John Houghtaling

John Joseph Houghtaling (pronounced HUFF-tay-ling;

and inventor who in 1958 invented the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, a common feature in mid-priced hotels and motels from the 1960s to the early 1980s.

Early life

Houghtaling was born in

He worked in a series of jobs following the completion of his military service, including as a hotel bellman, cookware salesman and a salesman of a remote-control lawnmower.[1]

Magic Fingers

In the 1950s, Houghtaling was still working as a salesman, this time selling vibrating beds in which the vibrating motor and bed were sold as a single unit that was clumsy, expensive, and prone to failure.^[1] At a service call for a broken unit, Houghtaling realized that the vibrating motor was the essential component, not the bed, and that a unit could be developed that would attach to any bed, not just the combination vibrating bed units he was selling.^[3] Houghtaling worked in the basement of his Glen Rock, New Jersey, home and tested hundreds of motors before finding one that weighed relatively little, could be attached to the box springs of an existing bed, and would provide the right level of vibration. Once a quarter was inserted into the attached coin meter, the motor would vibrate the bed for 15 minutes.^[1] The coin mechanisms were modeled on similar devices that had been attached to radios and televisions in hotels.^[3] The devices were sold through franchisees who installed the units in hotels based on an arrangement in which revenues would be split, with $1 million in annual sales of the units. There were 250,000 Magic Fingers units installed nationwide at their peak of popularity in the 1960s, with each unit averaging eight quarters per week, bringing in $2 million in monthly gross revenue.^[4]

By the last half of the 1970s, more than a million Magic Fingers units had been installed in American and European hotels and houses. The devices started to seem out of date and somewhat sleazy, because of the bed's association with seedy motels, and their popularity declined starting in the 1980s as other in-room entertainment options became available and theft of money from the coin boxes started to become more common. Houghtaling sold the rights to the Magic Fingers name after he retired in the 1980s, with the new owner manufacturing units for home use at the time of his death in 2009. Though the devices are rarely seen in the 21st century, they were still available in motels in the Western United States at the time of his death.^[1]

Trivia

The vibrating bed was frequently featured in 1960s–1980s movies and TV shows. "Magic fingers" is a song by

.

Personal life

Houghtaling died aged 92 on June 17, 2009, at his Fort Pierce, Florida, home due to complications from a fall that resulted in a stroke.^[2][5] His first marriage ended in divorce and his second wife predeceased him. He was survived by five children – most of whom had Magic Fingers units in their homes – and five grandchildren.^[1]

References