1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 3 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,079 Speaker 1: and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, 4 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: and we're just here. Jiggle AOI slash slash on our 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:26,000 Speaker 1: pleasure pit. God oh man, it's so funny. When I 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 1: started researching this, so I was like, water beds, that's 7 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: very stuff you should know. So sort of fits right 8 00:00:32,400 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: in with our historical pop culture phenomena series Phenomenal Do 9 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: do uh and big shout out to The Atlantic, one 10 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: of our favorite rags. A lot of this was taken 11 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: from article by Rebecca Greenfield uh, and then a bunch 12 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: of other cool uh supplementary stuff. New York Times, who else? Uh, 13 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:01,279 Speaker 1: Washington Post, Washington Yeah, wapop men, all those fake news outlets, right, 14 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,040 Speaker 1: Although I really love the New York Times and the 15 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,679 Speaker 1: Washington Post ones because they were like contemporary articles, like 16 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: the New York Times one was and Wapop was from 17 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,839 Speaker 1: and they're writing about the phenomena of of um water 18 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: beds at the time. I love that, man. I love 19 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: being able to go back read an article and then 20 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: go back and see how it actually unraveled like in 21 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:31,040 Speaker 1: real time. Basically, yes, see, like sure, it's a little 22 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: time capsule if you will, and you can look back 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: now and say, did they get it right? News? I 24 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: don't even like saying the two words together. Neither so 25 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: played out, so played All right, let's talk about the 26 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: water bed. Have you ever had one? No? I kind 27 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 1: of wanted one. I didn't have one. I kind of 28 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 1: wanted one to. I think we're just of that age 29 00:01:58,440 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: and they came about as you'll see, we're going to 30 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: talking about the seventies and eighties. That in the eighties 31 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 1: is when they peaked sales wise. I think even like 32 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: young uns like us, we're very intrigued. Oh yeah, my 33 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: friend had one. Yeah, did you sleep on it? No, 34 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,119 Speaker 1: never slept on that one. I laid down on it once, 35 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: I think because I was I was like, I gotta 36 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:20,920 Speaker 1: know what this feels like at least uh, And I 37 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: think it was. They may have called it waveless, but 38 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 1: I don't even know what the difference was because it 39 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,120 Speaker 1: was pretty wavy. What decade was this, This would have 40 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: been mid to late eighties. Yeah, I don't even they 41 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 1: had waveless ones back then. I think so they were 42 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: called waveless, but I don't know how it's still slashed 43 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: you around. Yeah, I remember very distinctly laying on it, 44 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:46,359 Speaker 1: and I remember thinking, I don't know if I could 45 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: sleep on this. It didn't seem like I mean, it 46 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: wasn't uncomfortable like it calls me pain. But I move 47 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: around a lot in my sleep, so it's not it's 48 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:01,440 Speaker 1: not a good least. The old school water beds are 49 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: not a good match for me. Memory Fund was a 50 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,360 Speaker 1: little better. Actually, supposedly they've come a long way, and 51 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: the new water beds are the bomb. I would be 52 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,239 Speaker 1: curious to lay on one. Well, go to a dealer 53 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: in South Florida. I think City Furniture in South Florida 54 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: is bringing back the water bed. Oh there's other places too, 55 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: because the design now, well, we'll get to it, but 56 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,359 Speaker 1: it's much different. It's not. It's not the good old 57 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:26,840 Speaker 1: days where you just fill up a big vinyl rubber 58 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 1: bladder and we were like tripping on some grass and 59 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: listening to Dark Side of the Moon. You know. The 60 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: funny thing about my friend Chris's water bed though, and 61 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 1: his whole house was a time capsule of the nineteen seventies. 62 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: He had a water bed in front of a wall 63 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: that the wall was a photograph of a like a 64 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: Hawaiian beach sunset. Oh man, we had two of those 65 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:56,320 Speaker 1: in my house. Really. We had one was a straight 66 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: up forest. So it's like, oh, I'm in the family room, 67 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,240 Speaker 1: I'll walk into the kitchen. Oh my god, I'm in 68 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: the forest basically. And then if you went upstairs, and 69 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: this is my childhood home in Toledo, Ohio, Um, when 70 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,400 Speaker 1: you went upstairs to my sister's rooms, you when you 71 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: got right up to the top landing, there was like 72 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:18,680 Speaker 1: an outdoor like Coors beer scene, like in the woods 73 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: with like a stream coming through the mountains. Giant murals 74 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:26,240 Speaker 1: in my house, Yeah, we never It's weird. Like when 75 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:27,800 Speaker 1: I look back at the house I grew up in, 76 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: it didn't have any of those cool seventies things. But 77 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:34,000 Speaker 1: now that I look back, I think it's probably you know, 78 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: I was not cool then because we lived in this 79 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: huge house in the woods. But now I look back, 80 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,360 Speaker 1: I'm like, that was where I would like to live now. 81 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: So what was the aesthetic of your house? Sort of 82 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: contempo country Okay, that hip like Jerry Read or something 83 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:54,359 Speaker 1: lived there. Yeah, I mean we had looking back, we 84 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: had shag carpet, or in shag carpet, there were some 85 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: markings of the day. Um. But then that was replaced 86 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: with hardwoods at some point in the in the eighties. Um. 87 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: But then when I had, you know, not too long ago, 88 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: went back to my childhood home and broke in. It 89 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:14,719 Speaker 1: was for sale really and empty, and uh you broke in? Well, 90 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:17,480 Speaker 1: not for sale, it was just sort of derelict and empty. 