Date:  Tue, 27 Jan 1998 10:47:22 +0000
From:  Jim Rader <jrader[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]M-W.COM>
Subject: Dopp kit and Doppelt again

I turned up more information on Dopp kit through a Nexis search.
(<Dopp kit>, by the way, got only 26 hits in the combined News and
Mags databases, which is a pittance in Nexis terms; I didn't try
other spellings, though.)

The following is from the <Austin-American Statesman>, March 28,
1994, Lifestyle section p. B5, in a query-to-the-paper columns
(byline--Jane S. Greig):
-"Dopp" is a registered trademark of a man's toiletry kit.
-The kit was developed by Charles Doppelt, a German immigrant who
-arrived in Chicago in the early 1900's. Doppelt was a designer of
-leather goods and was the first to patent this toilet kit for men's
-shaving paraphernalia and other personal items....
-Charles Doppelt's Co. was purchased by Samsonite in the early '70's.
-In 1979 Buxton acquired ownership of the trademark name "Dopp Kit"
-[though according to the Buxton webpage only "Dopp" is
-trademarked--JLR].

Similar information appears in the <Advocate> (Baton Rouge, LA) for
April 26, 1996. Some Buxton wallets carrying the "Dopp" trademark
appear to have contained a small card with a snippet of history,
according to which "during World War II millions of GIs were issued
Dopp kits, forever implanting the name Dopp in the psyche of
America."

A letter from one Maida Mangiameli, Hawthorn Woods, IL, appeared in
the <Chicago Tribune> Sunday magazine for May 19, 1996:
-Regarding Bill Brashler's article about luggage in your Travel Part
-2 (March 17), my father Jerome Harris designed the original Dopp Kit.
- He worked for his uncle, Charles Doppelt at Charles Doppelt fine
-leather goods in Chicago, where the design was patented. There was,
-indeed, a time when the Dopp Kit was very well known....

Finally, the following was in the obituary column of the <Chicago
Tribune> for June 16, 1993: "Jerome Marovitz...retired controller
for Doppelt, a former manufacturer of leather goods, for more than 15
years. Once located at Cermark and Wabash, the company was known for
its Dopp kit, a travel case for toiletries."

Jim Rader