I was a divorced smother at age 22, and I had two little mouths to feed.

I had to go to work and I hadn't worked up until that time.

So here I was in Western Pennsylvania on a dirt road wondering, "What will I do?"

There was a little ad in the paper for a secretary.

I walked into this office and the guy said, "Do you type?"

And I lied.

I could type my name.

I said, "Yes."

He said, "Well, I just want someone here to answer the phones."

So I was there for a couple months.

It was a real estate office.

It was a one-man show.

He gave me the real estate book and he said, "Why don't you take your license?"

Within 10 days, I passed the test and now I'm selling real estate, and I wasn't making a penny.

So one day I opened the paper, and there it was an ad, sales consultants of Atlanta.

I walked in and the girl said, "We don't need a secretary."

And I said, "Oh, I came here for the sales consultants."

"We only hire men."

So I went in the restroom, I wrote a check for $2,500 that was going to bounce, handed her that check and I said, "Do you think someone would see me now?"

She looked at the check, jumped up off her seat, I got an interview.

So the guy when I walked in, he gave me back the check.

He said, "Well, that was a clever thing to do to get in the door."

I've never had anybody said they wouldn't hire a woman.

Why?

He said, "Well, we only sell men's products here."

Do you think you could sell tires?

What kind of tire do you have on your car?

I said, "Oh, I know the tire on my car."

He said, "Well, maybe I can get you in for a few job interviews."

And overnight, I was the only woman working for a reliable tire company, and that really made me feel good 'cause it opened the door for so many young women.

When I was doing all those in those places where men didn't want women, I never had a problem.

I mean, once they saw I was a real worker and that I would really do my share, men accepted me.

And I think it was because of my work ethic.

I was always striving to do better and I wanted to, I wanted to make money, and I was making a great living then.

But it made me grow up.

I was pretty brave but, like, I'll admit I was scared a lot.

I said, "God, I hope I can make it here," you know?

'Cause you go out there to sell, and then you don't sell anything.

I came here in 1972 and I swore I would not sell real estate.

I realized that I was a nervous wreck all the time 'cause I was so worried that I had no control over my finances.

And I realized as a single parent, as the breadwinner, I was going to have to be making some reasonable money.

The girls were getting older, they needed more things.

My girls came home from school one day and said, "Mom, you gotta bake some cookies."

"We gotta have a fabulous bizarre.

We're in charge of a booth and we've gotta fix the booth up at the holiday and sell, make money for the school."

So my housekeeper at the time said, "You know, in England, we all dressed in beautiful costumes and we would have a bazaar."

I said, "Well, let's call it a costume shop and rent a santa suit."

Well, there was no costume shops, there was no Santa suit.

So sure enough, we made the suit.

I'll put a little ad in the paper in the Boca News and I said, "We can rent the suits out for $25 and you kids can make money for Christmas."

Well, I was hooked.

I had more fun than they did.

I said, maybe we'll make a little costume shop this summer and I'll move my cleaning stuff back.

It was on Powerline Road.

And we'll just open a little store for the holiday.

Well, we did that.

I bought some retail products, we had like a handful of costumes, and that's how Costume World started.

Cats, very famous Broadway production.

Pretty soon, I was going around the country buying up old costume houses.

And I have to tell you, it was so much fun.

We made them all into Costume World stores.

And before I knew it, I had five stores.

We have one facility in Pompano Beach, Florida on Powerline Road.

It was going to be the theatrical division, but we turned it into a museum because in 2005, I bought the oldest costume house in New York City.

Then all of a sudden the Caldwell Theater came up for sale and they went under.

And it took us about six months.

We gutted the building and we all worked as a family to get it open.

Everybody committed to hell.

and we finally got the place open and we are so proud of it 'cause it's such a treasure for the community.

Just beautiful 42nd Street, the Dames number, the original Broadway works and the revival.

Aren't they gorgeous?

We keep adding on.

So now we have 150 original Broadway works in our collection.

We wanted to make it an incredible experience for people to take our collections and our knowledge of design and share it in this building so that it would be maybe a theater of back when you would go to the theater in New York and there were more places when you got out of the theater to sit down and enjoy yourself.

That's why we started to do the cabarets.

So, if I was to describe the theater to someone, you would never be happier than when you leave because you're about to see and have an experience in an elegant place that shows you so many different things.

And we took every piece of our collection and shared it with people here.

And I think that's the most enjoyable part of it.

We put on first-class Broadway shows, we hire stars, and it really makes an absolute incredible experience for the audience that is in such an intimate setting.

There's only 350 seats.

There's not one bad seat in the place.

And you feel that you really are involved in what is happening on the stage.

And I think that's why this theater is such a treasure to the community.

We have the immersive museum now.

I said, "Let's got this place and let's make a different experience for people."

I'm a risk taker.

I wouldn't be absolutely nowhere in my life today if I hadn't taken risks.

And I wanna say to every young child, every young girl that has a dream, she can do that dream if she sticks with it.

I feel like I made it because I never gave up.

There were many moments when I wanted to throw the towel in, but I said, "Tomorrow will be better.

I've got to push through."

I mean, I've really gone through a lot of obstacles to make all of this happen.