it then, mate.'

He was just, you know, a thug
dressed in a morning suit.

The ordeal left Selfridge
determined to offer Londoners
the freedom to shop.

At his store, there would be
no floor walkers

and no pressure to buy.

You could come and browse
at your leisure.

Here, for example,
it's saying,

this is an invitation
to the whole British public

and to visitors
from overseas.

No cards of admission
are required.

And are all welcome.

That the pleasures
of shopping as well as
those of sightseeing

begin from the opening hour.

In March 1909
opening day arrived.

Selfridges doors opened
to surging crowds.

During the launch week

one-and-a-quarter-million people
visited the store.

So that was absolutely huge.

From a city of
four million people,

one in four Londoners
came to have a look.

They were astonished
by what they saw.

It was just huge.

It dwarfed everything else
on Oxford Street at the time.

From a scale point of view

it's almost incomparable
with anything else

other than
an institutional building.

It's architecturally
magnificent.

It's so solid.

Once inside
the impact was even greater.

To this day, the Selfridges
shopping environment

remains one of the store's
calling cards.

When it first opened
it was a revelation.

There were open vistas, fresh
flowers, musicians playing,

and scent in the air.

And at last, goods were out to
see and touch,

stacked high in every color.

Selfridge called his store
an 'Aladdin's Cave'.

He took goods out from behind
glass cabinet doors

and arranged them in displays
so people could touch them.

He wanted everything
to be tactile

and he felt that
it should be an experience

that you would
participate in.

There were hair salons,
art galleries, restaurants

and a concierge to book you
train or theater tickets.

Selfridges must have been
a complete shock

to the average
British customer.

It was almost
a social center.

In fact Selfridge saw it
as social center

as much as a shop.

He knew how to capture people's
attention

in a very delightful way.

It was about delighting
his audience.

It was an audience.
It wasn't just about sales.

It was about the theater,
the spectacle.

For London - shopping
as a pastime was born.

And for its women, in
particular, it meant freedom.

In Edwardian Britain it was
generally considered improper

for a lady to go out
without an escort.

But department stores provided
a new, respectable destination.

Upper-class women
in the early 20th century

would have to be chaperoned
wherever they went.

However the big department
stores at this time

really started to change that.

They became a space women
could go to and feel safe

being out in public
on their own or with another
female friend, potentially.

Shopping for the first time
becomes a real kind
of leisure activity.

Selfridge's offering
was particularly liberating
for women,

in a very practical sense.

The matron of a respectable
household starts to feel

that actually
maybe it's okay to go out.

As long as there's
somewhere I can go,

where if I need to go
to the toilet I can

or, you know, you couldn't
do that previously.

Amazingly, Selfridges
was the first store
to provide women's toilets.

Up until this point
if you needed to go...

you had to go home.

You can't just, like,
nip off to the toilet.

It kind of becomes
a real ordeal

and Selfridges was one of
the first public spaces

that had ladies' restrooms that
women could use.

So it really was about creating
an atmosphere

that women felt comfortable in.

At last, a lady could happily
spend the day shopping,

which was definitely
to Selfridges' advantage.

Because a well-dressed
Edwardian lady

needed a vast range
of clothes and accessories.

The avenues for department
stores making money
are really numerous.

Getting dressed in the Edwardian
period was a very costly
business indeed.

Women were changing
their outfits sort of
up to three times a day.

Now, we've got one petticoat
here on our mannequin.

But depending on
the particular style
that was in fashion,

women could have worn up
to seven or eight different
layers of petticoats.

At this time,
no clothes were pre-made.

A lady would chose fabrics and
the store would make
the dress to order.

You've got all of this lace -
these amazing lace trimmings,
which again you can see,

it really is conspicuous
consumption.

All of this lace
would have been made by hand.

So you can imagine
the expense.

So you've also got a whole host
of accessories

that go with these outfits.

Millinery especially was really,
really big business.

They would choose feathers, you
know, these artificial flowers.

They'd have sometimes whole
stuffed birds, fake fruit.

It really became kind of, an
enormous, almost sculptural

kind of walking art.

So, as well as the millinery,

you've also got
the parasol as well.

They've got so many
different areas,

so many different things
they can sell to women,

from textiles, through to
actually having the dresses
made up themselves.

That's a huge, huge array.

But there was a problem.

The store had lots to sell,
but too few customers.

The opening hype had died away
and it was quiet.