91 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:19,600 Speaker 1: Did you break a window to break in? Now? I 92 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: just got in like I used to get in. It 93 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:23,919 Speaker 1: was family was like it's locked, and I was like, 94 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: watch this. I used to sneak out and read Bible passages. 95 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: So I snuck in through the garage window. And looking back, 96 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: there was a lot of a lot of the same 97 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: stuff was there, and it was very kind of seventies 98 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:39,320 Speaker 1: tile and linoleum and stuff like that, but it just 99 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: wasn't full on like Brady Bunch stuff more or wall murals. 100 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: And I'm glad I went because sadly it is no 101 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:50,599 Speaker 1: longer there. I'm glad you went to. Then a couple 102 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: of months later just torn down, and I went back 103 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,359 Speaker 1: and saw a big emptiness and I cried, did you 104 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:00,760 Speaker 1: the end, I could see that I you me and 105 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 1: I went to Toledo and then I since went once 106 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: when we went to Cleveland for our show, I went 107 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: by myself and walked around, kind of hoping that the 108 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:11,479 Speaker 1: people who live in the house would be like, what's 109 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:13,560 Speaker 1: that weird doing and stick their head out and be 110 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:15,719 Speaker 1: like can I help you? And I'd be like, yeah, actually, 111 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: can I come in your house? Um? No one did, 112 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: but I did get to walk around the neighborhood. Did 113 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: you cry a little? Nice? But I I saw. I 114 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: want to go back to my elementary school and it's 115 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,359 Speaker 1: just like a grass field. Now, It's like, how do 116 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: you tear down an elementary school? You know? Maybe it 117 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 1: got like black mold or something. Well, let's hope. Yeah, 118 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: but it's it's sweet. It's better sweet to go back. Yeah, 119 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: go back to your childhood places. Everyone. I highly highly recommended. 120 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:48,520 Speaker 1: So water beds, Yeah, water beds. Um, we'll go back 121 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: to the earliest history, I guess. But um. The man 122 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: that we really need to talk about is a man 123 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,840 Speaker 1: named Charles Hall, the inventor of the modern water bed 124 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: as we know it ninety sixty eight. He's a student 125 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: at San Francisco state he's taking a design class. Oh 126 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: he was like a design major. Well, yeah, because he 127 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: submitted this as his master's thesis, was the waterbed. How 128 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:15,080 Speaker 1: awesome is that? So I saw competing stuff of what 129 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: he actually created like built. Yeah, and the thing that 130 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: I saw, I think it was in that WAPO It 131 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: said what he created was called the pleasure pit, and 132 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:31,720 Speaker 1: it was an eight foot by eight foot basically waterbed, 133 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 1: but it was meant to be a conversation pit for 134 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: multiple people that kind of hang around in and there 135 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: was like a bar and there was lighting and like 136 00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: shelves and stuff like that, and that that was the 137 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: original his design. Yeah, But was there a water mattress 138 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: function or was it just a sunken going room. No, 139 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: that was the thing that was where everybody sat was 140 00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:57,320 Speaker 1: on a water mattress in the middle. It sounds awful, 141 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 1: it's just weird, but it really caught everybody's an imagination. 142 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 1: Supposedly within six months it was on the front page 143 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: of papers across the country. This is in San Francisco. 144 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: The Miami Herald had something on the front page about 145 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: this waterbed exhibit in San Francisco that this twenty four 146 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: year old design student created capital p capital p uh yeah, 147 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: pleasure pit. Everything I've seen is it's capitalized. But that's 148 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I think that's what he called the 149 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:29,119 Speaker 1: first thing. Yeah, but it very quickly got turned into 150 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: a bed. The water bed I used to like. Actually, 151 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:35,720 Speaker 1: my same friend Chris had at one of those sunken 152 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: living rooms those very seventies. Remember in um, oh, what's 153 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:45,199 Speaker 1: the big Lebowski when he goes see to see Jackie 154 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 1: Child or Jackie whatever, Jackie Treehorn. Yeah, Jackie Treehorn and 155 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:52,000 Speaker 1: his whole house is just amazing. Yeah, he had a 156 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: conversation pit. Uh right, conversation pit, That's what it was called. 157 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: So here's the deal from Time magazine. In Manhattan, the 158 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: waterbed display at Bloomingdale's Department Store, for a while was 159 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:10,720 Speaker 1: a popular singles meeting place. Sire's, Roebuck and Holiday Inns 160 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: are eyeing the beds, and Lake Tahoe's Kingcastle Hotel has 161 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: already installed them in luxury suites. And this is uh 162 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 1: I think it continues. Playboy tycoon Hugh Hefner has one 163 00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 1: king size, of course and covered with Tasmanian bossom. I thought, 164 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: how gross is that? Because what I know is a 165 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,120 Speaker 1: possum is different, different. I looked up the Tasmanian possibles 166 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: super soft I would imagine. So it's not like American 167 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 1: road kill on your water bed. Right. It wasn't even 168 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:42,720 Speaker 1: made from it. It just had a bunch of live 169 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: American possums on his bed, and his water bed was 170 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:51,000 Speaker 1: really weird. But here's the deal. The water bed that 171 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:53,559 Speaker 1: Charles hall Cree eventually would go on to create, and 172 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: we'll talk about some of his earlier designs aside from 173 00:09:55,880 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 1: the pleasure pit, he wanted to revolutionize sleeping. Yeah, he 174 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: meant it very seriously. He wanted to have a pressure 175 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:10,199 Speaker 1: point free mattress that would envelope your body and give 176 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: you the best night sleep of your life. He had 177 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:16,280 Speaker 1: no intention of it becoming this, which it very much did. 178 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:21,080 Speaker 1: A metaphor for the sexy sixties and seventies, right, but 179 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: it definitely did like you say it was. It's a 180 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: really good example of an idea just basically getting hijacked 181 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 1: big time. And at first he was kind of like, yeah, 182 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: I'm just a twenty four year old design suit. I 183 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:38,120 Speaker 1: don't care. I'm sure make your own waterbed knockoff. But 184 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:41,880 Speaker 1: then over time he definitely came to care and spent 185 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:48,040 Speaker 1: a couple of decades pursuing um uh infringement suits here 186 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 1: and there, patent infringement suits um which we'll talk about later. 