Mattress Gallery

Foam Mattress History

During the late 60′s we all know that the youth of America, including myself, erupted with displeasure on how things were done. The Vietnam war fueled this fire. There was much unrest as to why we were involved in the first place. Yesterday I had a Vietnam war veteran in my showroom and I asked him if he even knew why he had fought? His answer was “they gave us a lot of reasons but none of them made any sense”. I then asked him if he would like to know real reason. He immediately answered “YES”.

Here’s the common answer you will find on wiki.answers.com -

France controlled Vietnam up until WWII when Japan took it over. After WWII Japan was forced to give up the area. Vietnam began a strong Nationalist movement in the time that followed when France began to regain control of Vietnam. They fought up to where the line between North and South Vietnam used to exist. They later gave up after a bloody battle at Dienbenphu. Up until this point The US had merely been funding the war. The US was funding it for two reasons: one, to improve relations with France, and two, to stop the spread of communism. However after the French lost the US sent troops in (in smaller amounts at first) to keep North Vietnam from taking over South Vietnam thus making it communist. That’s pretty much how it started.

As Paul Harvey would say ” and now for the rest of the story”. During the early 50′s and all the way through the mid 70′s, Sears was famous for their “rubber mattresses”. They were comfortable, durable and very heavy. Why not, they were made of latex rubber. Another product made with latex rubber are tires. Vietnam has some of the best rubber tree plantations in the world and French companies like Michelin laid claim to them. At the time Vietnam was considered a French Territory. But when the Vietnam government tried to nationalize the rubber tree plantations the first country the French called for help was, but of course, the good ol US of A. They wanted us to protect their investment under the disguise of thwarting communism. Once we got involved the French pretty much ran for the hills and left us holding the bag. The rest as they say is history.

The war disrupted greatly the flow of latex into the U.S. and eventually latex mattresses completely disappeared from the American marketplace around 1975. It was about that time that waterbeds became the new rage. I remember traveling from furniture show to furniture show setting up our waterbeds in hopes of attracting new store buyers. At that time the polyfoams also started to get a foothold on the bedding market. The company I worked for put the two ideas together as one. Foam edges, water in the middle. It was called a hybrid because it was a waterbed that looked just like a regular spring mattress. These beds took over the specialty bedding market from the late 70′s into the mid 80′s.

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