B Altman Co

The venerable department store chain B. Altman & Co., whose Australian owner filed for bankruptcy protection in August, is joining a host of other well-known retailers on the auction block, the Australian company said today. Hooker Corp. of Australia's U.S. subsidiary, L. J. Hooker Corp., which also owns the upscale Bonwit Teller chain, said it hopes for a "quick sale" of its seven Altman stores. The department stores are in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Debt-burdened Hooker Corp., an Australian property group that owns the exclusive Bonwit Teller department stores in the United States, began liquidating Wednesday as banks pressed the company for overdue payments. Hooker said in a statement Wednesday night that it had no choice but to go into the initial stages of forced asset sales after a task force of more than 40 banks Tuesday abruptly ended an agreement on a four-month debt repayment moratorium.

L. J. Hooker Corp., which recently failed to find a buyer for its B. Altman & Co. department store chain, today announced it has decided to sell two more retailers, Bonwit Teller and Sakowitz. The proposed sale of Bonwit Teller reverses Hooker's previous plan to retain the century-old 16-store chain.

Debt-burdened Hooker Corp., an Australian property group which owns the exclusive Bonwit Teller department stores in the United States, began liquidating today as banks pressed the company for overdue payments. Hooker said in a statement that it had no choice but to go into the initial stages of forced asset sales after a task force of more than 40 banks Tuesday abruptly ended an agreement on a four-month debt repayment moratorium.

L. J. Hooker Corp., which tried unsuccessfully to sell its B. Altman & Co. department store chain, on Thursday said it wants to find buyers for two other retailers, Bonwit Teller and Sakowitz. The proposed sale of Bonwit Teller reverses Hooker's previous plan to retain the century-old 16-store upscale chain.

Frances Lear, the former wife of producer Norman Lear who used her sizable divorce settlement to found a women's magazine called Lear's and later founded Lear Television, died Monday. She was 73. Lear died of breast cancer in her Manhattan home, according to her son-in-law, Jonathan La Pook. Lear's magazine, which prided itself on serving "the woman who wasn't born yesterday," burst onto the national publishing scene Feb. 23, 1988.

Customers clutching credit cards and wish lists joined by children eager for a glimpse of Santa Claus crammed into stores around the country today in the traditional start of the post-Thanksgiving buying spree. Old-fashioned holiday spirit mixed with a hunger for bargains sent shoppers and browsers out in force, promising to produce a day worthy of its billing as the busiest one of the year for merchants. The six B. Altman & Co.

Most of the existing Bonwit Teller specialty retail chain will be closed, including the flagship store in Manhattan, under an agreement announced in bankruptcy court Wednesday. A group of investors, including Donald J. Trump and a shopping mall developer, that won rights to the Bonwit Teller name paid $22 million for five of Bonwit Teller's 16 stores, including the outlet in Manhattan's Trump Tower. The sale was approved by the federal bankruptcy court overseeing the Chapter 11 filing by L. J.

On her lunch hour, Linda Melgar trotted through Buffums' second-floor ladies wear department and plopped a white sweater with a crocheted front on the counter. "I wish this was $40," she said. With the storewide 20% discount, the sweater came to $40.90. "I wish it was $30," she said, taking out her wallet for the fourth time in six days to buy a Buffums going-out-of-business-sale item.

Before Sanford C. Sigoloff took on a new turnaround assignment this week at L. J. Hooker Corp., he talked things over with the men he affectionately calls Zephyr, Earth Communicator, Abacus and Baud Man. They are four of the key associates who have stood by Sigoloff through thick and thin, nicknamed after the Flash Gordon comic book characters who loyally served their leader, Ming the Merciless (Sigoloff's nickname). Seven months since they were last together at Santa Monica-based Wickes Cos.