Joseph Isaac Schorr (1923 to 2006) is the only person named on the Laundesigns copyright registrations of 1960 and 1961, as author of the print, and the man who ran Schorr Sign Service in Glendale, Queens. This page puts what the records say about him and his family in one place. Every line comes from a record: census sheets, draft cards, directories, trade magazines, property filings and death indexes. Where a line is a reading of the records rather than what they say, it is marked inferred.
What is left out on purpose. The family below stops at Joseph’s generation and their spouses. Children and grandchildren, living or not, are not covered here, and nobody in the family has been contacted. If you are family and want something corrected or removed, use the contact page.
Family tree
- Nathan Schorr (4 Mar 1885, Brăila, Romania to 6 Feb 1944, Queens). Sign painter on his own account. Married Rose (Rosi) Weiss (about 1890 to 8 Nov 1945, Queens). Rose’s mother, Anna Weiss, lived with them in 1930.
- Bella Caroline Schorr (16 May 1910 to 21 Nov 2002, North Miami Beach). Married Harry D. Sandler (20 Apr 1913 to 20 May 2005), commercial artist, later a South Florida watercolorist, on 16 Jan 1937.
- Herbert Schorr (1 Jan 1912 to 11 Oct 1991, Broward County, Florida). Sign painter. Married Ruth Ruderman on 14 Aug 1932.
- Gertrude R. Schorr (1913 to 2005, Miami).
- Selma Schorr Potikian (1918 to 2004, Hallandale, Florida).
- Joseph Isaac Schorr (3 May 1923, New York to 15 Apr 2006, Fort Lauderdale). Show card writer, then proprietor of Schorr Sign Service. Married Elsie Klareich (10 May 1923 to 12 Dec 1988, Flushing).
Sources for the tree: an Ancestry family tree for Joseph I. Schorr, checked against the 1930, 1940 and 1950 censuses, the New York marriage index, World War I and II draft cards, Social Security applications, the Social Security Death Index and the Florida death index. Birth years for Rose, Gertrude and Selma come from the tree and the censuses, not birth records.
Joseph Schorr, year by year
| Year | What the record says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1902 | Nathan Schorr arrives in New York from Antwerp, 6 October, age 17. | Passenger and naturalization index (Ancestry) |
| 1917 to 1918 | Nathan registers for the World War I draft at 233 East 112th Street, Manhattan, with Rose as his relative. | WWI draft card |
| 3 May 1923 | Joseph is born in New York City, the youngest of five. | Draft card; Social Security records |
| 1928 | A Schorr Sign Co. is listed at 102-08 Roosevelt Avenue, Corona, phone MYer-5067. Who founded it is not documented. | Queens Red Book and Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island directory, 1928 |
| 1930 | The family lives at 37-16 103rd Street, Corona: Nathan, 45, and Herbert, 18, both sign painter, sign painting, working on own account. Joseph is 6. | 1930 census |
| 1932 and 1937 | Schorr Sign Co. moves along Roosevelt Avenue: 70-12 (Woodside) in 1932, 68-05 (Winfield) in 1937, when its proprietor is listed as Lupie Wechsler. No record ties Wechsler to the family. | NYS Directory of Manufacturers |
| 1940 | Same house. Nathan, 55, sign painter, own account, 44 hours the prior week. Joseph, 17, out of school after the third year of high school. Bella and her husband Harry live with them. | 1940 census, ED 41-569, sheet 13A |
| 30 Jun 1942 | Joseph registers for the draft in Corona. Employer: Mallman Bakery. Six feet, 180 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes. | WWII draft card |
| 1944 and 1945 | Nathan dies 6 February 1944; Rose dies 8 November 1945. Both in Queens. | NYC death index; family tree |
| 1950 | Joseph, 27, and Elsie, 27, at 144-27 76th Avenue, Queens (basement). Joseph: show card writer, printing dept. of retail drug chain, 40 hours. Elsie: secretarial, at a tile manufacturer. Herbert, 38, is a sign painter in his own business at 40-31 99th Street, Corona. | 1950 census, ED 41-1417, sheet 48 |