187 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:55,400 Speaker 1: But at first it was basically like here's the waterbed world, 188 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:58,360 Speaker 1: and the world went nuts. Uh And again, yeah, he 189 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:02,120 Speaker 1: meant a revolution. I sleep the hippies and the people 190 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,200 Speaker 1: who owned head shops, which is where you bought your 191 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:07,320 Speaker 1: water beds early on was at the head shop said no, 192 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:09,839 Speaker 1: this is all about sex, and that's how that's how 193 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,679 Speaker 1: it was first sold in the late sixties and early seventies. 194 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:17,600 Speaker 1: I have never had sexual intercourse on a waterbed, but 195 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,680 Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't sound appealing to me, right because 196 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: so one of the in this, I think the Washington 197 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:27,840 Speaker 1: Post article quote a Washington Post article from the seventies saying, 198 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: like a waterbed salesman said, it's very like, very much 199 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:34,840 Speaker 1: like three people are having sex, because the bed itself 200 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: is like a third warm body participating in the motion 201 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:41,560 Speaker 1: or something like in the worst possible way. And I 202 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 1: looked up, Yeah, I was like, it's just weird. And 203 00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 1: I looked up um like sex on a water bed 204 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 1: on um on a work computer right. Uh oh yeah, 205 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:58,800 Speaker 1: the work computer supertained now um, and the I found 206 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:01,560 Speaker 1: like this one. Can't remember the website, but it's basically 207 00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:05,040 Speaker 1: like pros and cons. And it sounds like it comes 208 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: down to your preferences, you know, like what what like 209 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:13,320 Speaker 1: are you into your motions being exaggerated? You know? And 210 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, Chuck's laughing because I'm like kind of 211 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 1: making toward right. Um, if you're into that, great, if 212 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 1: you're not, or you um, apparently it's really like you. 213 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,120 Speaker 1: It really is pronounced. It's not something going on in 214 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 1: the background. It's like you know and right. So it 215 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: just depends on your preferences, I think. But I think 216 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:40,280 Speaker 1: a lot of the earliest water beds were we're bought 217 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: by guys who were pretty confident. They could be like, 218 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: I've got a water bed, you want to try it out, 219 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,439 Speaker 1: and that that would happen. It became a punch line, 220 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:52,439 Speaker 1: Like I remember, I feel like every other sitcom or 221 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: a movie at some point there was a scene where 222 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,320 Speaker 1: they were like, oh, he's got a water bed, or 223 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,360 Speaker 1: he would just slowly open the door to reveal the 224 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: water bed, and that meant only one thing. It did 225 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:06,840 Speaker 1: master lover right, so the the and then the waterbed 226 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: invariably like they couldn't make it work because one of 227 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:13,280 Speaker 1: them would get flopped off or somebody would make it 228 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:15,720 Speaker 1: spring a leak, and then the leak would just go everywhere. 229 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:19,000 Speaker 1: Whenever water beds appeared in TV and movies like it, 230 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:23,400 Speaker 1: it went badly. All right, let's take a break. I'm 231 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:26,199 Speaker 1: all hot and bothered. We'll come back and we'll talk 232 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: about some of Charles Hall's early designs right after this. Okay, 233 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:56,600 Speaker 1: so again, that was like the first reception to water beds. 234 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,160 Speaker 1: Heffner had one, he had to actually had one on 235 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 1: his jet to um he uh, like one of the 236 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:06,720 Speaker 1: smothers brothers bought one, I guess help his sex life out, 237 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: guys from Jefferson Airplane. And you bought them at head 238 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 1: shops and they were sold by waterbed manufacturers again, none 239 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:16,280 Speaker 1: of whom bothered to get a license from the Charles 240 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:18,679 Speaker 1: Hall of the inventor and patent holder. But they had 241 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: names like wet Dream. Somebody named their company wet Dream 242 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: and that was okay in the seventies. Uh, let me 243 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 1: see here what else Aquarius Joyapeutic, Aqua Beds, Joyapeutic Um 244 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:37,360 Speaker 1: Aquarius products like you said, water works, what else that's 245 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: all I have? I think wet dream. We should have 246 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:45,360 Speaker 1: stopped there. Um, it's definitely the worst of all of them. 247 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: So before this came about, Charles Hall a couple of 248 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,920 Speaker 1: his prototype early prototypes. UM one, it sounds sort of 249 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: like a bean bag chair almost, but it was a 250 00:14:55,680 --> 00:15:00,720 Speaker 1: big bag chair full of three hundred pounds of liquid 251 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,800 Speaker 1: corn starch. That the idea was you would sit in 252 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,480 Speaker 1: it and it would envelop you. It sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, 253 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:10,160 Speaker 1: Like he didn't mean for it to envelop you. It 254 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:12,120 Speaker 1: was like he hadn't hit upon the water bed yet. 255 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 1: He was trying out different substances, but yeah, you just 256 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:18,720 Speaker 1: sink in gross, right. So he moved on to jello 257 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,280 Speaker 1: four real and that didn't work either. That's not a joke, people, 258 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:26,360 Speaker 1: He'd be put jello in. This thing did not have 259 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:31,520 Speaker 1: