It was 1958, and a mother with two sons, ages 4 and 9,
wanted to get into the travel business near her Oceanside, N.Y., home. She
visited a few local agencies and applied for jobs, but with no experience, no
potential employer bit.
She wasn't one to get discouraged. Despite never having
traveled herself, she was drawn to the industry and somehow managed to persuade
her family to buy her an agency.
It was a good thing they listened to her.
Fast-forward nearly 60 years and you have Millicent "Millie"
Schwartz, 90, a successful agent with a lifetime of accomplishments behind her
and even more travel to sell ahead.
"There's been stress as in every business. People lost
their passport, they [missed] the bus. There was plenty of stress, but the
overall picture, I wouldn't have changed a thing," she said recently,
reflecting of her long career in travel.
Schwartz's first agency was Marvels Travel in Cedarhurst,
N.Y. She started as the agency's president, but as she readily admits, she didn't
know much about travel then. She credits her education at least in part to the
manager she hired, Bill Fischer, now of Fischer Travel in New York, and another
early employee, Arnold Tolkin, who would go on to found ATS Travel, Group
Consultants International and Travel Impressions.
Schwartz turned personal tragedy into a mission
When the agent's husband died after collapsing at the airport, she
fought to have defibrillators placed in public place everywhere in
Florida. Read More
In 1970, she married her second husband, Marvin, and
relocated to Florida where she opened a wholesale office for Fun Tyme Tours.
Within two years, she would open her own agency in Miami as well as several
abroad in Central and South America. She also held the role of vice president
for Greyhound Travel for a time while running her agencies.
In the mid-1970s, the couple began running large group tours
to China and the Far East as well as to other exotic spots around the world.
An engineer by trade, Marvin took early retirement to work
with Millie in the travel industry. The two complemented each other extremely
well. On large group trips, with 80 people spanning two buses, Marvin would
keep everything organized with the precision of an engineer. Millie, meanwhile,
would keep her travelers informed about local sightseeing, shopping and more.
"We were really a couple made in heaven," Schwartz
said of her husband, who died in 1996.
The Schwartzes became known for their group trips and the
personal touches they put on everything.
Millie and Marvin Schwartz were known for their group trips to the Far East. Here, a group they brought to Japan in 1978.
"We did things in a different way," she said. "We
didn't have people meet us at the airport; we had the bus come to our office,
and the bus driver would load the luggage. ... We took care of every detail,
and that's, I guess, why we were successful."
Their successes would lead to many adventures together. One
of the most memorable, at least for Millie, was collecting food for Mother
Teresa on a flight.
In 1977, the Schwartzes were escorting a group of doctors on
a trip to India aboard the same flight from Agra to Delhi as Mother Teresa. The
Schwartz party had a scheduled dinner at a hotel that evening, so Millie knew
they wouldn't be eating the food they were served on the plane.
Millie and Marvin got to work, collecting and bagging the
food and giving it to Mother Teresa to distribute after landing. In return, the
missionary signed the couple's baggage tag and blessed them. "It was
mind-boggling," Schwartz said. "I'll never forget that. I think of
that every day."
Though the now-saint is arguably the highest-profile
individual the Schwartzes ran into on their travels she's far from the only
famous person they have encountered. A year later, they found themselves on a
flight headed to Seattle, then onto Bangkok, but the plane made an unscheduled
stop in San Diego. The captain informed the passengers that it was to pick up a
VIP passenger: the Queen of Thailand and her entourage.
In addition to travel planning, Schwartz also contributed a column
about her adventures to the Aventura News in Florida. She documented that
flight in one of her columns, recalling the plane picking up the royal
entourage in San Diego.
"The flashbulbs were popping, security men, FBI,
newspaper reporters and government officials all gathered to wait for the
arrival of the royal party," she wrote. "The 747 Thai Airways plane
was decorated with magnificent flowers, and the captain and crew stood at
attention at the entrance of the plane. A huge red carpet was rolled from the
terminal to the door of the aircraft, and the lovely queen and her entourage
entered."
Throughout the flight, the Schwartzes were sitting just
behind first class, and several government officials stopped to visit with
them. Schwartz also recalled the excellent service.
"Marvin and I had the opportunity to see and be part of
this royal experience, and it made me feel like a queen as well," she
wrote.
Over the years, Schwartz also had her fair share of
celebrity clients, including Frank Sinatra. Marvin played golf with "the
Chairman of the Board" when Schwartz was still in Cedarhurst. (Before they
were married, Marvin was one of her best clients.)
Sinatra needed to get himself and his entourage to Las
Vegas, but the flights were all full. Millie put in a call to her TWA
representative and was able to get first-class tickets for Sinatra and his
group.
Millie and Marvin Schwartz escorted a group of doctors to India in 1988, here at the Taj Mahal.
Today, Schwartz is still selling travel with Palm Travel, a
Virtuoso agency in Florida. She has four grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren.
Schwartz said the industry has become more complicated over
the years, considering the number of products available and how they are sold.
That led her to offer fellow agents this advice: Attend as many seminars,
webinars and conferences as possible to learn everything they can and network.
She also advised agents to form personal relationships with both their supplier
representatives and, most importantly, their clients.
The industry Schwartz started working in decades ago has
been dramatically changed by technology, but she still maintains the personal
relationships she's formed with people in travel. It is, she said, a hallmark
of her style as an agent.