NY POST...LIZ SMITH...
WERE YOU a "Seinfeld" fan? If so, you must miss Julia Louis Dreyfuss and her adventures with her mythic boss, based on the real J. Peterman of catalog fame.
"Seinfeld," of course, finally went off the air. And the real-life man upon whom the TV character was based (played by John O'Hurley), Mr. Peterman himself, also dropped out of sight. And his J. Peterman Company, with its esoteric clothes and objects, and its beautifully written catalogs, disappeared as well. But now I can say with authority - "Heee's ba-aaaackk!" I'm looking at a portrait of a tall man in a cowboy hat, and a long duster coat. This is John Peterman himself, and now the catalog king has risen, shaken himself off, penned "Peterman Rides Again," which is "the true story of the real J. Peterman and the unconventional catalog company he built!" The book arrives in November from Prentice Hall.
JOHN PETERMAN lives in Kentucky these days, and he still wears the cowboy hat and duster that helped put him in the mail-order business and made him famous. I asked him, "Quick, answer yes or no. Are you the narcissistic egomaniac they portrayed on 'Seinfeld?'" Peterman laughed, "Let me expand your question. Am I the grumpy, boring, windy, narcissistic guy they showed on TV? I hope not. But the 'Seinfeld' writers created this character without consulting me. I only heard that 'J. Peterman' was appearing on TV the same night as the so-called 'soup Nazi.' I gather that he objected. But I didn't think it was bad to be seen by 50 million people who might then want my catalog and buy my merchandise. It made me immortal!
"I didn't blame them for not asking my permission because to ask for permission is to seek denial. And now, yes, my business is coming back along with the book, and we'll be looking to the early roots of Peterman - special kinds of clothes and special goods. This will now be a Web-based business; there won't be a paper catalog. We are going to again have very romantic, unique, wondrous types of products."
I asked John why his business failed after all the hoopla it had - colleges were using his wonderfully evocative catalogs as language teaching tools - and he's had millions in publicity via "Seinfeld." John says, "I lost focus and the business got away from who we really were. We tried to become something we weren't. We expanded too rapidly. All of this is in my book. It's about how too much becomes less special. We have to stay where we were. So I am slashing the number of items and I called part of the book 'My Voyage on the Titanic.' This is more than a cautionary tale. It's about business and big business and adventure and I hope it is unconventional and inspirational."
So, my friends, "Seinfeld" may not want to make a comeback but John Peterman does. And he will. Wait for him!