Stepping Up and Stepping Out

The 1950s was a period of fantastic financial growth for the Mosslers. Jacques’ acquisition of the Alan Parker Loan company out of Miami made him a leader in the auto installment loans market in the Southern United States. He developed a love for South Florida and trips to Miami and the Keys for business (and pleasure) became somewhat regular.

By the mid-1950s, Jacques grew his business ventures into the manufacture and selling of mobile homes, a well-timed expansion as families looked towards alternatives in affordable housing. Also, Mossler became the main stockholder in both the Standard Casualty Insurance and Ranchers Life Insurance companies, which grew his business portfolio into offering insurance on the vehicles and on the mobile homes he financed and on the lives of those financing the assets!

Also early in the 1950s, he ventured into organized banking, acquiring a controlling interest in Miami’s Central Bank and Trust. Mossler’s promotional campaigns for the branches of the Central Bank & Trust Company featured one word: “Yes!” He promoted the bank, along with his other financial institutions he had interest in, by employing this one word. He wanted people of all walks of life to know, in the simplest of ways, that they, too could get help with their financing wishes.

In the mid-1950s, with Candace by his side, Jacques reached back to his Illinois roots and acquired controlling interest in Mutual National Bank, which had branches throughout Illinois, and the American Trust Bank in South Bend, Illinois. In the first year of the 1960s, he and Candace purchased control of the Coral Gables National Bank in Miami. He also ventured into a financial institution in Frankfurt, Germany.

As for Candace, the growing wealth of her husband’s empire (which she gladly claimed as “theirs” and publicly took credit for plenty of his growing portfolio of successes) helped engrain her into the depths of upper Houston society. It was a tough road for her… difficult steps to climb on her journey to high social standing, but she was Hell bent and determined to be “high society”.

The traditional Houston socialites were hardly chomping at the bit to welcome Candace Mossler into their inner echelons… from their standpoint, she was a high school dropout from a county town in deep rural Alabama who had a failed marriage and later “struck it rich” when she married a much older, quite wealthy man. The socialites, as they could do back in these days, harshly judged Jacques based on his background, writing him off as a Jewish immigrant who became wealthy by operating seedy businesses… he was a loan shark to the lowly poor and blue collar citizens.

However, what Candace couldn’t win over by simply being rich, she won over by sharing her riches… that is by making sizable donations to elite establishments such as the Houston Grand Opera, and Houston Symphony and the Museum of Fine Arts.

At her River Oaks mansion, Candace hosted visiting opera performers and organized fundraisers for organizations of which she was fond. She eventually joined as a member of boards of directors of various charitable organizations including the United Fund.

Unlike Candace, Jacques did not crave or even half-heartedly seek any sort of induction into “high society” in Houston or anywhere else. He could care less about social standings, and his passions started and ended with the challenges of making money and keeping it rolling in. Jacques seemed to relish the hustle, and furthermore, he seemed to also take at least some pride and joy in helping people who could not otherwise qualify for significant loans to be able to get the money they needed to buy vehicles they needed for the hustle and bustle of life. That’s a tough statement, because truly, for Jacques, the prime motivator was neither the accumulation of money nor the “good deeds” of making money available to the downtrodden, but rather was the hustle and bustle of making the money… and… of growing the money. He loved the business of it most of all.

Socially, he obliged his wife and attended black tie events, society dinners and social functions galore. And he donated plenty as per her wishes to various organizations. Jacques, though, more enjoyed low key, unpretentions functions, particularly casual and far-from-formal ones put on by the local American Legion post which he helped lead. He enjoyed helping the local Boy Scouts and Boys Clubs financially and seemed to take pleasure in watching these groups thrive.

Soon after moving to Houston, Jacques bought a 100-plus acre ranch on the west side of Galveston Island (about an hour’s drive from Houston). While he frequented Miami, Chicago and parts of Indiana for business, this Galveston ranch was his pleasure retreat. Here, Jacques enjoyed unwinding and unplugging, so to speak, for he craved disconnects with city life and while at his ranch, he was guaranteed refuge from any semblance of a social world.

Candace, meanwhile, soaked up the life of privelege that she had so long craved. She partied and wined and dined and climbed the social ladders as quickly and as high as was able. Her children, Rita and Norman, lived with her and Jacques in Houston and attended exclusive private schools.

Life was swell for Candace. She had it all. All that she ever craved. But as was often the case with Candace, now she craved more. Let’s just say Candace’s goalposts were ever-fluid.

Her newest desire… of the moment… more children! She wanted more children to love, and more children to likewise love her. Also, a big family was a good look for a socialite couple and, as was indeed the case, good looks were important to Candace.

Her wishes were answered in the most unlikely of manners…. Wait ‘til you read this next entry!