Magic Fingers Guy Dies
This news was just handed off to me:
John Joseph Houghtaling died June 17 at his home in Fort Pierce, Fla. He was 92. Houghtaling was the dude who invented the “Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed” mostly used in roadside motels and places like Las Vegas and Reno, Nev. Burned out travelers would deposit a quarter into a machine mounted on the bed and get 15 minutes of “tingling relaxation and ease” in return.
I bet Houghtaling is going to have some great pallbearers.
I used the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed once, in a motel room outside of Gallup, N.M. The device was effective for a sore back after a long day’s drive, but it was noisy. There should be rock band named Magic Fingers.
Magic Fingers had a pop culture rebirth in 1975 when Steve Goodman name dropped the device in his ballad “This Hotel Room.” Goodman sang, “They got a room service menu for food and drink/A porcelain throne and an aluminum sink/Two big pillows to rest my head/A Magic Fingers and a king-size bed/Put in a quarter/Turn out the light/Magic Fingers makes ya feel alright.”
Jimmy Buffett popularized “This Hotel Room” and later Fox News’ Brit Hume sang the Magic Fingers lyric to former President George W. Bush and his father in a January interview when they talked about a vibrating chair in the Oval Office.
On Friday Associated Press reported that at its peak, there were about 175 Magic Fingers franchise dealers across America and the gadgets collected betweem $6,000 and $7,000 a month in quarters.
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