J. Peterman Redux

In the end, he tried to open 70 retail stores, succeeded in opening 10, but then went bust, turning over the detritus of a magnificent dream to a discount chain. He was stripped of everything, including his own name. It was a horrific plunge. “Icarus Peterman” had simply flown too close to the sun.

Renowned for his signature item, the cowboy duster, and known to millions as himself on “Seinfeld,” Peterman was the quintessential world traveler, entrepreneur and bon vivant. He said to me several years ago, “I could travel anywhere in the world, stay anywhere I liked, eat anywhere I wanted, meet anybody in the world and buy anything I felt like buying.”