Selfridge needed to bring
the crowds back.

Today publicity stunts
are commonplace.

At Selfridges, launch events
are central to the store's
marketing.

But in London in 1909
they were seen as tasteless.

Harry Gordon Selfridge changed
all that.

Selfridge was one of the
first people who made publicity
stunts respectable.

He had an approach to marketing,
to first of all
draw the people in.

In July 1909, opportunity landed
in his lap.

All England was talking of
just one thing:

Frenchman Louis Bleriot
had just completed
the first flight

over the English Channel.

And Selfridge is there standing
on the coast in Kent,

you know, ready to
transport the aeroplane back.

Selfridge placed the
history-making plane in
the middle of the shop floor.

The effect was immediate.

It became like a museum
or a sightseeing attraction.

It was a wonderful...
it was an outing.

This time the crowds
were here to stay
and business took off.

Selfridges was modern,
fashionable and popular.

That period, just before the
First World War was a period

of enormous change
and excitement in London.

These kind of beacons
of modernity are arriving
on the streets of London.

And one of those beacons of
modernity was Selfridge's shop.

The store's modernist philosophy
extended to its politics.

By 1910 the British
suffragettes' campaign

for women's right to vote

was at its height.

Selfridge made his store's
position clear.

Selfridge was a keen supporter
of the suffragette movement.

He advertised
in their newspapers.

He flew the flag
above the shop.

He wrote articles
defending their cause.

He also saw them
as potential customers.

So he stocked goods in
their colors - the colors
of the suffrage movement

which were green for hope,
purple for dignity,

and white for purity.

Selfridge's support
for the suffragettes

made him popular
with women shoppers.

And when the campaign
turned violent

his stance
protected his store.

In 1912 the suffragettes stepped
up their campaign of militancy,

and they started burning
public buildings,

they started spitting at
policemen in the street

and they started
smashing shop windows.

Selfridge benefited
from his support for them.

They didn't smash
his windows.

Selfridge's egalitarian,
distinctly American ideals
were paying dividends.

Obviously, in part,
his support for women

was a calculated attempt
to get customers in.

But he was an imaginative guy

who wanted to promote something
that was different from
everywhere else.

And, of course, in the end,
it benefited the store
to some extent.

Next, Selfridge challenged
Britain's greatest divide
of all - the class system.

In the early 1900s society was
still clearly divided.

Even when shopping,
the classes did not mix.

Selfridges was the first
store in Britain

where every class
shopped together.

Before Selfridge,
high class people

shopped at high-class stores,

the upper middle class at
upper-middle-class stores,

skilled workers
different stores.

What Selfridge did was he said
to the British people,

'We are open to
the whole British public,

and everybody is welcome.'

The idea of appealing to all
classes was openly sniffed
at by his competitors.

But anyone with money
to spend was welcome
at Selfridges.

Selfridge was
a totally self-made man,

so I think he appreciated
the idea

that everyone had
the potential to be

a wonderful profit-making
customer for him.

Middle-class professions
and their wives and children

had money for the first time
and...

They wanted to be accepted
and taken seriously.

One of Selfridge's strategies,
to attract customers
of every class,

was to introduce
discounted products.

In 1910 Selfridges opened
the 'Bargain Basement' -

a well-presented
but price-led department.

It caused a sensation.

After a few years
it was worth a quarter of all
the sales within the store.

So, you know, that was...
a pretty good idea.

Harry Selfridge also established
the first, fixed,
bi-annual sale.

It's now a worldwide
retail tradition.

In 1910, the sales cemented
Selfridges' position as
a store that was open to all.

It was a very American way of
viewing the world, you know.

The girl who comes in
in a dirty dress, you know,

who is working as
a shop assistant,

could be a movie star tomorrow.

Selfridge's egalitarian approach
extended to his staff.

He treated them
in a totally different way
from his competitors.

Selfridge brought
customer service to London

and transformed
working in retail.

In Edwardian times, poor working
conditions blighted
British department stores.

Many households
still had domestic servants

and shop staff were treated in
much the same way.

They worked 12-hour days,
they didn't have any rights
whatsoever.

They worked six days a week.

They had no holidays to speak
of. So it was pretty hard.

And like servants, shop staff
lived in dormitories on site.

Just outside London is
this small, old-fashioned
department store

called Jacksons.

Founded in 1875,
you can still see today

where the staff used to live
above the store.

