The Pinata Party

When two young Ivy League Wall Streeters took a gamble and purchased an importing business in the mid- 1960s, hilarious adventures ensued. The importing firm merchandised handcrafts from the Andean countries (Peru, Ecuador Bolivia and Colombia) and was named Piñata Party. No activity could have been further from the two partners’ previous buttoned-down lives and nothing could have prepared them for what was about to happen.

Piñata Party was located in the West Village and was in the epicenter of the hippie counter-culture of the 1960s. The partners had thought the importing business could be run as an evening activity while maintaining their day jobs in finance, but they thought wrong. The advent of the famous and notorious Peruvian poncho was to change everything. Piñata Party became first a full time occupation and then all consuming passion amid the Greenwich Village hippie counter- culture.
From Dr. Wright, the British landlady with her cats, to Ralph of Haiti with his erotic desk sets to Rudy Meir, the head of the Peruvian Secret Police, the tale is full of wild and bizarre characters. A famous songstress in a blockbuster film makes an appearance, not as a cheerful young woman but as a stern and demanding client.
At its peak in 1969, Piñata Party had six franchised stores and a significant wholesale business. Then the partners tried a management buyout and at first all went well. Since public stock was involved, the partners, as owners of Piñata Party, were momentarily worth several million dollars. However, the wolves appeared in the form of unscrupulous merger partners and eventually all was lost.
The two partners, much chastened, returned to Wall Street. This is their story.