the right temperature or consistency. So eventually he would thanks 260 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: to um, thanks to vinyl really becoming a very popular thing, 261 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 1: uh and and being used for things other than like 262 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:45,560 Speaker 1: car parts and tires and things and oh rings, vinyl 263 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,680 Speaker 1: became a hot item. So he filled up this vinyl 264 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:54,280 Speaker 1: bladder with water. Had a temperature control device on it. Uh. 265 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:56,280 Speaker 1: And the the idea there was not to have some 266 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:58,960 Speaker 1: hot bed, but to sink up to your body temperature, right, 267 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 1: so your muscles were relaxed. Yeah, he had the purest 268 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,840 Speaker 1: of intentions, I really did, and he he hit upon 269 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:11,360 Speaker 1: it finally and again in that Masters thesis. Well was 270 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: part of the problem. Summer of love. People were having 271 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 1: sex all over the place. And Uh, there's a story 272 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: named Andrew Kirk who said the basically design and then 273 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:26,000 Speaker 1: late sixties was a free form atmosphere people were really getting. 274 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: And if you've ever, like I love design museums, if 275 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:31,080 Speaker 1: you ever go to some of these, it's kind of 276 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,960 Speaker 1: cool to see what they were doing in the sixties. Um, 277 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,720 Speaker 1: because it was kind of a crazy time for design. Yeah, 278 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: because a lot of people were open to trying new things. 279 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 1: Up to this point. You had a mattress and you 280 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: were just thankful that it wasn't filled with Hey you know, 281 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:46,720 Speaker 1: it had springs, and you liked it. That's the way 282 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 1: it was, and you liked it. That's right. Um. So 283 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:54,200 Speaker 1: the idea of this something totally new, like it was 284 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: two things. One, this guy was trying to revolutionized sleep 285 00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,560 Speaker 1: and it came at a time when people were willing 286 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:02,080 Speaker 1: to like, oh, yeah, it's the beds boring, let's try 287 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:05,040 Speaker 1: something different, and it just kind of came together really well. 288 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,520 Speaker 1: But again it got hijacked by people who owned Headshot well, 289 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:10,119 Speaker 1: and he was in San Francisco. It all kind of 290 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: converged um work against him, ironically, but he he applied 291 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:17,720 Speaker 1: for a pet and I think in nineteen sixty eight, 292 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: but it wasn't until nineteen seventy one that it was 293 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:26,800 Speaker 1: granted because prior to his design being um debuted, like 294 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:31,320 Speaker 1: thirty or so years prior. Robert Heinlein, the very famous 295 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:35,280 Speaker 1: in prolific science fiction writer, he had basically described water 296 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 1: beds so frequently and in such detail that he was 297 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 1: considered the intellectual property holder of waterbed design. The reason 298 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:47,480 Speaker 1: Heinlan even went to the trouble of he liked to 299 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 1: describe stuff in his books apparently haven't read any of 300 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 1: them yet, but very detailed description. And one of the 301 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:55,280 Speaker 1: things that he kept he that always popped up was 302 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:57,920 Speaker 1: these water beds. And apparently in the thirties he spent 303 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,520 Speaker 1: a lot of time in hospital beds, so he was 304 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:05,320 Speaker 1: just imagining how they could be improved, and he described 305 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:10,439 Speaker 1: waterbeds almost exactly like Charles Hall had described them. Yeah, 306 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,280 Speaker 1: he said, UM A pump to control water level, side 307 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,880 Speaker 1: supports to permit one to float rather than simply lying 308 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:20,840 Speaker 1: on a not very soft water filled mattress, thermostatic control 309 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:25,440 Speaker 1: of temperature, safety interfaces to avoid all possibility of electric shock, 310 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:27,720 Speaker 1: which was a big sort of urban legend at the time. 311 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:32,920 Speaker 1: You'd be electrocuted if you have vigorous sex waterproof box 312 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:38,919 Speaker 1: to make it leakproof um which was another probably legitimate 313 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,440 Speaker 1: um Cohn for a water bed. Sometimes they would leak 314 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:45,680 Speaker 1: back then uh, and then some other things. But basically 315 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: it all came together to form such a robust all 316 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:51,520 Speaker 1: even though it was in a science fiction novel that 317 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:55,040 Speaker 1: he was he had to like go to court and say, 318 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,800 Speaker 1: I don't know if he was looking for money or who. 319 00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:01,159 Speaker 1: I'm not sure how it came out. Highland owned the 320 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: intellectual property of it. If he came out and said 321 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:08,680 Speaker 1: that's mine or what. But by within three years of 322 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:12,280 Speaker 1: Chris or Charles Hall coming out with this he UM 323 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: he had the patent for it. And even way back 324 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds there were doctors who created One 325 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,480 Speaker 1: guy named Dr Neil Are no, or are not created 326 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:26,879 Speaker 1: a hydrostatic bed. He covered a warm bath with a 327 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:31,920 Speaker 1: rubber cloth and sealed it with varnish. And another doctor 328 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:36,679 Speaker 1: in Portsmouth and these were basically to prevent bed sores, 329 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:40,159 Speaker 1: to relieve bed sores, and even highlands he said, like 330 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: you said, he cooked it up because he had been 331 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,040 Speaker 1: in hospitals a lot. Yeah, He's like, he's getting killed 332 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 1: in these hard beds. Yeah. And the reason you would 333 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:53,199 Speaker 1: want some sort of um water filled bed for a 334 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,240 Speaker 1: hospital is because people are laying around in bed all 335 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:59,399 Speaker 1: the time and when you have skin covering like a 336 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:03,679 Speaker 1: bony are, you get bed ulcers and you don't want those. 