Monday, June 22, 2009

Mr. Magic Fingers Has Died At 92


John Houghtaling died last week. The name might not mean much to you, but those of you who have enjoyed a cheap motel bed and a pocketful of quarters will surely remember the man who invented The Magic Fingers.

Magic Fingers was invented back in the 1950's and at its peak almost 250,000 motel rooms across the world had beds installed with the vibrating motor. That is 250,000 men a night who were convinced that feeding a couple of quarters into the machine would ignite that spark lost in his relationship. I say men here, because lets face it, only a guy would think to himself, hey, I know just the thing to add a little spice into the relationship and think the answer was a motor at the end of the bed.

Each quarter got you 15 minutes of fun and at its peak that fun was generating Mr. Magic Fingers about $2M a month. That is a whole bunch of quarters. The fad kind of lost its way when people started breaking into the machines and stealing the money. This is when reading an obituary can be pretty interesting. It turns out that Mr. Houghtaling came up with a solution and back in 1976 installed magnetic card strip readers to use instead of coins. It sounds like he was the first guy to come up with this, but apparently he must have not patented or something because his son said that his dad never made a dime off the invention. Whenever I think of a vibrating bed I am reminded of the scene in Vacation when the bed goes out of control. I wasn't able to find that clip, but this one from Golden Girls will do just fine.

I wish that I could say I had used a vibrating bed, but the few times I actually saw them, they didn't work. I guess I will spend the rest of the day on eBay and see if I can find one for the futon.



7 comments:

  1. We used to drive across country a LOT as kids (two sets of grandparents at opposite ends of the country from us), and my brother and I were ecstatic when we got a hotel with Magic Fingers. RIP Mr. Magic!

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  2. lol, i don't even know what to say. rip mr. magic fingers dude.

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  3. Mooshki, you beat me to it. We traveled a bunch, too, when I was little (a very long time ago) and I remember begging my dad for a quarter so we could "make the bed shake." I LOVED the Magic Fingers!

    So long, Mr. Magic Fingers man. May you rest in eternal vibrating slumber.

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  4. Alas, I too never got to experience that "magical" moment. It seems like it would be loud and people in the next room would hear it. Is that correct?

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  5. Maybe if we just had a king size "Rabbit Bed"

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  6. LOL @ Catherine :)

    I remember them several times traversing the country as a child. Very fun, not sure how it would have worked out as an adult. Bet it would work great with a futon :)

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  7. 15 minutes? i don't think they ever went that long. we, too would beg for quarters for the bed. i recall they were loud enough that you couldn't hear the TV, but i don't ever remember hearing one in another room. can't even remember the last time i saw one.

    i think now it might be a little distracting, though...

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