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In 1984 Suzy Leydonfrost was attending the School of Visual Arts in NYC, when she decided that scene wasn’t for her. A friend who had a job at Tower Records in the Village told her she’d get her a job interview. What happened during that interview was pretty outlandish, but Suzy got the job and her journey with Tower Records began.
In this episode of “2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records” Suzy Leydonfrost describes the energy of mid 80’s Manhattan as well as her ascent with Tower Records and Video.
Taking the job seriously, Suzy became a Supervisor and then the #625 Store Manager in a short period of time. From 1985 to 1991 Suzy ran several Manhattan Tower Video stores. In 1991 Suzy became the East Coast Regional Manager for the Video Division where she helped open and oversaw a swath of stores on the East Coast.
In 1995 Suzy left the Video Division and in a short period of time ran the original Lincoln Center, it’s move to Ansonia while Lincoln Center was being renovated and then the return to the remodeled Lincoln Center #866 which she ran until she left the company in 1997.
One of the highlights of the interview is Suzy relaying in some detail her time running the cursed Ansonia building and a horrific shooting that took place on Halloween 1995. Suzy also talks about her approach to running the remodeled Lincoln Center store and how she made sense of operating a store with 150 employees. Finally, she explains why running an in store with a Classical artist was mored difficult than an inshore with a punk rock band.
