WEBVTT - Waterbeds: The Sexiest Bed? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.360 dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.079 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.040 and we're just here. Jiggle AOI slash slash on our 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.000 pleasure pit. God oh man, it's so funny. When I 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.160 started researching this, so I was like, water beds, that's 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.400 very stuff you should know. So sort of fits right 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:39.519 in with our historical pop culture phenomena series Phenomenal Do 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.400 do uh and big shout out to The Atlantic, one 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:46.800 of our favorite rags. A lot of this was taken 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.640 from article by Rebecca Greenfield uh, and then a bunch 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:56.040 of other cool uh supplementary stuff. New York Times, who else? Uh, 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:01.279 Washington Post, Washington Yeah, wapop men, all those fake news outlets, right, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.040 Although I really love the New York Times and the 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.679 Washington Post ones because they were like contemporary articles, like 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.440 the New York Times one was and Wapop was from 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.839 and they're writing about the phenomena of of um water 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.880 beds at the time. I love that, man. I love 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.920 being able to go back read an article and then 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.720 go back and see how it actually unraveled like in 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:31.040 real time. Basically, yes, see, like sure, it's a little 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.280 time capsule if you will, and you can look back 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:39.880 now and say, did they get it right? News? I 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.720 don't even like saying the two words together. Neither so 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:46.800 played out, so played All right, let's talk about the 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.480 water bed. Have you ever had one? No? I kind 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.120 of wanted one. I didn't have one. I kind of 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.680 wanted one to. I think we're just of that age 0:01:58.440 --> 0:01:59.960 and they came about as you'll see, we're going to 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.200 talking about the seventies and eighties. That in the eighties 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.200 is when they peaked sales wise. I think even like 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.440 young uns like us, we're very intrigued. Oh yeah, my 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.600 friend had one. Yeah, did you sleep on it? No, 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.119 never slept on that one. I laid down on it once, 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.200 I think because I was I was like, I gotta 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.920 know what this feels like at least uh, And I 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.200 think it was. They may have called it waveless, but 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.080 I don't even know what the difference was because it 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.120 was pretty wavy. What decade was this, This would have 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.320 been mid to late eighties. Yeah, I don't even they 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.359 had waveless ones back then. I think so they were 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.840 called waveless, but I don't know how it's still slashed 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.440 you around. Yeah, I remember very distinctly laying on it, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:46.359 and I remember thinking, I don't know if I could 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.920 sleep on this. It didn't seem like I mean, it 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.440 wasn't uncomfortable like it calls me pain. But I move 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:59.280 around a lot in my sleep, so it's not it's 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.440 not a good least. The old school water beds are 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.440 not a good match for me. Memory Fund was a 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:08.360 little better. Actually, supposedly they've come a long way, and 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.000 the new water beds are the bomb. I would be 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.239 curious to lay on one. Well, go to a dealer 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.000 in South Florida. I think City Furniture in South Florida 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.160 is bringing back the water bed. Oh there's other places too, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.160 because the design now, well, we'll get to it, but 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.359 it's much different. It's not. It's not the good old 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.840 days where you just fill up a big vinyl rubber 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:31.680 bladder and we were like tripping on some grass and 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.560 listening to Dark Side of the Moon. You know. The 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.920 funny thing about my friend Chris's water bed though, and 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.960 his whole house was a time capsule of the nineteen seventies. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.920 He had a water bed in front of a wall 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.360 that the wall was a photograph of a like a 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.760 Hawaiian beach sunset. Oh man, we had two of those 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.320 in my house. Really. We had one was a straight 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.280 up forest. So it's like, oh, I'm in the family room, 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:01.240 I'll walk into the kitchen. Oh my god, I'm in 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.560 the forest basically. And then if you went upstairs, and 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.520 this is my childhood home in Toledo, Ohio, Um, when 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.400 you went upstairs to my sister's rooms, you when you 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.720 got right up to the top landing, there was like 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.680 an outdoor like Coors beer scene, like in the woods 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.160 with like a stream coming through the mountains. Giant murals 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:26.240 in my house, Yeah, we never It's weird. Like when 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:27.800 I look back at the house I grew up in, 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.520 it didn't have any of those cool seventies things. But 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.000 now that I look back, I think it's probably you know, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.040 I was not cool then because we lived in this 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.400 huge house in the woods. But now I look back, 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.360 I'm like, that was where I would like to live now. 