The world of Lisa Frank isn’t just filled with colorful hearts, bears dressed as painters, seals swimming in tie-dye oceans and unicorns dancing on rainbows surrounded by musical notes. Fame and fortune are apparently tainted by drugs and infidelity in the secrecy-cloaked convergence of people and events behind the colorful 90s phenomena. And it turns out that Tucson, of all places, has played a major role in Frank’s fortunes and misfortunes, as revealed in a recent story published by Jezebel.
Frank comes from a rich family in Bloomfield Hills, Detroit. Bloomfield Hills is ranked one of the top richest cities with with a population under 10,000.
Her father was in the automotive industry, running Detroit Aluminum & Brass, a publicly-traded family company founded by her grandfather and his brothers in 1925. D.A.B. manufactured automatic transmission components, clutches, et cetera; to put their early success into perspective, D.A.B. was the only company in the United States to make the engine bearings for tanks used in WWII.
Frank enrolled into the same private, PK—12 preparatory school that Mitt Romney and Selma Blair attended.
But her success went stratospheric once she honed her entrepreneurial instincts at the University of Arizona and started crafting jewelry with local Native American communities.
“If I said ‘Make a teddy bear or a unicorn,’ that was what sold,” Frank said in a interview with Urban Outfitters.
In 1979, she renamed the company and Lisa Frank, Inc. was born. That same year she received her first million-dollar order from Spencer Gifts. She was 25 years old.
Tucson became the headquarters for her multi-million dollar conglomerate.
The small staff of LFI still reports to Lisa Frank HQ: a 320,000 square-foot building in Tucson, infamous in the area for its decor, featuring giant, multicolored music notes, hearts and stars and oversized, fiberglass character statues. Near the building’s entrance, a large silver unicorn sculpture is missing its horn. The building and land are listed for lease or sale at a reduced price of $13.25 million. According to Tim Healy, the listing agent at the time, LFI was “still operating inside the facility but not at full capacity.”
Lisa Frank and the company started to get a bad reputation for mistreating and micromanaging employees, and paying them unfair wages.
“Lisa Frank is notorious in Tucson as the world’s shittiest employer,” said Caroline, who considered applying for one of the many job openings at the company she saw advertised when she moved to Tucson in 2001, but decided against it after speaking with locals. “Every single person I talked to advised me to avoid Lisa Frank at all costs,” she said. “I didn’t know a single person who had not heard horror stories about the work environment there.”
Not even the Star’s fluff piece published in 2004 could improve the company’s image; it’s high turnover and legal issues spoke for themselves.
“It was a revolving door,” Jacob said of the company’s turnover. In the four years that he was employed in the 40-person creative department, he estimates that group “may have changed over at least two to three times…It was just unbelievable. One year, almost a third of the entire staff turned over.”
There were also rumors that Frank’s husband and LFI CEO James Green had drug and fidelity issues. Green was accused of having a relationship with company VP Rhonda Rowlette.
“She was screwing him!” according to one former employee commiserating with past coworkers online. Another referred to Rowlette as Green’s “fuck buddy.”
[M]y wife and I were shopping at Tucson Mall over 4th of July weekend 2005 and stopped by the Lisa Frank retail store in the mall…we were surprised to see James and Rhonda together in the store on that 3-day weekend. [W]e had a short conversation with James (Rhonda didn’t say much). After we left them we both thought it strange that they would be together and that Rhonda acted sort of caught off guard at seeing us and acted uncomfortable. We wondered why James wasn’t with his family and Rhonda wasn’t with her husband on a holiday weekend. Something wasn’t right….
Last year Lisa Frank Inc., entered a deal with Urban Outfitters to sell t-shirts and “vintage” stationary pieces. Urban Outfitters has sold out the apparel but continues to sell Christmas ornaments and holiday items. Apparently, there’s a light at the end of the rainbow.
(via Jezebel)
This article appears in Dec 12-18, 2013.
but her real name isn’t lisa frank is it?
Rconnelly-Apparently it is. There was a quote in the original article where she talks about how when she uses her credit card, people notice her name, and she remarks something along the lines of “Isn’t it funny that I have the same name?!”
Also, I was looking up her record in the public court records, and there are definitely charges for Lisa Deborah Frank, which is her full name, you can find ones that involve her ex husband as well.
In the early 2000s I worked for a temp agency that sent me there. The Jezebel article really describes what I saw. I was assigned customer service calls for their ordering department. I found that the online site wasn’t automatic ordering at all, just a façade, orders went via email to a single person’s desk who then manually processed orders. Their inventory was completely wrong – they had no idea if they had items that the site showed they had or not. I found a manager and told them I had inventory experience working for the Navy with a huge number of product items and I volunteered to at least do zero bin checks for them. The person just looked at me and said no. My work day consisted of sitting on rock hard chairs and being called all manner of cuss words by unhappy kids on the telephone. It was insane. I lasted about two weeks until I called the temp agency and told them it was a mad house and to get me out of there.
Oye’ very! It seems Lisa Frank has been a poison pen since day one…harkening all the way back to their location at Miracle Mile/Flowing Wells.
