Charles Revson - Early Age

Early Age

Revson was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston, Massachusetts. He was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, after his family immigrated from Canada to the United States. His father Samuel Revson was born in Lithuania and of a Russian Jewish heritage. His mother Jeanette Weiss Revson was born in Austro-Hungary of German Jewish ancestry. His parents emigrated to Boston in the late 19th century, where they had eight other children. Jeanette died young of pneumonia in the 1920s. Jeanette Weiss Revson parent's, Saul J. and Mary Ella Greenberg Weiss, influenced and shaped many of their offspring to either marry or give birth to visionary, ambitious, and glamorous fashion, film, real estate, banking, cosmetic, and industrial icons in the 20th century. Many of the Weiss family descendants exhibited creativity that was tenaciously promoted and underscored by both perfectionism and aestheticism that was evident in Charles Revson's career. Revson, like many other Weiss family descendants, disassociated from most of the family of origin to fiercely create an autonomous identity. Yet, there were his maternal uncles and aunts, who impacted the lives of so many less fortunate family members to polish their images and achieve unparalleled standards of excellence that influenced him at a young age.

Revson's father worked as a cigar roller in Manchester, not far from where the Revsons lived in the Squog Area, a French-Canadian neighborhood that was part of Manchester's "Little Canada". Charles Revson's parents, Samuel and Jeanette Weiss Revson, were struggling factory workers with their family of three sons. Revson moved to Boston to live with Weiss family members after graduating from Manchester High School West.