THURSDAY AUGUST 27, 2026
SOUTH BOSTON ONLINE
VOLUME XIX- ISSUE 74
Legendary Bargains, Suited to Perfection & Winning Friendships Boston’s legendary Filene’s Basement, a Dorchester/ Southie suit salesman and a friendship with Jack Kent Cooke the owner of the Super Bowl winning Redskins Submitted by Paul Kenney
W
hen 72-year-old Robert Pacitti, a native son of Dorchester’s Savin Hill neighborhood, married Sharen Stokinger of South Boston in 1974, he migrated with his new bride five miles to the north and comfortably settled into his new Southie environment. Pacitti, never on one to shy away from accepting a new challenge, quickly immersed himself in the culture of volunteerism, which is a hallmark of the fabric and identity of the close-knit enclave of South Boston. He has quietly helped raise millions for various charitable causes, a favorite of which is “The South Boston Special Kids Program,” and his active presence on countless neighborhood boards has earned him the nickname of; “Mr. Fix It.” But the story we are highlighting has nothing to do with his charitable work, or his unimpeachable reputation in the neighborhood. It traces to a ringing phone call that Pacitti happened to answer during his days as a commissioned salesman in the Men’s Suit Department of the late lamented Filene’s Basement, his employment home for 37-years until its closing in 2007. “The Basement” as it was universally known, was located in the basement of Filene’s Department Store, and was situated just above the Washington Street MBTA station,
in the heart of Boston’s once thriving Downtown Crossing shopping center. The caller on the other end of that line was Jack Kent Cooke, the irascible, and eccentric owner of the Washington Redskins who was inquiring about a shipment of fashionable slippers. When Pacitti picked up that phone he couldn’t have imagined that it would lead to a lifelong friendship between the muti-millionaire and three-time Super Bowl winning owner of the Washington Redskins and the suit salesman from South Boston. Pacitti, who has experienced a million fascinating lifetime adventures, refers to this as one of his all-time favorite stories. “I picked up the phone, it was probably in July of 1991, and the raspy voice on the other end of the line was inquiring about a shipment of slippers that we received from Brooks Brothers for our famous fall sale,” said Pacitti. “I proceeded to explain to this gentleman, that if in fact we did have them in the warehouse, we would likely not put them on sale until September.” The Basement’s high-end fall
suit sale was one of the most highly anticipated fashion events of the year, and on the first day of the sale hundreds of mostly male shoppers would be prowling like caged lions ready to pounce as soon as the Basement’s doors opened on Monday at 9 a.m. The sale featured such high-end fashion brand names as: Saks Fifth Ave, Brooks Brothers, and Louie’s, and included shirts, ties, slippers, and shoes, all of which would be attractively priced at their warehouse, before they were presented onto the floor for the sale. But Cooke was persistent and these slippers were an obsession, and he called Pacitti for three consecutive days inquiring about the slippers. “He continued to call me back to see if I found out anything about the shipment. After the first call my initial thought was that this guy is crazy, and by that third call he asked, ‘Do you know who I am?’ “I told him no. He said, I am Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Washington Redskins. I said to myself, yeah, yeah, yeah, and I’m Robert Pacitti, and I own Filene’s
Basement. But I was coming around to the thought that maybe this guy is indeed legit,” said Pacitti. Robert decided to call the shoe buyer asking about the Brooks Brothers slipper shipment and was told that yes, they did arrive. They were a black velour slipper with the B and B logo on the front, and they had eight pairs of Cooke’s eight and a half shoe size. During that third phone call Cooke had left Pacitti his number, and he called Cooke’s office. “On Monday I called his office and his secretary, who was a very nice woman, answered. I told her who I was, and Jack immediately got on the phone. I told him that we had located eight pairs of his size and that they were marked $55 a pair.” “I believe he told me that he had previously paid $250 a pair, and when I told him our price, he said I’ll take all eight pairs. I’ll put them in all my homes. I told him that it sounds good to me. He gave me his credit card info over the phone, his address, and I rang him up. I brought them down to the Continued on Page 4