Now, sadly, all we've got here
today is the carcass
of what used to be there.

You've got to imagine
this was very primitive
accommodation.

You had one wash basin,
you had simple beds.

It wasn't like a hotel
or your own house.

It was very much
you live here, you work here.

So it was the basics
of everything.

So there might have been
at least 60 members
of staff up here,

all sharing a little partition
between themselves.

But all sharing
the same wash basin,

so you can imagine at night
there would have been a queue
to wash themselves.

Living at the department store
meant living by their rules.

There was a curfew
in the evening,

and on the shop floor,
staff were docked pay

if they broke a list of
management regulations.

Here at Jacksons we had some
quite fair but strict fines.

All assistants are to have
breakfasted before they start
work at eight o'clock.

Fine for breach - sixpence.

All staff must at all times
not gossip or lounge around
in groups

or you will be fined threepence.

And my favorite: all staff must
provide themselves

with tape measure,
scissors and a pencil.

Without these he is useless.

Harry Selfridge established
a new code of employment
practice in Britain.

He did away with fines

and none of his staff
lived on site.

Instead, they received
better pay.

In return he demanded a new
culture of customer service.

His big, big thing was,
'Don't push the sale, just give
them customer service.'

Customer service was key
and I think that's a very
American thing still today,

that, you know, if you treat
the customer right
then they're gonna wanna buy.

Selfridge ran a tight ship.

He'd send the staff notes for
improvements every morning.

And if he found any dust,

he'd pointedly write his
initials in it with his finger.

Because he was very sparing
with his praise -

he wasn't a gushing,
effusive man at all -

when he did say, 'Well done,' it
actually meant something.

Selfridge kept his distance,

and certainly never flirted or
fraternized with staff.

He thoroughly disapproved of
bringing sex into the workplace.

But unbeknownst to him,
in later years,

a secret affair
did develop.

And it involved
someone close to him.

His son,
Harry Selfridge Junior,

started work at the store.

Jennifer Selfridge is
Harry Junior's daughter.

He fell in love...with a
pretty girl in her 20s,

who was working at Selfridges.

And worked for a while
in the toy department.

And they formed
a relationship

Gordon Senior
would not approve of.

In a strange contradiction
to the egalitarian philosophy
of his store,

Selfridge senior
was incredibly snobbish

when it came
to his own family.

He wanted his children to
marry into the upper classes.

British society was very
heavily-layered at that time,

as we all know.

Doubtless, he was expected
to marry a woman...

an upper class
English woman.

And Gordon Senior disapproved.

Selfridge Junior
was so worried,

he kept his
relationship under wraps -

hiding his pregnant
girlfriend away,

while he lived
in a London apartment.

At the store, Harry Gordon
Selfridge's attitude

remained
modern and progressive.

And in 1911,
he took his greatest risk.

Having make-up and perfume
near the front of the store

is an innovation
that is now widespread.

But that was really introduced
by Selfridge.

Harry Gordon Selfridge
invented the ground floor

beauty and cosmetics department.

It is now the template for
every department store.

Thanks to Harry Selfridge,

you walk into
a department store

pretty much anywhere
around the world

and you walk straight into
Fragrance and Cosmetics.

But it was certainly
not always the case.

In the Edwardian period,
make-up was available
and judiciously worn -

but it was not respectable.

At a department store,
it was generally hidden away

on an upper floor.

But Selfridge spotted
an emerging opportunity.

He liked the idea of perfumes
near the front of the store.

He wanted to make
a little bit of make-up

more respectable than it was.

Selfridge's brainstorm was
to bring perfume and make-up

together right by
the main entrance.

So the first thing that
happens is your senses

are assaulted with wonderful
smells, wonderful scent.

But the add on of
colored make up...

it became not
just acceptable,

it became desirable
for young women

to wear colored cosmetics.

So he pulled
everything together.

It was enormously popular.

Ground floor Cosmetics
continues in Selfridges today

and it's one of the most
lucrative departments.

Michael Sheridan owns an
international retail
design agency.

He believes Harry Selfridge'
placement of cosmetics

is fundamental
to department stores.

For me, it's very much
the kind of candy

that draws people into
big retail spaces.

It creates
an enormous amount of theater

for people visiting
department stores.

And therefore very clever
that he recognized

that it should be one of the
first things that you find

when you go into a store
that's supposed to offer
you everything.

Harry Selfridge's
original ideas

have inspired modern
retail psychology.