337 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:07,440 Speaker 1: So this was to prevent bed sores. UM. That's why 338 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: the earliest physicians were coming up with them. But so 339 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:15,199 Speaker 1: finally by one Charles Hall holds the patent and again 340 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:20,200 Speaker 1: he was he wanted to create a serious sleep product, 341 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:24,879 Speaker 1: and he founded a company called Inner Space Environments and 342 00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:28,000 Speaker 1: they were selling like the real deal, legit high end 343 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:31,399 Speaker 1: water beds. He even named it seriously right. He opened 344 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,560 Speaker 1: like thirty two stores in California in the early seventies, 345 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,840 Speaker 1: and UM had a factory like he was doing it right. 346 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:41,640 Speaker 1: His did not leak. One of the things that water 347 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:43,720 Speaker 1: beds were very much known for is that the sheets 348 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:47,159 Speaker 1: would pop off. Yeah, very well. The sheets fit on 349 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,719 Speaker 1: his um. The temperature control was great. They were like 350 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: really high end water beds made and designed by the 351 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 1: guy who actually designed them. The problem is he didn't 352 00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:02,119 Speaker 1: really pursue any patents off, and so there were knockoffs 353 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:05,080 Speaker 1: out of the gate, and it was the knockoffs that leaked. 354 00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:08,920 Speaker 1: It was the knockoffs that had terrible temperature control um 355 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:11,960 Speaker 1: and it was the knockoffs that gave waterbeds a bad 356 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:17,119 Speaker 1: name because they were fully embracing the sexy advertising. That 357 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:21,200 Speaker 1: was part of it too, all the knockoffs manufacturers, and 358 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:26,080 Speaker 1: apparently he pursued some of these, but it's he would 359 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:28,560 Speaker 1: have spent all his time and money pursuing a patent 360 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,120 Speaker 1: infringement if he really tried to go after everyone, and 361 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,879 Speaker 1: some of these didn't make a lot of money, and 362 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:37,040 Speaker 1: it was just sort of useless to even try, so 363 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 1: it wasn't worth his time and money. A lot of 364 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,399 Speaker 1: times he said to a lot of people who sold 365 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,399 Speaker 1: water beds early, like early waterbed dealers, basically they were 366 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:47,280 Speaker 1: just trying to make some fast money. So they could 367 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:50,720 Speaker 1: go start a pot farm in Oregon. That was like, 368 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,840 Speaker 1: that's who was selling water beds in the early seventies. 369 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:56,040 Speaker 1: It also has one of the creepiest lines ever in 370 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:59,440 Speaker 1: the Atlantic article that said something about when Charles Hall 371 00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:02,960 Speaker 1: initially selling water beds out of the back of his van, right, like, man, 372 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: that's the creepiest thing every year. Here, let me let 373 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,119 Speaker 1: me open up my van. You can lay on my 374 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,680 Speaker 1: water bed in the back of my van, you with 375 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,879 Speaker 1: with the stallion painted on the side. Oh man, speaking 376 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,159 Speaker 1: of seventies, So I forgot about the murals on the vands. 377 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,439 Speaker 1: Remember we used to do blog posts and stuff I 378 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: made like a slide show. I remember that vans with 379 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,919 Speaker 1: art on the side. We see those every now and 380 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:29,480 Speaker 1: then gets up. Still, it's good stuff. You want to 381 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 1: take a break before we get into the the this 382 00:22:33,480 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: straightening of water beds. Yes, I couldn't come up with 383 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:03,680 Speaker 1: a better word than straightening. I apologize for that. Let 384 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:08,560 Speaker 1: me think the I guess legitimizing, but I'm thinking like 385 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:13,600 Speaker 1: more like boring, suburbanite zing of water beds. Yeah, I mean, 386 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: here's the thing. We say that Hall very much wanted 387 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,360 Speaker 1: to revolution. I sleep and he didn't embrace the sexual 388 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,040 Speaker 1: component of it. But he sold a lot of water beds, 389 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,160 Speaker 1: and he kind of knew why a lot of these 390 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 1: people were buying him, and he wasn't like I don't 391 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: think he was so pious that he was like, no, 392 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,399 Speaker 1: I don't want to sell them for that reason. I 393 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:35,399 Speaker 1: think he eventually was kind of like, yeah, you know 394 00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:38,359 Speaker 1: that that's why people bought him, and that was okay. 395 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,280 Speaker 1: But I don't think he just I don't think he 396 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:42,639 Speaker 1: cheapened his own advertising that way. No, he didn't. And 397 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:47,000 Speaker 1: he actually he his company went under by the mid seventies, 398 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:51,879 Speaker 1: and he he likens it to UM basically advertising to 399 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,680 Speaker 1: the wrong market. Like he he made quality, high end 400 00:23:55,720 --> 00:24:00,320 Speaker 1: water beds UM, and it was advertising to people who 401 00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 1: could afford a more expensive quality, actual legitimate water bed went. 402 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: At the time, it was like, you know, Randall pink 403 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 1: Floyd and his friends were the actual customers of water beds. 404 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,200 Speaker 1: That's who was buying water beds, and they weren't seeing 405 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:16,760 Speaker 1: the ads that Charles Hall was putting out there, you 406 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,160 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, in like the New York or whatever. Yeah, 407 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,080 Speaker 1: And so he missed the heyday. He was sort of 408 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,040 Speaker 1: in the early heyday, but I think in the eighties 409 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,960 Speaker 1: is when it became like a two billion dollar of 410 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,840 Speaker 1: the market share industry, right, Yeah, Like the late seventies, 411 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:31,920 Speaker 1: I think it was about a thirteen million dollar a 412 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,680 Speaker 1: year industry, and by seven I believe that its peak 413 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: it was like a two point three billion dollar industry 414 00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,560 Speaker 1: a year, and then a pretty steep once again grunge 415 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:47,240 Speaker 1: killed water beds. Yeah, pretty steep fall in the nineties, 416 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: right in the early nineties. Yeah, But the way that 417 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:54,480 Speaker 1: it built up before it fell was more companies got 418 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 1: into it, kind of legitimized it. I believe that there 419 00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:02,760 Speaker 1: was a trade association that developed UM and the I 420 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,040 Speaker 1: think it was like it's called the floatation sleep industry 421 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,320 Speaker 1: is really the technical term for it. UM. They