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.080 So what was the aesthetic of your house? Sort of 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.760 contempo country Okay, that hip like Jerry Read or something 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.359 lived there. Yeah, I mean we had looking back, we 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.200 had shag carpet, or in shag carpet, there were some 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.560 markings of the day. Um. But then that was replaced 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.800 with hardwoods at some point in the in the eighties. Um. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.200 But then when I had, you know, not too long ago, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.680 went back to my childhood home and broke in. It 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:14.719 was for sale really and empty, and uh you broke in? Well, 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.480 not for sale, it was just sort of derelict and empty. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.600 Did you break a window to break in? Now? I 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:21.720 just got in like I used to get in. It 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:23.919 was family was like it's locked, and I was like, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.920 watch this. I used to sneak out and read Bible passages. 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.000 So I snuck in through the garage window. And looking back, 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:33.440 there was a lot of a lot of the same 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:35.960 stuff was there, and it was very kind of seventies 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.320 tile and linoleum and stuff like that, but it just 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:45.240 wasn't full on like Brady Bunch stuff more or wall murals. 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.120 And I'm glad I went because sadly it is no 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.599 longer there. I'm glad you went to. Then a couple 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.960 of months later just torn down, and I went back 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.359 and saw a big emptiness and I cried, did you 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.760 the end, I could see that I you me and 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.000 I went to Toledo and then I since went once 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.440 when we went to Cleveland for our show, I went 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.920 by myself and walked around, kind of hoping that the 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:11.479 people who live in the house would be like, what's 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.560 that weird doing and stick their head out and be 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:15.719 like can I help you? And I'd be like, yeah, actually, 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.320 can I come in your house? Um? No one did, 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.640 but I did get to walk around the neighborhood. Did 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.240 you cry a little? Nice? But I I saw. I 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.760 want to go back to my elementary school and it's 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.359 just like a grass field. Now, It's like, how do 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.400 you tear down an elementary school? You know? Maybe it 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.880 got like black mold or something. Well, let's hope. Yeah, 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.440 but it's it's sweet. It's better sweet to go back. Yeah, 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.360 go back to your childhood places. Everyone. I highly highly recommended. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:48.520 So water beds, Yeah, water beds. Um, we'll go back 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.200 to the earliest history, I guess. But um. The man 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.560 that we really need to talk about is a man 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.840 named Charles Hall, the inventor of the modern water bed 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:02.080 as we know it ninety sixty eight. He's a student 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.800 at San Francisco state he's taking a design class. Oh 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.200 he was like a design major. Well, yeah, because he 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.800 submitted this as his master's thesis, was the waterbed. How 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.080 awesome is that? So I saw competing stuff of what 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.800 he actually created like built. Yeah, and the thing that 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:24.240 I saw, I think it was in that WAPO It 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.080 said what he created was called the pleasure pit, and 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.720 it was an eight foot by eight foot basically waterbed, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:34.680 but it was meant to be a conversation pit for 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.760 multiple people that kind of hang around in and there 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:39.960 was like a bar and there was lighting and like 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.760 shelves and stuff like that, and that that was the 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:49.520 original his design. Yeah, But was there a water mattress 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.400 function or was it just a sunken going room. No, 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:54.920 that was the thing that was where everybody sat was 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.320 on a water mattress in the middle. It sounds awful, 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.760 it's just weird, but it really caught everybody's an imagination. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.080 Supposedly within six months it was on the front page 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.760 of papers across the country. This is in San Francisco. 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:11.240 The Miami Herald had something on the front page about 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:15.320 this waterbed exhibit in San Francisco that this twenty four 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:21.160 year old design student created capital p capital p uh yeah, 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.080 pleasure pit. Everything I've seen is it's capitalized. But that's 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:25.640 what I'm saying. I think that's what he called the 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.119 first thing. Yeah, but it very quickly got turned into 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.720 a bed. The water bed I used to like. Actually, 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.720 my same friend Chris had at one of those sunken 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:42.360 living rooms those very seventies. Remember in um, oh, what's 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.199 the big Lebowski when he goes see to see Jackie 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.440 Child or Jackie whatever, Jackie Treehorn. Yeah, Jackie Treehorn and 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.000 his whole house is just amazing. Yeah, he had a 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:56.320 conversation pit. Uh right, conversation pit, That's what it was called. