Boston’s legendary Filene’s Basement, a Dorchester/Southie suit salesman and a friendship with Jack Kent Cooke the owner of the Super Bowl winning Redskins
Submitted by Paul Kenney
When 72-year-old Robert Pacitti, a native son of Dorchester’s Savin Hill neighborhood, married Sharen Stokinger of South Boston in 1974, he migrated with his new bride five miles to the north and comfortably settled into his new Southie environment.
Pacitti, never on one to shy away from accepting a new challenge, quickly immersed himself in the culture of volunteerism, which is a hallmark of the fabric and identity of the close-knit enclave of South Boston.
He has quietly helped raise millions for various charitable causes, a favorite of which is “The South Boston Special Kids Program,” and his active presence on countless neighborhood boards has earned him the nickname of; “Mr. Fix It.”
But the story we are highlighting has nothing to do with his charitable work, or his unimpeachable reputation in the neighborhood.
It traces to a ringing phone call that Pacitti happened to answer during his days as a commissioned salesman in the Men’s Suit Department of the late lamented Filene’s Basement, his employment home for 37-years until its closing in 2007.
“The Basement” as it was universally known, was located in the basement of Filene’s Department Store, and was situated just above the Washington Street MBTA station, in the heart of Boston’s once thriving Downtown Crossing shopping center.
The caller on the other end of that line was Jack Kent Cooke, the irascible, and eccentric owner of the Washington Redskins who was inquiring about a shipment of fashionable slippers.
When Pacitti picked up that phone he couldn’t have imagined that it would lead to a lifelong friendship between the muti-millionaire and three-time Super Bowl winning owner of the Washington Redskins and the suit salesman from South Boston.
Pacitti, who has experienced a million fascinating lifetime adventures, refers to this as one of his all-time favorite stories.
“I picked up the phone, it was probably in July of 1991, and the raspy voice on the other end of the line was inquiring about a shipment of slippers that we received from Brooks Brothers for our famous fall sale,” said Pacitti.
“I proceeded to explain to this gentleman, that if in fact we did have them in the warehouse, we would likely not put them on sale until September.”
The Basement’s high-end fall suit sale was one of the most highly anticipated fashion events of the year, and on the first day of the sale hundreds of mostly male shoppers would be prowling like caged lions ready to pounce as soon as the Basement’s doors opened on Monday at 9 a.m.
The sale featured such high-end fashion brand names as: Saks Fifth Ave, Brooks Brothers, and Louie’s, and included shirts, ties, slippers, and shoes, all of which would be attractively priced at their warehouse, before they were presented onto the floor for the sale.
But Cooke was persistent and these slippers were an obsession, and he called Pacitti for three consecutive days inquiring about the slippers.
“He continued to call me back to see if I found out anything about the shipment. After the first call my initial thought was that this guy is crazy, and by that third call he asked, ‘Do you know who I am?’
“I told him no. He said, I am Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Washington Redskins. I said to myself, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I’m Robert Pacitti, and I own Filene’s Basement. But I was coming around to the thought that maybe this guy is indeed legit,” said Pacitti.
Robert decided to call the shoe buyer asking about the Brooks Brothers slipper shipment and was told that yes, they did arrive.
They were a black velour slipper with the B and B logo on the front, and they had eight pairs of Cooke’s eight and a half shoe size.
During that third phone call Cooke had left Pacitti his number, and he called Cooke’s office.
“On Monday I called his office and his secretary, who was a very nice woman, answered. I told her who I was, and Jack immediately got on the phone. I told him that we had located eight pairs of his size and that they were marked $55 a pair.”
“I believe he told me that he had previously paid $250 a pair, and when I told him our price, he said I’ll take all eight pairs. I’ll put them in all my homes. I told him that it sounds good to me. He gave me his credit card info over the phone, his address, and I rang him up. I brought them down to the shipping department and shipped them off,” said Pacitti who figured that was it. But the best was yet to come.
“About two weeks later I was called down to the shipping office and there was a delivery of a big box addressed to me,” Pacitti said.
“When I opened it, it was filled with Washington Redskins tee shirts, hats, a signed autobiography, a beautiful game jersey, all kinds of stuff like that. I asked for permission to make sure I could take it, I didn’t want to break any rules, and they said it was ok,” Pacitti said.
When he returned home after his shift that night, he showed his wife Sharen his box of merch and chalked it off to what he referred to as “another good experience.”
