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depression-era american industrial salvaged chicago hotel guest room stationary side table designed and fabricated by the simmons mfg. company, kenosha, wisc. the original well-built pressed and folded steel bedside table contains tapered and turned legs reinforced with a single undershelf. the table has been brushed down to bare metal and sealed with a clear coat lacquer. great overall condition considering age. the simmons company began as one of many projects of wisconsin businessman zalmon simmons. simmons was president of the rock island railroad and of the northwest telegraph company, and at one point was the mayor of kenosha, wisconsin. he entered the bedding industry circuitously in 1870, after purchasing a cheesebox factory that year. this became the simmons manufacturing company. zalmon simmons was not interested in cheeseboxes; rather, he hoped to use the factory's equipment to manufacture a wooden telegraph insulator he had designed himself. in the meantime, he also owned a kenosha general store, and he took an unusual item in payment one day from a customer without cash money. this gentleman sold simmons a patent for a woven wire bedspring. this unknown inventor was not the first person to patent a bedspring. at least one earlier patent was held by a new york inventor. but the technology was expensive, and mattresses in the 1870s were by and large stuffed with horsehair or cotton. simmons went to work on the bedspring idea, and managed to bring down the cost of manufacturing each spring to around 80 cents. nevertheless, the idea seemed before its time. the simmons company's most successful product was instead a fine brass bed. the company continued to make beds and ship them all around the world throughout the tenure of zalmon simmons. simmons's son, zalmon simmons, jr., took over the company in 1911. the company incorporated as simmons co. in 1915. the younger simmons became known as "the chief" throughout his company. he was a legendary gambler, said to have bet an automobile a hole during a game of golf. he also seemed to have a flair for showmanship and advertising, and he brought his company to national prominence within a few short years. he did this by making the innerspring mattress something middle-class consumers could afford. though simmons co. had held a mattress spring patent since the 1870s, it had turned to bed frames and let the idea languish. in 1900 a canadian inventor patented a mattress with springs held within individual cloth pockets. his "marshall ventilated mattress" was made by hand, and sold to luxury hotels. the unlucky titanic was fitted with marshall ventilated mattresses, as were other famous liners including the lusitania and the mauritania. it was zalmon simmons, jr., who made the innerspring mattress a widely available item. simmons moved its company headquarters to new york in 1919, ready to make itself a national name. the company acquired a string of mattress makers at this time. it bought a firm in atlanta, another in san francisco, one in montreal, and the newark spring mattress company in newark, new jersey. despite the geographic spread of simmons's new mattress firms, none of these made a mattress that zalmon simmons considered worthy of being promoted as a nationwide brand. the mattresses were still made by hand, often stuffed with the cuttings left over from tailor's shops and other cheap material. simmons drafted one of the machinists from his original kenosha factory to study the feasibility of making a spring mattress cheaply by machine. the machinist worked for three years, and finally revealed something similar to the marshall ventilated mattress, with springs held inside individual cloth pockets. the equipment to make it was called the beautyrest pocket machine, and the resulting mattress was the beautyrest. simmons co. listed its stock on the new york stock exchange in 1924. two years later, the beautyrest mattress debuted in a national advertising campaign. simmons set a standard retail price for its new product, $39.50. this was nearly twice what consumers were used to paying for a mattress, but simmons gambled that the public would soon find the beautyrest worth it. simmons recruited a host of luminaries to declare the value of a good night's sleep. henry ford, george bernard shaw, thomas edison, and many others, appeared in full-page beautyrest ads. in its first year, the beautyrest mattress brought in $3 million. by 1929, the company had sales of $9 million. the company was soaring, and made acquisitions in the furniture and textile industries that year. zalmon simmons, jr., gave way the presidency of the company to his son, grant simmons, sr., in 1929. simmons's stock had been flying high, at close to $200 at the height of 1929. by 1932, it was almost worthless, at less than three cents a share. grant simmons, sr., nursed the company through the bad years by borrowing money and by selling off the furniture companies his father had recently acquired. simmons co. became profitable again by 1935, and then entered a period of steadily growing sales. simmons made great use of advertisement, often featuring a beautiful model or hollywood star resting on a beautyrest. the company funded sleep research in the 1930's, which tracked for the first time how the body actually moved in sleep. these studies continued after world war ii at the simmons-supported sleep research center. simmons also resorted to stunts to show how well-made its mattresses were. it devised a machine to hammer its products, and compared these to its competitors. the company took the beautyrest to the circus and photographed an elephant standing on it. even the elephant's bulk could not break the beautyrest spring. the company continued to recruit famous people to speak on its behalf. eleanor roosevelt furnished her bedrooms with beautyrest mattresses, and simmons featured her in a full-page ad declaiming her satisfaction. simmons also came out with new products in the postwar era. it debuted the hide-a-bed sofa in 1940, the famous sofa with a mattress tucked inside. grant simmons, sr., retired in 1957, and his son grant simmons, jr., took over the company. in 1958 simmons brought out another landmark in mattress history, the beautyrest supersize. the supersize was the first queen- or king-size mattress widely distributed in the united states. by this time, the company was a national leader in bedding products, well-known and profitable. company documents show the proverbial arrow on the sales chart climbing up and up from 1930 to 1970. simmons had a profit of over $8 million in 1968, and very little debt. the company diversified during this time period, too, particularly in the 1960s. by the late 1960s, simmons had subsidiaries in a variety of businesses. a company that it bought in 1962, thonet industries, specialized in making wood furniture for public use. simmons also ran a division that specialized in hospital furniture, and another that made patient handling equipment. simmons's juvenile products division made children's wooden furniture, including cribs. simmons co. also owned two high-fashion furniture importers and distributors. in the textile industry, simmons owned katzenbach and warren, a high-end wallpaper and fabric wall covering manufacturer, and greeff fabrics, a manufacturer of fashionable upholstery and drapery fabrics. by 1970, simmons had also diversified into the casket industry, owning one casket manufacturer and one manufacturer of metal casket linings. by 1970 simmons had also diversified abroad, running foreign subsidiaries to make bedding in canada, mexico, venezuela, argentina, england, france, and elsewhere.
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hard to find completely refinished american industrial four-legged stationary simmons side table with unique turned legs and undershelf
SKU:
UR-22647-17
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