Well, his first name WAS Henry.  His last name, however,  wasn’t Hanger.  It was Spitz.  But in 1929 Henry Spitz had the alliterative good sense to name his Nashua New Hampshire enterprise the Henry Hanger Company.

And today it remains there, along gritty Hollis Street, headed up by his son, Bernard, who has crowned himself The Hanger King.  As the company website recounts, the senior Spitz had a simple premise; why hang personal or expensive garments on wire hangers that can cause wrinkling or damage clothing?   He also realized, when visiting retail stores, that the right hanger could actually make garments look better and even improve sales.

The Hanger King

Today the company supplies clothiers large and small, hotels, resorts, and “A-List celebrities” with a wide assortment of hangers, with or without custom logos.

The line includes simple wire, wood, acrylic, padded, bamboo, and plastic hangers along with just about any hanger accessory one could think of.

Henry didn’t invent the hanger.  Some historians say President Thomas Jefferson came up with a forerunner of the wooden hanger.  Credit for today’s most-used hanger, the shoulder-shaped wire hanger, is spread among several people.  One account is that it was inspired by a coat hook that was invented in 1869 by O. A. North of New Britain, CT.  Another story says Albert J. Parkhouse arrived to work in 1903 at the Timberlake Wire and Novelty Company in Jackson, Michigan, to find that all the coat hooks were taken. Annoyed, he took a piece of wire, bent it into the shape we would recognize today, and hung up his coat.  Also credited is Christopher Cann, an engineering student at Boston University in 1876.  And in 1906 Meyer May, a men’s clothier in Grand Rapids, Michigan,  became the first retailer to display his wares on his wishbone-inspired hangers.

Some Henry Hanger Company products

For hangers in popular culture, who can forget the “No wire hangers, ever!” line from 1981’s Mommie Dearest,  when Faye Dunaway, portraying Joan Crawford, discovered her daughter using wire hangers for her expensive clothing instead of the fancy padded ones provided?  If you don’t remember the line I am sure the image of Ms. Dunaway’s cold-cream-slathered face as she screamed out the words is stuck in your brain.

As for me, I’m a pretty simple hanger soul.  For clothing I’ve moved from wire hangers to sturdy plastic over the years.

But for fixing something, nothing can replace the good old fashioned wire hanger.  I once had a badley rusted axel on my boat trailer.  I hit a small bump, and all of a sudden it bent an alarming 45 degrees about a foot inside the wheel.  Fortunately I was at the ramp so was able continue backing down to the water and get the boat off of it.  My neighbor and I used a steel bar and a half dozen or so wire coat hangers to splint and hold the axle straight enough to drive the trailer the four miles to the repair shop.

And I suppose it’s a thing of the past, but I can never forget the wire hangers I have seen functioning quite well as car radio antennas.

For giggles someday, google How To Use A Coat Hanger To…    There’s a whole other universe out there.

The company also has facilities in two other states and abroad.