really 422 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 1: wanted to get away from the sex appeal and like 423 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,920 Speaker 1: this stores like you would you wouldn't buy water bed 424 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,439 Speaker 1: in a head shop anymore. To imagine walking to a 425 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,120 Speaker 1: hedgehop and being like, what do you have a water 426 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,280 Speaker 1: bed here? For? Um? You buy water beds out in 427 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,359 Speaker 1: the suburbs at a place called waterbed Plaza or something 428 00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:28,560 Speaker 1: like that. Or did you see that ad I sent 429 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:33,879 Speaker 1: to the YouTube adroom. Yeah, country Boy water beds. Everybody 430 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:38,160 Speaker 1: go go onto YouTube and look for country Boy water 431 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:42,720 Speaker 1: bed at Max Headroom and it's beautiful. Yeah, it's a 432 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,520 Speaker 1: Max Headroom rip off selling water beds, country Boy water beds, 433 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:51,040 Speaker 1: water bed h And I think it was from Arkansas, 434 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,000 Speaker 1: like a local waterbed dealer in Arkansas, Texarcana. You mean 435 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: is that right now? I don't know, but that's I mean, 436 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,600 Speaker 1: like you could get water beds everywhere. Well, that's why 437 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:04,840 Speaker 1: my friend, I mean in seven in suburban Atlanta. For 438 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,880 Speaker 1: my friend to have one in high school, that kind 439 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,800 Speaker 1: of says it all. It's not like his parents were 440 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,320 Speaker 1: like I mean they were. They were a good, god 441 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: fearing family and we're like, yeah, we need to get 442 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,520 Speaker 1: Chris a sex pit. It was more like they were 443 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:23,560 Speaker 1: supposedly healthy. Yeah, they were like a healthy way to sleep. 444 00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: I think that's also how it kind of transitioned the 445 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:32,240 Speaker 1: legitimacy and away from like just the association with sex. Right, So, um, 446 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:36,639 Speaker 1: you have you have like an actual bona fide water 447 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,199 Speaker 1: bed industry. Um with actual water beds. One of the 448 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:42,399 Speaker 1: one of the ways that this industry was able to 449 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 1: establish itself was they made vast improvements over the early 450 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:49,240 Speaker 1: models of water beds. It used to be that you 451 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:52,880 Speaker 1: had a just basically like a big bladder, a vinyl bladder, 452 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,240 Speaker 1: that big water, big wooden box, and when you wanted 453 00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:58,919 Speaker 1: to get out, you had to like kind of like 454 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:03,080 Speaker 1: work up to it, roll off the side, and yeah, 455 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:05,479 Speaker 1: you had to bang your knee on the way out. 456 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,080 Speaker 1: They leaked. There was a lot of problems with it. 457 00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 1: But then they started like improving upon it to where 458 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,399 Speaker 1: like the water bed was actually like this one article, 459 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:15,959 Speaker 1: I think it was a mental fass article that I 460 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:19,960 Speaker 1: found said that in the eighties, if you were a kid, 461 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,800 Speaker 1: a water bed was as close to a status symbol 462 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,760 Speaker 1: as you could possibly get, you know, Oh yeah, I 463 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,560 Speaker 1: mean it was aspirational. Yeah, there's no when I say, 464 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,000 Speaker 1: no chance my parents would have bought me one, it 465 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,239 Speaker 1: wouldn't have even like I wouldn't. I knew better than 466 00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: to even ask. I think the same with me. I 467 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,720 Speaker 1: don't remember ever asking for one, although I really wanted one. 468 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,160 Speaker 1: I think it was like a pipe dream. Maybe it's 469 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,280 Speaker 1: not like, oh I really want a water bed. It 470 00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,000 Speaker 1: was such so shut down in my mind as a possibility, 471 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,439 Speaker 1: like this is a time where we inherited mattresses from 472 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,320 Speaker 1: our older siblings. It was so gross. It was on 473 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:56,440 Speaker 1: the slide road. But it looks not even too many 474 00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:02,400 Speaker 1: stains on it. Kind of uh wait, kind of Oh 475 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:03,960 Speaker 1: did you actually get a mattress from the side of 476 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:07,119 Speaker 1: the room. I'm making sure you did not know, but 477 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 1: just short of that, okay. Um, So mattress water beds then, 478 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,440 Speaker 1: and now one of the knocks against them is there 479 00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,960 Speaker 1: they are very heavy. There's no way around it. If 480 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: you fill up a mattress with water, even partially, you're 481 00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:24,639 Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of weight. Depending on the size, 482 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,679 Speaker 1: a couple to three gallons of water can weigh between 483 00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:34,280 Speaker 1: fifteen hundred and two thousand pounds. And so they always 484 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 1: instill do need a lot of structural support underneath them, 485 00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 1: a large, very heavy wooden platform. Supposedly that's why New 486 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: York was known as the um, the city where the 487 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 1: least number of water beds are ever. So yeah, I 488 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,720 Speaker 1: can't imagine. Part of it is because like in in 489 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,760 Speaker 1: major cities, there were like waterbed bands and leases, like 490 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,800 Speaker 1: if you rented an apartment, you weren't allowed to have 491 00:28:55,840 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: a water it was just too heavy. Yeah. Um, people 492 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 1: would leave them behind like here, you take this because 493 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,400 Speaker 1: even when you drain the water, like the thing that 494 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: held the water bed was heavy itself. The frame was 495 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 1: super super heavy. It was like a bookcase that you 496 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 1: didn't really want anymore. You just leave it behind. That's 497 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,760 Speaker 1: what happened to water beds. I didn't see and I 498 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,320 Speaker 1: don't How do you fill them up? Is that you water? 499 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:27,000 Speaker 1: Really that's how people did it, Yes, And then to 500 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: get it out you needed like a pump, and you 501 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 1: could buy all this stuff in your local waterbeds store. 502 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,600 Speaker 1: But you know, when you buy a better mattress, a 503 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:35,520 Speaker 1: regular mattress, you don't have to go buy a pump 504 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 1: two years later because you're moving, you know, and then 505 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 1: pump the water out of mattress. You just moved the mattress. 