Today, stores use a variety
of hidden techniques

to encourage the customer
to buy.

According to Michael,
at Selfridges,

they're trying to seed
the denim department
in customers' minds.

There's that wonderful display
of hanging out the washing,

with continuous pairs
of jeans -

sort of almost the laundry
line with denim.

But also, probably
not so noticeable,

are the planters at
the bottoms and tops
of the escalators.

The floral displays in them are
actually made from denim.

So whether you're a very
observant shopper

or you're a very
unobservant shopper,

you're going to leave
with the impression

that there's something going
on to do with denim.

So, if in a week or
so's time, you're thinking,

'Actually I do want
a pair of jeans,'

chances are you'll be
going back to Selfridges.

Back in 1914, Harry
Selfridge's new ideas meant
the store was booming.

But it was about need his
retail genius more than ever.

In 1914, World War One began.

On the face of it, war and
shopping shouldn't mix.

But in wartime London,
life went on.

There's a sense that it's
part of your patriotic duty

to carry on as usual and to
continue going shopping.

That was a part of the way you
were going to resist the enemy.

In fact, some London
department stores

turned the war
to their advantage.

Harrods had struck a deal to
make British Army uniforms.

Selfridge made do with a
contract for the French
Army's underwear.

And, in store,

a cynical stunt helped
the well-stocked pharmacy
push its wares.

They had a demonstration
where the store pharmacist

made mustard gas
on the roof in 1915.

It must have been horrific
because the smell

and the actual
reality of it hitting home.

So mothers would rush to
the chemist and buy gauze

to send out to their boys which
was much needed.

As the last year of the war
approached,

the store posted
record annual profits.

By 1919,
and the end of the war,

Selfridge had made
so much money,

he could afford
a lavish extension.

The construction doubled
the size of the store,

creating the two-block site we
see today.

It was ready for the
explosion of the 1920s.

Selfridges today
markets itself

as young and fashionable.

It dedicates more space
than any other London store

to youth culture
and trendy clothing.

That identity began
in the 1920s.

The 1920s is the era
of youth,

it's a time when young people
stopped deferring
to their elders.

After the catastrophe
of the First World War,

they weren't going
to be dictated to

by a bunch of crusty old men
who'd caused so much trouble.

And so you get this sense
of youth and vigor.

Harry Selfridge and his store
were quick to embrace
the new scene.

Not only did they stock
dresses in the fashionable
shorter length,

for the first time,
they were pre-made

and ready to wear
off the racks.

This dress is a kind of really
typical style

for something that might have
been worn in the mid-1920s.

Now, this is a huge departure
from the styles

that were being worn
just a decade earlier.

At their highest, dress hems
came to just below the knee.

Now this is really the first
time in women's fashion

that dresses were this short.

So you can imagine the kind of
shock that it caused

when women were out in public
wearing styles like this.

As new up-tempo music
swept over from America,

Selfridge's lightweight dresses
started to fly off the racks.

Women were dancing the black
bottom, the Charleston,

you get all of these new dances
being developed.

So sort of the dancing, the
movement, is all reflected.

All of those changes are
reflected in the style of dress
you see here.

In London, there was a new
breed of nightclubs

and risque entertainment.

Selfridge himself had always
had a taste for nightlife,

gambling
and occasionally, women.

When his beloved wife Rosalie
died suddenly in 1918,

the 62-year-old became
a familiar face
in after-hours London.

When someone like Harry
Selfridge comes along

and he starts going
to these nightclubs

and mixing with
these younger people,

even though he's an anomaly
because he's so old,

he's accepted because
he's got money to spend

and he loves being part
of it, so why not?

Selfridge was the first
retailer to become
a celebrity himself.

And he harnessed that
celebrity to his advantage,

parading his showbiz friends
through the store.

So this birth of the cult
of celebrity, if you want,

that didn't really exist
in those days...

having Douglas Fairbanks come
in, Charlie Chaplin come in.

These were huge, major
international stars.

They came in and once
they'd done whatever
they were going to do,

they'd go up to his office and
sign his window -

he had a corner window -
with a diamond tipped pen

and sign their autograph
on the window.

By now, the store itself was
famous around the world.

In particular, it was known
for its extraordinary windows.

The store has
21 plate-glass windows

running along Oxford Street.

The stylistic displays are
central to the store's identity.

They invest huge resources
into window dressing.