Funny. I never bought any of her products for the same reason.
Ahem…Oye’ Vey!
Yeah, if you read the comments on the Jezebel article, a LOT of them are from designers corroborating the sordid details in the story.
Well, life isn’t always wonderful, and just because you’re wealthy, doesn’t mean you are perfect. For many children of the 70s, Lisa Frank symbolizes our childhood. I don’t understand, if the images can still be printed, why a PR firm doesn’t go in and re-vamp the company. A lying, cheating husband is enough to make any woman crazy. Maybe she just doesn’t have the heart to try anymore. Maybe there’s no one to help get it back together. Maybe she trusts no one, so does nothing about it but let it sit. How sad, I thought the company was gone, then saw products on shelves. I started looking it up and found this. I’d get things going again, hear me Lisa Frank? If you get a wild hair and decide to give it a go, I’d work there, in a second. You still have people out here that love what you do, and there isn’t anything even close to Lisa Frank. Oh how I long to see the spools of stickers again!
I am a younge girl who wasnt born in the 70’s i was born in the 2000’s.I really did like lisa frank alot her artwork and cool supplies were juts AMAZING ..Its nto really her fault for this…Crazy things had happened to her.And I dont blame her.If her stores and business was still runnign I wouldve had her stuff by now becuase ther so cool.I just wish that her business was still open now and stores.Wehave so much things now in the 2000’s .Like electronics.If her business was still running she clouldve got it big and made a app.Her things are still amazing but vintage and even rare sometimes.I hope that soemday she can get up and go get that business going becuase they atre cool.Some girls might grow out of it but I sure know I dont.Everyone has a child side to them deep down and I knwo for thoses women who liked her….They still do have a peace of there heart for her
I buy every Lisa and Frank product; beautiful images. They are innovative, colorful, & breathtaking. With all the bright colors, one might think it would be too bold. But the colors fit very well yielding fantastic images. Every Calendar or a Binder with glorious images are worth the buy. I am so glad that she is getting the recognition that she should. No one in the market has dared to take the hot colors to this level. Hot pink, bright blues, I would generally turn away from these colors. But, the way the colors are blended, they give it an admiring look. Everywhere I have shopped, people walk through the aisle, and when they look at the lisa frank products from the corner of the eye, they go back, pick it up and put it in their cart. Simply Wonderful.
WE NEED LISA FRANK BACK! IT’S 2016 COME ON LISA FRANK REVAMP YOUR COMPANY PLEASE!
Lisa Frank won’t be back. I can’t believe that old building is still standing. Looks like she has moved on.
The Jezebel article is spot on, worked as a contractor for Lisa Frank for many years, starting with their space in Tucson Tech Park and N. 6th Ave, then up until they moved to the current facility, for which they chose a nationwide company, as even though we provided ‘drop everything service’, we were a small local company and didn’t fit their new image. There were times they moved employees from one side of a room to the other just because and although it made us money moving all the communications equipment, it was unnecessary and just to screw with people. For 10 years we were invited to the company Christmas party, then one year, after they became ultra wealthy , we got our invitation to the party at La Paloma resort, only to have if followed a week later with a letter saying ‘sorry you were invited by mistake, please disregard the invitation’, now that’s class. Her husband James was the biggest tool and really treated everyone like crap. We also worked on the house the had built in a very historic part of Tucson. They went through at least 3 contractors and many, many did not get paid. One time they were on a trip to China and things did not go as the wished with the airline, so they went and bought a jet for their travel and fired their travel agency. Personally I am glad that Lisa Frank went down the tubes, Her and James treated so, so many people so, so badly, a little Karma is well deserved. And she named her kids Hunter Green and Forest Green, nice. And James, the meanest boss anyone could have, who is Jewish, now sell Christian clothing to the unsuspecting kids claiming his belief in Jesus. Methinks it is more his belief in money and desire to capitalize on the Christian youth movement. Yes, I hope more bad Karma comes their way and they get to suffer some of the indignities they put their employees through. All was not ‘rainbows and unicorns’ at Lisa Frank, Inc. and yes that is here real name.
Have a friend with cognitive disability that loves Lisa Frank’s Mother and baby rainbow unicorns. I want to have a rolling backpack made from the image since I cannot find anything like that or even the mother and baby backpack. What to do? What happens if I print an image and have a backpack made. I am not mass producing them….just something to make my young friend happy. Can;t seem to find anyone that knows. Company is defunct, correct??
Glamour Dolls make up recently released a line of make up brushes and make up with Lisa Frank.
Actually The Lisa Frank and Glamour Dolls collaboration thru KICKSTARTER has NOT come to fruition at all. It was SUPPOSED TO be over with in Sept of 2017 and is still nowhere near completion. L.F and G.D have not updated their backers ( i’m Backer 372) in over 2 months. A lot of the backers have reported them to the BBB and to the Kickstarter itself. This campaign has ruined L.F image for me and several thousand backers who have all requested refunds. WHAT A JOKE!!!
Interesting reading. By the way James was not raised nor is he now Jewish. He was raised Catholic