Business: l Dreamed I Was a Tycoon in My . . .

IDA ROSENTHAL

MANY a U.S. woman —and man—boggles at the flat-chested styles that occasionally spring from Paris couturiers, but no one resents them with a deeper passion than a spry little (4 ft. 10 in.) grandmother named Ida Rosenthal.

Mrs. Rosenthal, 74, is

the founder and chairman of Maidenform Inc., the chief U.S. brassiere manufacturer and the originator of the modern bra. "Nature has made woman with a bosom," says Mrs. Rosenthal, "so nature thought it was important. Who am I to argue with nature?"

By helping nature, Ida Rosenthal has probably had a greater...