When President Samuel Bronfman of Distillers Corp.-Seagrams started to look for a man to boss the Canadian company’s U.S. subsidiary, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons (Seagram’s, Calvert, Four Roses), he did not have to look far from home. Into the job last week went his party-loving son, Edgar Miles Bronfman, 27. As president of the nation’s top distiller (1956 sales: $677 million), young Bronfman replaces Frank R. Schwengel, 71, who takes over the new office of chairman. Edgar’s brother Charles Bronfman, 25, stays in Canada as vice president of another subsidiary, the House of Seagram, Ltd.
A lean six-footer, Ed Bronfman has been pushed ahead fast. He started with Seagrams as a teen-aged brewer and blender in Montreal, became his father’s assistant after graduating with honors in history from McGill University in 1951. In 1955 he moved to Manhattan as chairman of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons’ administrative committee.
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