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:03.200 So here's the deal from Time magazine. In Manhattan, the 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.880 waterbed display at Bloomingdale's Department Store, for a while was 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.720 a popular singles meeting place. Sire's, Roebuck and Holiday Inns 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.559 are eyeing the beds, and Lake Tahoe's Kingcastle Hotel has 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.520 already installed them in luxury suites. And this is uh 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.160 I think it continues. Playboy tycoon Hugh Hefner has one 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:28.040 king size, of course and covered with Tasmanian bossom. I thought, 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:29.920 how gross is that? Because what I know is a 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.120 possum is different, different. I looked up the Tasmanian possibles 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.760 super soft I would imagine. So it's not like American 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.880 road kill on your water bed. Right. It wasn't even 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.720 made from it. It just had a bunch of live 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.520 American possums on his bed, and his water bed was 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:51.000 really weird. But here's the deal. The water bed that 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.559 Charles hall Cree eventually would go on to create, and 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:55.880 we'll talk about some of his earlier designs aside from 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:00.800 the pleasure pit, he wanted to revolutionize sleeping. Yeah, he 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.720 meant it very seriously. He wanted to have a pressure 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:10.199 point free mattress that would envelope your body and give 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.240 you the best night sleep of your life. He had 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.280 no intention of it becoming this, which it very much did. 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.080 A metaphor for the sexy sixties and seventies, right, but 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.880 it definitely did like you say it was. It's a 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.160 really good example of an idea just basically getting hijacked 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.880 big time. And at first he was kind of like, yeah, 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.160 I'm just a twenty four year old design suit. I 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.120 don't care. I'm sure make your own waterbed knockoff. But 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.880 then over time he definitely came to care and spent 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:48.040 a couple of decades pursuing um uh infringement suits here 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.480 and there, patent infringement suits um which we'll talk about later. 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.400 But at first it was basically like here's the waterbed world, 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.360 and the world went nuts. Uh And again, yeah, he 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.120 meant a revolution. I sleep the hippies and the people 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.200 who owned head shops, which is where you bought your 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.320 water beds early on was at the head shop said no, 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.839 this is all about sex, and that's how that's how 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.679 it was first sold in the late sixties and early seventies. 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.600 I have never had sexual intercourse on a waterbed, but 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.680 it doesn't it doesn't sound appealing to me, right because 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.240 so one of the in this, I think the Washington 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:27.840 Post article quote a Washington Post article from the seventies saying, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.400 like a waterbed salesman said, it's very like, very much 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.840 like three people are having sex, because the bed itself 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.280 is like a third warm body participating in the motion 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.560 or something like in the worst possible way. And I 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.880 looked up, Yeah, I was like, it's just weird. And 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:48.480 I looked up um like sex on a water bed 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:53.160 on um on a work computer right. Uh oh yeah, 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:58.800 the work computer supertained now um, and the I found 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.560 like this one. Can't remember the website, but it's basically 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.040 like pros and cons. And it sounds like it comes 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:09.000 down to your preferences, you know, like what what like 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:13.320 are you into your motions being exaggerated? You know? And 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.240 I guess, yeah, Chuck's laughing because I'm like kind of 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:21.160 making toward right. Um, if you're into that, great, if 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:25.920 you're not, or you um, apparently it's really like you. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.120 It really is pronounced. It's not something going on in 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.760 the background. It's like you know and right. So it 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.520 just depends on your preferences, I think. But I think 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.280 a lot of the earliest water beds were we're bought 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.880 by guys who were pretty confident. They could be like, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:44.760 I've got a water bed, you want to try it out, 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.439 and that that would happen. It became a punch line, 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.439 Like I remember, I feel like every other sitcom or 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.640 a movie at some point there was a scene where 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.320 they were like, oh, he's got a water bed, or 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.360 he would just slowly open the door to reveal the 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.120 water bed, and that meant only one thing. It did 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.840 master lover right, so the the and then the waterbed 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.920 invariably like they couldn't make it work because one of 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.280 them would get flopped off or somebody would make it 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.720 spring a leak, and then the leak would just go everywhere. 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.000 Whenever water beds appeared in TV and movies like it, 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:23.400 it went badly. All right, let's take a break. I'm 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.199 all hot and bothered. We'll come back and we'll talk 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:53.520 about some of Charles Hall's early designs right after this. Okay, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.600 so again, that was like the first reception to water beds. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.160 Heffner had one, he had to actually had one on 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.560 his jet to um he uh, like one of the 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.720 smothers brothers bought one, I guess help his sex life out, 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.280 guys from Jefferson Airplane. And you bought them at head 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.640 shops and they were sold by waterbed manufacturers again, none 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.280 of whom bothered to get a license from the Charles 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.679 Hall of the inventor and patent holder. But they had 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:23.080 names like wet Dream. Somebody named their company wet Dream 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.040 and that was okay in the seventies. Uh, let me 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:32.920 see here what else Aquarius Joyapeutic, Aqua Beds, Joyapeutic Um 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:37.360 Aquarius products like you said, water works, what else that's 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.280 all I have? I think wet dream. We should have 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:45.360 stopped there. Um, it's definitely the worst of all of them. 