| 15 Mar 1960 | The first Laundesigns registrations: DON’T DYE HERE, YA BETTER WATCH OUT and others. Author of the print: Joseph Schorr. © Laundesigns. More follow in April 1960 and November 1961, sixteen in all. | Catalog of Copyright Entries, Works of Art, 1960 p. 69; 1961 p. 231 |
| 1961 to 1963 | Schorr Sign Service, 67-15 Myrtle Avenue, Glendale 27, advertises Laundesigns in American Coin-Op. | American Coin-Op, May 1961 onward |
| June 1963 | Schorr Sign Service Moves. Joseph Schorr announces new facilities at 67-43 Myrtle Avenue, about 3,000 square feet, for waterless decals, signs and other coin-op dealer aids. | American Coin-Op, June 1963 p. 65 |
| 1 Oct 1963 | Joseph and Elsie give a $16,000 mortgage on 67-43 Myrtle to the Glendale couple who sold it. Inferred: this is the purchase. | ACRIS, recited in a 1967 assignment |
| 1968 | City Board of Standards and Appeals approvals 163-68-SM and 164-68-SM for Schorr Sign Service: a plastic exit sign and a glow-in-the-dark egress sign called the Egressign. | BSA Bulletin vol. 53 |
| 1967 to 1971 | Schorr Sign Service still listed at 67-43 Myrtle in the trade directories. Last listing found: July 1971. | American Coin-Op |
| 1973 | Joseph and Elsie, who reside at 67-43 Myrtle Avenue, take a $20,000 mortgage from Ridgewood Savings Bank. | ACRIS |
| 1982 | Address: 130-17 57th Road, Flushing. | Public Records Index |
| 12 Dec 1988 | Elsie dies in Flushing. | Family tree; ACRIS estate tax lien release, 1989 |
| 1990 | Last New York listing for Joseph, at 67-43 Myrtle. | Public Records Index |
| 1992 to 1993 | Joseph puts the building into a revocable trust (1992) and moves to Coconut Creek, Florida (1993). | ACRIS; Public Records Index |
| 28 May 1998 | As trustee, Joseph sells 67-43 Myrtle Avenue. He had owned it for 35 years. | ACRIS deed |
| 15 Apr 2006 | Joseph dies in Fort Lauderdale, age 82. Buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery, Flushing. His Find a Grave memorial, created in 2011, has no photo and no dates. | SSDI; BIRLS; Find a Grave 76483990 |
The family trade
Joseph grew up in a house of sign painters. His father Nathan and his brother Herbert were both listed as sign painters on their own account in 1930, and Herbert had his own sign business again in 1950. Bella’s husband, Harry Sandler, was a commercial artist at a Manhattan art studio in 1940 and 1950. Joseph’s own trade, show card writing, meant hand lettering the display and price cards for a drugstore chain.
Inferred. Three drawing trades in one family puts more than one possible hand near the Laundesigns figures. None of the three men is documented as drawing them, and no artwork credited to any of them from the 1950s has turned up. The full argument is on The Artist Question.
Open thread. In 1940 Herbert worked for Gold’s Drug Stores. In 1950 Joseph lettered cards for an unnamed retail drug chain. Whether it was the same chain has not been checked.
The brothers side by side
| Herbert Schorr | Joseph Schorr | |
|---|---|---|
| Born | 1 Jan 1912 | 3 May 1923 |
| 1930 | Sign painter, own account, age 18 | Age 6 |
| 1940 | Window trimmer; draft card employer Gold’s Drug Stores | Age 17, out of school |
| 1950 | Sign painter, own business, 40-31 99th St, Corona | Show card writer, retail drug chain, 144-27 76th Ave |
| 1960s | No Glendale or Myrtle Avenue address found | Schorr Sign Service, Myrtle Avenue |
| Died | 11 Oct 1991, Broward County, Florida | 15 Apr 2006, Fort Lauderdale |
Not settled
- Who founded the 1928 Schorr Sign Co. on Roosevelt Avenue, and whether it was Nathan’s.
- When Joseph and Elsie married.
- The name of the drug chain Joseph worked for in 1950.
- When Schorr Sign Service closed. The last trade listing is July 1971; the last New York record of Joseph on the block is 1990.
- Whether the Joseph Schorr in Glendale civic notices in the Ridgewood Times (1959 to 1971) is the sign maker.
- Whether Joseph drew any of the figures himself.
More on all of these on Open Questions. Every image and record is in the Research Archive, and the story of how the search started is Laundromat Mystery.
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