Jacob Israel Avedon

Interview with Richard Avedon

Born and raised in New York City, Richard Avedon was the only son of Jacob Israel Avedon, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who started a successful retail dress business on Fifth Avenue. His father had been brought up in a New York City Jewish orphanage and later founded Avedons of Fifth Ave – a successful women’s clothing store.

Avedon remembers his father, who died in 1973, as a stern disciplinarian who "was really hot on dumb quotes from Shakespeare and Teddy Roosevelt" and who insisted that physical strength, education and money prepared one for the world.

It was Avedon's mother, Anne, who took young Richard to see Rachmaninoff at Carnegie Hall and Fred Astaire at Radio City and gave him a grounding in beauty and style.

• Bio

He is not the brother of Joseph Avidan

• Residence: Marital Status: SingleRelation to Head of House: Son, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA - 1900
• Residence: Marital Status: SingleRelation to Head of House: Son, Manhattan Ward 12, New York, New York, USA - 1910
• Residence: Relation to Head of House: Son, New York, New York, New York, United States - June 1 1915
  • Reference: [object Object]] - [https://www.geni.com/projects/SmartCopy/18783 SmartCopy: Aug 13 2019, 9:32:30 UTC