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.240 So before this came about, Charles Hall a couple of 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.920 his prototype early prototypes. UM one, it sounds sort of 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:55.640 like a bean bag chair almost, but it was a 0:14:55.680 --> 0:15:00.720 big bag chair full of three hundred pounds of liquid 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.800 corn starch. That the idea was you would sit in 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.480 it and it would envelop you. It sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.160 Like he didn't mean for it to envelop you. It 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.120 was like he hadn't hit upon the water bed yet. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.600 He was trying out different substances, but yeah, you just 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.720 sink in gross, right. So he moved on to jello 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.280 four real and that didn't work either. That's not a joke, people, 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:26.360 He'd be put jello in. This thing did not have 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:31.520 the right temperature or consistency. So eventually he would thanks 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:36.560 to um, thanks to vinyl really becoming a very popular thing, 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.040 uh and and being used for things other than like 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:45.560 car parts and tires and things and oh rings, vinyl 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:49.680 became a hot item. So he filled up this vinyl 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:54.280 bladder with water. Had a temperature control device on it. Uh. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.280 And the the idea there was not to have some 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.960 hot bed, but to sink up to your body temperature, right, 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.040 so your muscles were relaxed. Yeah, he had the purest 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.840 of intentions, I really did, and he he hit upon 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:11.360 it finally and again in that Masters thesis. Well was 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:15.040 part of the problem. Summer of love. People were having 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.720 sex all over the place. And Uh, there's a story 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.400 named Andrew Kirk who said the basically design and then 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.000 late sixties was a free form atmosphere people were really getting. 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.800 And if you've ever, like I love design museums, if 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:31.080 you ever go to some of these, it's kind of 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.960 cool to see what they were doing in the sixties. Um, 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.720 because it was kind of a crazy time for design. Yeah, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.520 because a lot of people were open to trying new things. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.840 Up to this point. You had a mattress and you 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.600 were just thankful that it wasn't filled with Hey you know, 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:46.720 it had springs, and you liked it. That's the way 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.200 it was, and you liked it. That's right. Um. So 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:54.200 the idea of this something totally new, like it was 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.160 two things. One, this guy was trying to revolutionized sleep 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:59.560 and it came at a time when people were willing 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.080 to like, oh, yeah, it's the beds boring, let's try 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.040 something different, and it just kind of came together really well. 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.520 But again it got hijacked by people who owned Headshot well, 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:10.119 and he was in San Francisco. It all kind of 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:15.600 converged um work against him, ironically, but he he applied 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:17.720 for a pet and I think in nineteen sixty eight, 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.080 but it wasn't until nineteen seventy one that it was 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:26.800 granted because prior to his design being um debuted, like 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.320 thirty or so years prior. Robert Heinlein, the very famous 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.280 in prolific science fiction writer, he had basically described water 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.080 beds so frequently and in such detail that he was 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:44.040 considered the intellectual property holder of waterbed design. The reason 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.480 Heinlan even went to the trouble of he liked to 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:49.800 describe stuff in his books apparently haven't read any of 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.879 them yet, but very detailed description. And one of the 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.280 things that he kept he that always popped up was 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:57.920 these water beds. And apparently in the thirties he spent 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.520 a lot of time in hospital beds, so he was 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:05.320 just imagining how they could be improved, and he described 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:10.439 waterbeds almost exactly like Charles Hall had described them. Yeah, 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.280 he said, UM A pump to control water level, side 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.880 supports to permit one to float rather than simply lying 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:20.840 on a not very soft water filled mattress, thermostatic control 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:25.440 of temperature, safety interfaces to avoid all possibility of electric shock, 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:27.720 which was a big sort of urban legend at the time. 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.920 You'd be electrocuted if you have vigorous sex waterproof box 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:38.919 to make it leakproof um which was another probably legitimate 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.440 um Cohn for a water bed. Sometimes they would leak 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.680 back then uh, and then some other things. But basically 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.920 it all came together to form such a robust all 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.520 even though it was in a science fiction novel that 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.040 he was he had to like go to court and say, 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.800 I don't know if he was looking for money or who. 