But with a hat-tip to Louie and Rick in the final scene of the movie classic “Casablanca” it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Cooke the NFL owner, and Pacitti the suit salesman from Filene’s Basement.
“From then on if a unique item came into the Basement, such as for example Brioni pajamas or a robe that I thought Jack would like I would ship them off, and Jack would have the option of either buying the items or just shipping them back,” Pacitti said.
Long before that initial Cooke Basement phone call, Robert, and some of his friends from Southie had decided to visit one of their good buddies, Billy Boyle who had moved out to Minneapolis.
They timed their visit to coincide with the playing of the first Super Bowl to be held in Minneapolis, which they were all planning to attend during their visit.
“I decided to call Jack’s office about tickets. I’ve never been shy of asking for something. If it’s a no, that’s okay, it’s on to the next thing. I wasn’t looking for free tickets, I was calling to see if I could purchase any tickets,” he said.
Pacitti once again spoke with his secretary, who by now knew his name, and she told him that she would let Jack know and get back to you.
“I didn’t hear anything, but it didn’t matter we were going to the game anyway,” he said.
“Then about two weeks before the game in which, as fate would have it, was a matchup between Cooke’s Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills, I got a call, and it was Jack. He said, ‘Robert, I’m sending you a couple of tickets as a thank you for all you have done for me.’
On game day, Pacitti and his crew arrived at the stadium early and Robert and Billy Boyle were on a mission to locate Cooke’s box just to say hello. They figured it had to be located on the 50-yard line.
“Looking up at the box I noticed this beautiful woman talking to a guy. Jack had married a gorgeous younger Brazilian woman. I stood on a chair because the box was probably fifteen feet above us. I said excuse me, is this Jack Kent Cooke’s booth? They simply ignored me, didn’t even acknowledge me,” Pacitti said.
“My friend Billy said, c’mon let’s go. I said no, I came all this way. I’d really like to say hello to Jack and thank him.”
Pacitti tried again using the magic words of: Filene’s Basement.
“I said, excuse me, I don’t mean to bother you, but if this is Jack Kent Cooke’s booth, could you tell him Robert’s here from Filene’s Basement.”
“Once she heard the word Filenes, she put her finger up as if to say one minute, and just as quickly this white-haired gentleman with dark, dark sunglasses covering both sides of his eyes comes to the open window.”
“Leaning over he shouted, Robert, is that you? Yeah, I said, and asked Jack, can I get a picture?’
“Of course, why don’t you come up to my booth I grabbed Billy and we walked to the nearest opening.”
Upon arrival outside the booth Pacitti and Boyle were stopped by the security guards at the door. They told the security guards that Jack had invited them up and about 30 seconds later the doors flew open and out Jack came.
“He gives me a big hug and says wow, are you a handsome guy, the girls in the office are really going to love you. We were taking pictures and the crowd is screaming ‘Go Redskins.’ Suddenly, Victor Kiam, who owned the Patriots at that time comes over to wish Jack well, but he blew him off. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I’m with a friend of mine,” recalled Robert with a laugh.
After the picture session Cooke invited them into the booth, but Pacitti told him he couldn’t because he had to meet our friends, but Cooke did put his name on the after-party list.
At the game Pacitti’s seats were with the team dentist, doctor, and the head of Coca Cola, but little did they know that they were sitting with the suit salesman from Filene’s Basement a good friend of Mr. Jack Kent Cooke.
“The Redskin defeated Buffalo 37-24 and after party was crazy as some of our friends were on the stage with Warren Moon tossing footballs into the crowd,” he said.
Their friendship continued to blossom and when the Patriots played the Packers in 1997 Super Bowl Robert once again asked about tickets and Cooke had a classic response.
“He said, Robert, I would rather give them to you than those cocksuckers in Washington always trying to get free tickets off me.”
Pacitti and his friend Pat sat on the 50-yard line five rows up and sat next to the Redskins coach Joe Gibbs and his son.
Cooke also invited Robert to the inaugural game of the new stadium he had built, to start the 1997 season, but sadly that never happened.
On April 6, 1997, at the age of 84, Jack Kent Cooke passed away from congestive heart failure.
But once again with a tip of the cap to Bergman and Bogart in the movie classic “Casablanca” they will always have “The Basement.”
Jack Kent Cooke who passed away On April 6, 1997, at the age of 84
Robert and Sharen Pacitti
The “Running of the Brides” at Filene’s Basement was a famous, highly chaotic annual or semi-annual wedding dress sale where thousands of designer gowns were deeply discounted
