
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990                   TAG: 9006040170
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

FREDERICK'S OF HOLLYWOOD FOUNDER DIES

Frederick Mellinger, whose Frederick's of Hollywood introduced racy lingerie to a post-war America squeezed into white girdles and boring briefs, has died of pneumonia. He was 76.

The purveyor of colorful, risque underwear that included satin bustiers, edible panties and peekaboo bras died Saturday night at his home, family attorney Morton Field said Sunday.

Mellinger said his success came because "sex appeal is always in style." Born in the Lower East Side of New York City, Mellinger got his start when he lied about his age - then 14 - to get a clerical job at an "intimate apparel" firm where he learned the art of mail-order merchandising.

In 1946 he opened Frederick's Fifth Avenue in New York, a mail-order business selling products that his World War II Army buddies told him their girlfriends would like.

The firm went public in the 1970s and is traded on the American Stock Exchange. There are now 160 Frederick's stores.

by CNB