Whatever the truth was about J. Peterman and George Steinbrenner, the corresponding characters on the series were somewhere between eccentric and bat-shit crazy. So it’s quite possible that Elaine and George would be vastly overpaid for whatever it was they were supposed to be doing, and whatever any real-world counterparts took home would be largely irrelevant.
ETA: Jerry was well off enough to be able to afford just about anything his character needed to do, such as fly to Florida and back at a moment’s notice. The fact that he lived frugally and didn’t like to throw money out the window (literally) doesn’t really contradict that. He also had relatively simple tastes, preferring jeans and a sweater to an Armani suit and eating at diners more often than trendy restaurants.
Also remember the episode where Jerry was buying a Saab 900 Convertible at Putty’s dealership. That isn’t exactly a cheap car and any sort of car in Manhattan is a bit of a luxury/pain in the ass. I seem to recall some of the episode concerned finding affordable parking.
Given the self-referential nature of the show, that may be a reference to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ background. Her family is exceedingly wealthy (as in the multi-billion dollar level).
The part about her dad being a famous writer was inspired by a real-life former girlfriend of Larry David’s. He used to date the daughter of Richard Yates (author of, among other things, the novel Revolutionary Road).
I am not sure of that episode, but Jerry used to pay a guy to move his car from one side of the stree to the other. Remember when this guy went on vacation and George took the job over and blew it.
Also flying is pretty cheap, especially if you’re a comedian and fly anyway, you get all those airline miles. And back then the premiums for last minute flights weren’t as bad as now.
So what did Newman make? A mailman in NYC
What about Jerry’s father, he was a buyer (I think) for coats and clothing in NYC garmet district.
What did George’s dad do for a living? Other than go on business trips to Korea
That sounds like exactly what they do. Along with getting the equipment to the stadium and coordinating the travel details of all the extra people like trainers, family members and other personnel (which is often upwards of 200 extra people beyond the players and the coaching staff).
I’d imagine the traveling secretary makes a good six figures and his assistant probably makes a pretty penny as well.
Kramer was based on a real person – Kenny Kramer – whose lifestyle was essentially was like the fictional Kramer’s – no steady job, mooching off the neighbors. He lived off of patent royalty checks of some kind. So, he did pretty much exist in real life.
I would wager they make significantly less than that. Outside of the very top jobs, mlb jobs pay very poorly. The supply of smart and dedicated people wanting to work in baseball vastly outnumbers the available jobs. This allows teams to pretty much pay whatever they want for mid/low level jobs, because if you won’t work for $30k a year, there are dozens of other qualified people who will.
Kramer had a small stipend from the Union for being on strike from the bagel shop. He maintained that the people who’d been working there for the last ten years were “scabs.” For a wile there he had to go back, but then he found some other violation within a day or two and took the “scabs” out with him . . .
His apartment was rent controlled, and technically in the name of the husband from “Mad About You.” He finally gave it up, and let Kramer have the lease.
What is a comfortable salary living on Manhattan? It seems to me that $100k wouldn’t go very far. . .
I wouldn’t be so sure of this as I’ve know lots of assistants who only make 10% or 20% of what the bosses make. I am sure the position “traveling secretary” is well paid.
But George isn’t the “assistant traveling secretary” he is the “assistant TO the traveling secretary.” That makes a huge difference.
Manhattan isn’t really that costly outside of housing and parking IF you have a car. Which you don’t need in NYC. I lived in Manhattan for about a year and the only really costly thing was the rent. And I didn’t pay that, my company did. Public transit is comparable to Chicago, so is food and clothes, IF you look. Sure there are more expensive shops and resturaunts but you don’t have to eat at them.
A hundred grand would be easy to live in Manhattan. You would be paying about 25% of your gross for a flat. $2,083 a month for a flat. Easy to find really nice flats in Manhattan for that.
Excellent calzone you got there, Costanza. Okay, a little jealous now … You know that eggplant was very good. Everybody out! I got eggplant on my mind. Costanza get me couple of those calzones right now. Pronto. Move out.
George had an affair with his secretary while he worked for the Yankees. During the love making, George promised her a raise. George pleaded with Steinbrenner to give her a raise and Steinbrenner gave her a 25K raise which put her salary above his salary.