Every few months,
in the early hours

and out of sight
of the public,

a specialist team changes
the entire strip in unison.

In the 1920s, the Selfridges
windows were the largest

in the world and the designs
were revolutionary.

Selfridge didn't just fill them
with goods like other stores.

He filled them with stories -
narratives, pictures.

He made them very attractive,

so that people imagined
themselves in the store.

For the first time in London,

a store was not just selling
products but a lifestyle.

And they took the
unprecedented step

of lighting their displays after
dark.

Selfridges was one
of the first public places

to use mass electricity.

The store went on to debut

many of the greatest inventions
of the 20th century.

It staged the first ever
demonstration of television

and broadcast early radio.

Harry Selfridge ensured that
the store was always as
futuristic as possible.

Inside the store,
there were other innovations.

There were nine elevators, this
had not happened before

in British department stores.

At the Museum of London,

they've kept the ornate
elevators from the 1920s.

This was really cutting-edge
technology.

That was something that
Selfridges offered

many of its visitors.

So for the first time,

many people would have gone into
a lift in Selfridges.

It was a new experience
for them.

The first thing that they did
was look up at the ceiling,

because they couldn't quite
believe they were going up.

Another novelty that Gordon
Selfridge introduced

were female lift operators.

They were kitted out in
beautiful white uniforms

with knickerbockers and
beautiful white jackets.

And they would manually operate
the lifts

for anyone
who came into them.

This was quite unusual, to have
women working in a lift.

Because it meant
that very often,

women were in very close
proximity to men,

in the same small space,
and this was very unique.

This was something that wasn't
really seen

as an acceptable practice
previously.

The elevator operators reflect
Selfridge's liberal,
racier style.

At times, it put him at odds

with Britain's
conservative elite

who disapproved of his
risque approach to retail.

There was a lot of
snobbishness about
what was considered

the sort of vulgarity
of Americans

and Selfridge really did
fall into that,

he was a bit excessive
by English standards.

And he did feel excluded.

Selfridge was desperate to
break into the British
upper classes.

But it was an obsession that
was to cost his store dear.

Selfridge spared no expense

trying to make it as
a British gentleman.

He used the store's
healthy profits

to pay for astronomical personal
expenses.

Money in America
was usually enough

to give you kind of
class status.

It wasn't as easy in Britain.

And he spent his money
like water.

And he was extremely
extravagant.

Selfridge rented
Lord Lansdowne's
grand house in London

and Highcliffe Castle
on the coast.

And this never-before
seen footage

shows him entertaining
aboard his fully-crewed luxury
steam yacht.

(Ship's horn)

Whilst profits were up,

the store could afford
to support his expenditure.

But behind the scenes, a
perfect storm was brewing.

It began with
the Dolly Sisters.

They were identical twins.

They were extraordinary
creatures.

They were petite
when they grew up...

..beautiful...
dark...exotic-looking.

By the late 1920s, the sisters
were the most famous

cabaret and film stars
in the world.

Their racy notoriety inspired
the term 'Dolly Birds'.

And Harry Gordon Selfridge
was absolutely besotted.

There would have been
quite a large number

of very influential
and famous men

that would have been throwing
themselves at the Dolly
Sisters at that time.

Selfridge was very persistent.

He wanted to spend time
with them.

He thought they were great.

Selfridge had floated the
store on the stock market

in 1926 and made a fortune.

He had access to
a great deal of money...

and the Dollies
were happy to spend it.

He was very generous,

gave them lots of
different things.

And through him,
they got into gambling.

One of the reasons why
Selfridge and Jenny Dolly

liked each other's company
so much was gambling.

Selfridge and the Dollies
were regular faces at
the card tables.

But behind the smiles,

Harry and Jenny were sliding
towards a gambling addiction.

Selfridge bankrolled huge
losses at the tables of
French casinos

and then charged it
to the store.

He would fund the gambling,

he would fund all the money.

And if she lost...he lost.

And if she won,
she kept the money.

This is particularly
interesting,

it's Harry Selfridge's account
book.

And columns of figures of
money that he's spent

on sometimes tiny, tiny things.

I mean, he even records
magazines and newspapers.

And then much larger sums.

Seriously large.

Here's another entry
for £1,200.

And these sums of money,
the larger sums,

have no entry
by the side of them.

It is safe, I think, to assume
they are gaming debts.

£1,200 is $65,000
in today's money.

