You’ll read about Bob Dylan’s father,
Abe Zimmerman, in a book I am writing about being a trade reporter, then editor, during the first 10 years of CES. Abe ran an appliance store in Hibbing, Minnesota and spoke to me several times a month about the appliance business. He talked a little about his son but no one knew he would become such an icon.

In 1966, my job at HFD was to cold-call appliance retailers around the country in hopes of uncovering industry gossip that could turn into a front-page “scoop.” My editors, Manning Greenberg and Aaron Neretin, asked me not to talk directly to manufacturers—they were our advertisers, and one dumb comment from me could risk a contract.

Instead, I was assigned to call what we jokingly called the “sweaty armpits crowd”—the floor guys. These were the hardworking men stocking shelves and advising customers in appliance stores from coast to coast. Abe was the one who gave me the scoop about the birth of Best Buy. That story made me one of the most famous business writers in the country for years.

The big bonus was that Publisher Richard Ekstract hired me away from HFD and taught me and my future husband, Eliot Hess, all we needed to know about running a successful business. The book is mostly about working for Richard and the shenanigans that took place behind the scenes at CES.

Thank you Abe for the scoop. It made my dreams come true. You left us too early.