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.159 I'm not sure how it came out. Highland owned the 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.680 intellectual property of it. If he came out and said 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.680 that's mine or what. But by within three years of 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.280 Chris or Charles Hall coming out with this he UM 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.760 he had the patent for it. And even way back 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.280 in the eighteen hundreds there were doctors who created One 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.480 guy named Dr Neil Are no, or are not created 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:26.879 a hydrostatic bed. He covered a warm bath with a 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:31.920 rubber cloth and sealed it with varnish. And another doctor 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.679 in Portsmouth and these were basically to prevent bed sores, 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.159 to relieve bed sores, and even highlands he said, like 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.600 you said, he cooked it up because he had been 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.040 in hospitals a lot. Yeah, He's like, he's getting killed 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.800 in these hard beds. Yeah. And the reason you would 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.199 want some sort of um water filled bed for a 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.240 hospital is because people are laying around in bed all 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.399 the time and when you have skin covering like a 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:03.679 bony are, you get bed ulcers and you don't want those. 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.440 So this was to prevent bed sores. UM. That's why 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.760 the earliest physicians were coming up with them. But so 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.199 finally by one Charles Hall holds the patent and again 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:20.200 he was he wanted to create a serious sleep product, 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:24.879 and he founded a company called Inner Space Environments and 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.000 they were selling like the real deal, legit high end 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.399 water beds. He even named it seriously right. He opened 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.560 like thirty two stores in California in the early seventies, 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.840 and UM had a factory like he was doing it right. 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.640 His did not leak. One of the things that water 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.720 beds were very much known for is that the sheets 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.159 would pop off. Yeah, very well. The sheets fit on 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.719 his um. The temperature control was great. They were like 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:55.040 really high end water beds made and designed by the 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.359 guy who actually designed them. The problem is he didn't 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.119 really pursue any patents off, and so there were knockoffs 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.080 out of the gate, and it was the knockoffs that leaked. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.920 It was the knockoffs that had terrible temperature control um 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.960 and it was the knockoffs that gave waterbeds a bad 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:17.119 name because they were fully embracing the sexy advertising. That 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.200 was part of it too, all the knockoffs manufacturers, and 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:26.080 apparently he pursued some of these, but it's he would 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.560 have spent all his time and money pursuing a patent 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.120 infringement if he really tried to go after everyone, and 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:33.879 some of these didn't make a lot of money, and 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.040 it was just sort of useless to even try, so 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.320 it wasn't worth his time and money. A lot of 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.399 times he said to a lot of people who sold 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.399 water beds early, like early waterbed dealers, basically they were 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.280 just trying to make some fast money. So they could 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.720 go start a pot farm in Oregon. That was like, 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.840 that's who was selling water beds in the early seventies. 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:56.040 It also has one of the creepiest lines ever in 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.440 the Atlantic article that said something about when Charles Hall 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.960 initially selling water beds out of the back of his van, right, like, man, 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.560 that's the creepiest thing every year. Here, let me let 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:07.119 me open up my van. You can lay on my 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:11.680 water bed in the back of my van, you with 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.879 with the stallion painted on the side. Oh man, speaking 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.159 of seventies, So I forgot about the murals on the vands. 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:21.439 Remember we used to do blog posts and stuff I 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.280 made like a slide show. I remember that vans with 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:26.919 art on the side. We see those every now and 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.480 then gets up. Still, it's good stuff. You want to 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.920 take a break before we get into the the this 0:22:33.480 --> 0:23:00.840 straightening of water beds. Yes, I couldn't come up with 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:03.680 a better word than straightening. I apologize for that. Let 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:08.560 me think the I guess legitimizing, but I'm thinking like 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:13.600 more like boring, suburbanite zing of water beds. Yeah, I mean, 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.000 here's the thing. We say that Hall very much wanted 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.360 to revolution. I sleep and he didn't embrace the sexual 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:23.040 component of it. But he sold a lot of water beds, 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:25.160 and he kind of knew why a lot of these 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:28.480 people were buying him, and he wasn't like I don't 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:31.400 think he was so pious that he was like, no, 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:33.399 I don't want to sell them for that reason. I 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:35.399 think he eventually was kind of like, yeah, you know 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:38.359 that that's why people bought him, and that was okay. 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:40.280 But I don't think he just I don't think he 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:42.639 cheapened his own advertising that way. No, he didn't. And 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:47.000 he actually he his company went under by the mid seventies, 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:51.879 and he he likens it to UM basically advertising to 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:55.680 the wrong market. Like he he made quality, high end 0:23:55.720 --> 0:24:00.320 water beds UM, and it was advertising to people who 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:05.240