Paul Flato

Paul Flato was a popular American jeweler, based in New York City from the 1920s to the early 1940s. Considered the first celebrity jeweler, he was well known for important jewelry, and as an early proponent of whimsical pieces. His long list of movie star clients included Greta Garbo, Mae West, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Doris Duke, Ginger Rogers, Carmen Miranda, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, and Gloria Vanderbilt—many of whom wore his pieces on screen.
Biography
Paul Edmond Flato was born in 1900 in Shiner, Texas, son of prominent Texas cattleman Rudolph, and Julia Burow Flato, a German immigrant. He died on July 17, 1999 having returned to Texas late in life, and received full column obituary in the New York Times. He was said to have become interested in jewelry at the age of ten, watching nomadic Gypsies make silver-wire items for sale. He grew up in a town founded by his westward pioneering great-grandparents, earlier German immigrants...