506 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,040 Speaker 1: That was a big, big mark against it in the 507 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: popular understanding of it. I imagine in New York too, well, 508 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: the weight is enough probably to disqualify it. But just 509 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:54,360 Speaker 1: getting a water hose up a seventh floor walk up, yeah, 510 00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,200 Speaker 1: I'm surprised. I haven't seen that movie scene where they're 511 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: like have a rope tied around a water hose from 512 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:02,560 Speaker 1: the street level that they're bringing up through a window. 513 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: It sounds like Buster Keaton or something like super Sexy 514 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:15,080 Speaker 1: in the seventies. Who would that be? I don't know. Okay, 515 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,240 Speaker 1: we should do a podcast on our crumb Have we 516 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,200 Speaker 1: done that any day? Any day? Buddy? That was like 517 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,680 Speaker 1: a dare. I can't remember if I saw them. Was 518 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,360 Speaker 1: it a movie or a documentary on him? It was 519 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:30,240 Speaker 1: a movie that came out in the early two thousands. 520 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: Well both they did, the Great documentary Crumb Um and 521 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,920 Speaker 1: then American Splendor that he was a character in it, 522 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 1: but it was largely about Harvey peakr. Yes, the Great 523 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,800 Speaker 1: Harvey Peak. That was a good movie. Um. All right, 524 00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: so these days, uh, like you said, they've been brought 525 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:57,400 Speaker 1: into the modern era. Um, there's a foam collar around 526 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,560 Speaker 1: the bladder. There's spandex on top up. Um. I believe 527 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,840 Speaker 1: they are air pockets and things in between to sort 528 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: of stabilize it. Yeah, they don't, Actually they don't. You 529 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,160 Speaker 1: can't get seasick on them like you used to be 530 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: able to move like that. I really want to try 531 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: one of these out and just see what it feels like. 532 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 1: I don't want one, I don't think, but I do 533 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,800 Speaker 1: want to see what the sensation is like. One of 534 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: my friends back in high school. Their parents had a 535 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: what he called a motionless water bed. Um. And now 536 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 1: I understand what he's talking about. It's like waveless or whatever. Um, 537 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:32,440 Speaker 1: But it just felt like laying on a feather bed, 538 00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:36,040 Speaker 1: just the most comfortable feather bed you've ever been on. Well, 539 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:38,040 Speaker 1: my friends must not have been waveless, because it was 540 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,600 Speaker 1: it moved. Yeah, this is non and this would have 541 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: been like the nineties or something like that. And I'm 542 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,400 Speaker 1: sure it was like a five thousand dollar mattress or 543 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,280 Speaker 1: something back then, but that seems to be like the 544 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: kind that they have now. It's like you just lay 545 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:50,680 Speaker 1: on it and you're You're not like, oh, this is 546 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,080 Speaker 1: a water bed. You just like, this is super comfortable. 547 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,200 Speaker 1: I'm floating and weightless, but your mind's not thinking you're 548 00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:00,680 Speaker 1: laying on water. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't have, like, aside 549 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: from moving a lot. When I sleep, I'm like a 550 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:05,120 Speaker 1: I like to flop on the bed, like when I 551 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,440 Speaker 1: lay down, I don't lay gently on it. I will 552 00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: kind of throw myself into bed. And none of these 553 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,080 Speaker 1: things are conduci of the water beds, especially not in 554 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,479 Speaker 1: the seventies. But apparently now it's fine. You could do 555 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,520 Speaker 1: that well. One of the new salesman they interviewed for 556 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:20,920 Speaker 1: this article said that he won't say the name water 557 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,400 Speaker 1: bed um. He says, because it turns people off. He said. 558 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,800 Speaker 1: Even if they try it and they like it and 559 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,080 Speaker 1: then they find out it's a water bed, he said, 560 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:33,120 Speaker 1: sometimes they won't buy it because of that weird seventies 561 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:38,600 Speaker 1: association like with yeah, or they're worried it's gonna leak, 562 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,520 Speaker 1: or they're you know, they're gonna have to fill it 563 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,120 Speaker 1: with water. There Apparently I couldn't find any any verification 564 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:47,680 Speaker 1: of this, but there was an urban legend at least 565 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,720 Speaker 1: that you could find aquatic worms floating in your water 566 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,800 Speaker 1: bed and they started down like, oh, well we need 567 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,160 Speaker 1: to add chemicals to the water. Well, then that makes 568 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 1: it even grosser. Right, So there's like just over time 569 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,280 Speaker 1: people associated a lot of negative things with water beds, 570 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,720 Speaker 1: and then the thing that really killed the water bed 571 00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,920 Speaker 1: was that in the nineties. By the by the nineties, 572 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,440 Speaker 1: it was clear that America was like, sure, we'll try 573 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,360 Speaker 1: other things besides an inter spring, mattress, what you got, 574 00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,960 Speaker 1: and so like temper pedic came around, or sleep number. 