It's been estimated that
she cost him about...

in the region of £200 million in
contemporary money.

The extravagance
couldn't last.

By the 1930s, the effects
of the Great Depression

were being felt in London.

Selfridges, in particular,
was beginning to struggle.

The other department stores
had copied Harry's ideas

and the competitive advantage
had been lost.

What's more, Selfridge had
made a fatal business error

and over expanded.

By 1939, the store was in debt
and hemorrhaging cash.

But Harry continued to fund
his lifestyle and gambling

from the store coffers.

As a publicly limited company,

the board of Selfridges
could call an extraordinary
general meeting.

80-year-old Harry Gordon
Selfridge was told to attend.

The company was in difficulties
by the late 1930s.

And his personal debts
had cost the company
considerable money.

He had debts to the Inland
Revenue, which were huge.

The Board of Selfridges told him
he had to pay his debts or go.

Selfridge was demoted
to honorary Chairman

and given a meager pension.

You can't go on forever
but at that point,

in a move that was deeply
ungracious and very
badly handled,

they guaranteed
to give him a pension

and stripped him of his job.

Eight months later, after he
kept coming into the store,

the staff were embarrassed,

his secretary had no letters
to send to anybody,

he would dictate them but there
was no work for him to do.

By the end,

Selfridge almost became an
embarrassment to the store.

Once they'd taken
any managerial authority
away from him,

they were quite quick
to take away most of
what he'd been left.

In 1940, the title of chairman
was also withdrawn.

Selfridge was told
he was no longer welcome
at his beloved store.

But he couldn't let go.

He'd travel to Oxford Street
every day,

simply to stand in the street

and stare up at
the store he'd built.

People saw him, still in
his rather smart clothes,

then no longer
very appropriate.

Shabby, but kind of,
you know,

morning suit and top hat,
looking at Selfridges,

but really outside it,
and neglected.

He used to count pennies at the
bus stop by the Green Man pub,

to get on the bus from Putney
and come to Oxford Street.

And in 1943,
standing opposite,

looking
incredibly threadbare,

he was arrested
for being a vagrant.

Harry Gordon Selfridge
died in 1947.

Despite all his success,
he passed away penniless.

Finally he died and I think
it was a very basic
kind of funeral.

So it was a sad ending and
he didn't pass on his wealth.

I don't think his children were
particularly wealthy,

because there was no wealth
to pass on.

Although Selfridge
left no inheritance,

his granddaughter Jennifer
holds no ill-feeling.

Well, I... I feel I have no
problem with that at all.

I think my grandfather
earned all that money,

and he also managed
to spend all of it.

But there is a final
extraordinary twist to the tale.

Jennifer, her siblings
and her mother

were always kept hidden from
Harry Gordon Selfridge.

This private home movie
shows Jennifer's parents

happily together -

as they were for
the rest of their lives.

Yet, incredibly,
Harry Junior never felt able

to reveal his wife and family to
his father.

Jennifer Selfridge
never met her grandfather,
Harry Gordon Selfridge.

The relationship and
we, as four children,

were kept quiet,
secret in a way.

Isn't that awful?
Isn't that ridiculous?

It is absurd.

But it all worked out.

And I'm happy
to be descended from him.

You know, he made something
great, and it's still there.

You know, it's still there.

Selfridge's legacy is strong.

The store has survived
70 years since he passed.

In the Second World War,
its deep basements were used

to stage secure communications
between Churchill and Roosevelt.

And from the '50s to '90s,
it continued to trade -

but it was no longer
an industry leader,

changing ownership
several times.

In 2003, it was finally taken
back into private hands.

The Westons, a Canadian
billionaire retail family,

have rejuvenated the store,

reinventing the Harry Gordon
Selfridge formula of interior
design and high fashion.

Under the Westons,

Selfridges is now posting record
profits once again.

Thanks to Harry Gordon
Selfridge,

the store still has pride
of place on Oxford Street.

It stands today as testament
to one American's lasting
impact on Britain.

The Secret of Selfridges
is out.

Harry's American dream is
alive in the heart of London.

It has withstood two world wars,
and there it is today,

full of life with
flags flying.

And that personality,
I believe,

is imbued in the building,

through the force
of the personality

of the man who built it.

from viewers like you.

To learn more about
Secrets of Selfridges,

please visit pbs.org

Secrets of Selfridges is
available on DVD.

To order, visit shopPBS.org

or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available

for download on iTunes.