575 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:28,320 Speaker 1: All these guys who made technically alternative mattresses. Um, the 576 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,440 Speaker 1: same thing that it follows in that tradition that the 577 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:37,800 Speaker 1: waterbed established. They Charles Hall created that market and showed 578 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,360 Speaker 1: that it was a real thing. And so by the 579 00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,720 Speaker 1: time the nineties rolled around, and like I think temper 580 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: Peedick was the first one. Um, it was like all 581 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:50,080 Speaker 1: the benefits of a waterbed without the hassle of the water, 582 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:52,080 Speaker 1: why would you want a water bed? And that was 583 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:55,880 Speaker 1: it for water beds. Yeah, and minus the creeps. Yeah. 584 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,560 Speaker 1: Whereas just a few a few years before, almost one 585 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 1: in war between one and four and one and five, 586 00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:06,840 Speaker 1: between a quarter and of all water or of all 587 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,719 Speaker 1: mattresses were waterbeds sold in America. It's crazy. It's a 588 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,280 Speaker 1: lot down to nothing, down to just gone. Man. Imagine 589 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:20,760 Speaker 1: the landfills of America are filled with vinyl bladders just rotting, 590 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 1: well broughting a thousand years from now probably, yeah, that's true. 591 00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,319 Speaker 1: They're probably some pretty good shape. So one more thing 592 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,879 Speaker 1: about Charles Hall, well, two more things. One he went 593 00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,840 Speaker 1: on to invent the solar shower, you know, the campus 594 00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,040 Speaker 1: are great. And then um too, he has a kind 595 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:39,799 Speaker 1: of a bad name, or he did, at least back 596 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:44,760 Speaker 1: in one I think um in that WAPO article where 597 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:53,520 Speaker 1: the waterbed industry, the industry association that formed they they 598 00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,359 Speaker 1: didn't like him very much because a couple of years 599 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:58,440 Speaker 1: before his patent ran out, he'd been gone and then 600 00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,759 Speaker 1: came back and said, all y'all owe me money for 601 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:05,080 Speaker 1: patent infringement. And they were like, what, dude, We like, 602 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,879 Speaker 1: we've built this industry. You know, we thought you were 603 00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:10,919 Speaker 1: cool kind of and he was like, no, I'm not 604 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,880 Speaker 1: give me some money and he started like they apparently 605 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,359 Speaker 1: wanted to settle and it wasn't enough. But one really 606 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,120 Speaker 1: noteworthy thing about one of their one of his lawsuits 607 00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:26,719 Speaker 1: against I think a Taiwanese um manufacturer that Um he 608 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:31,160 Speaker 1: sold shares in the outcome, so like you could buy 609 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:36,239 Speaker 1: shares of a lawsuit. Crazy, and there's a there's a 610 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:41,160 Speaker 1: common law law against it. It's called champ terree, which 611 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,400 Speaker 1: I had never heard of before. Makes total sense. It's 612 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:48,839 Speaker 1: where somebody like basically pays for legal fees in order 613 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,799 Speaker 1: to get a piece of the action to cut yeah, 614 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,920 Speaker 1: champtere And in California at the time, champtery was not illegal. 615 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:01,520 Speaker 1: I don't know if it is, but it was not. 616 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,880 Speaker 1: And uh, he sold shares for ten thousand a pop. 617 00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:10,760 Speaker 1: Uh for this, for this, wow, this lawsuit. That's amazing. 618 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,840 Speaker 1: Water beds, they're amazing. Chuck cheez. That's what the episode 619 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:18,759 Speaker 1: should be titled. It's up to you. Do you got 620 00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,360 Speaker 1: anything else? You got nothing else? If you want to 621 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,520 Speaker 1: know more about water beds, well, get in a time machine, 622 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:26,160 Speaker 1: get in the way back machine and go try and 623 00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,080 Speaker 1: one out yourself. Well, we have one in the way 624 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 1: back machine, so you're lucky. Day it covered in American possum. 625 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:36,000 Speaker 1: Oh boy. Uh. Since I said that it's time for listening, 626 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:40,400 Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this one of the many replies for 627 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:42,840 Speaker 1: color blindness too. We've got a lot of responses for 628 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,800 Speaker 1: color blindness. What do you mean too well? I called 629 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:50,040 Speaker 1: the sure all right, Hey guys, I was listening to 630 00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:52,879 Speaker 1: the show about color blindness with an oh you are 631 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,959 Speaker 1: so I assume this? Uh oh, he's Canadian. I'm gonna 632 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,680 Speaker 1: say British. It's like British, like he's still under the 633 00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:03,200 Speaker 1: thumb though. Uh. I worked in the electrical field for 634 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,680 Speaker 1: ten years, and in that time I've worked with two 635 00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,719 Speaker 1: red green color blind electricians. Remember we talked about that. 636 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,080 Speaker 1: The first one I worked with for a few years. Uh, 637 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,200 Speaker 1: and he said, it wasn't that difficult to tell the 638 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,640 Speaker 1: difference between red and green conductors. They just looked like 639 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,680 Speaker 1: every Uh, they looked like very obvious different shades of 640 00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:26,400 Speaker 1: the same color. It only took a couple of mistakes 641 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,759 Speaker 1: before he was able to tell the difference. An electrical 642 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 1: red is a current carrying conductor, while green is used 643 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,640 Speaker 1: for grounding and bonding like a rat and a science experiment. 644 00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:39,040 Speaker 1: He explained, it only took a couple of shocks of 645 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,359 Speaker 1: what he thought it was a bonding wire to really 646 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,040 Speaker 1: notice the difference. So dangerous, I know. Man. Uh. The 647 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,760 Speaker 1: other I worked with for only a short while because 648 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:50,840 Speaker 1: he died, but he had been an electrician for twenty 649 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:54,080 Speaker 1: plus years. Wasn't until he asked a co worker why 650 00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 1: they thought the ground wire and a current carrying conductor 651 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:59,560 Speaker 1: were the same color that he even realized he was 652 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,239 Speaker 1: color on. Wow, how about that? A little slow on 653 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,239 Speaker 1: the uptake, perhaps, so, even though it costs some issues 654 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,399 Speaker 1: early on their careers, they're both great electricians. I guess 655 00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:12,480 Speaker 1: the human brain always finds a way. And that is 656 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:18,640 Speaker 1: James from Cape Breton, Nova, Scotia, Canada. That's cool, man, 657 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:26,200 Speaker 1: great Area, Eastern Canada, Great Area, Western Canada, Fantastic Central Canada. 658 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:29,600 Speaker 1: We love it all. Yes what we do. If you're 659 00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:31,799 Speaker 1: Canadian you want to say hi, We'll get in touch 660 00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:34,319 Speaker 1: of this go to stuff you should know and uh 661 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:37,920 Speaker 1: click on our social media links or send us an email. 662 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:45,040 Speaker 1: This stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For 663 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,480 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it 664 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:56,000 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com