'It was sexy, it was fun': Why these waterbed devotees never gave up on the jiggle

The furniture successful Nancy Gerrish’s agleam Los Feliz location appears perfectly normal — carved woody headboard, fuzzy brownish blanket, cream-colored furniture skirt. The sheets are a tasteful leopard print. A fewer brocade propulsion pillows dishonesty atop nan dispersed to complete nan earth-tone look.

But beneath that plush exterior, Gerrish’s furniture hides a jiggling secret.

Sit connected nan mattress’ separator and it wobbles and undulates. Lie down and it rocks gently, arsenic if you’re floating supra a temperate excavation of water.

And indeed, you are.

In L.A., h2o rules everything astir us. Drink up, cool disconnected and dive into our stories astir hydrating and recreating successful nan city.

“I show group I person a waterbed, and everyone laughs,” says Gerrish, 78, a financial planner pinch achromatic curly hairsbreadth and manicured lavender nails. “But it’s a very comfortable furniture to slumber in, and I personally don’t cognize why nan world doesn’t person this.”

If you thought waterbeds had gone nan measurement of 1970s trends for illustration Troll dolls and polyester pantsuits, you are mostly correct. The wavy vinyl mattresses that became a awesome of nan era’s sex, narcotics and stone ’n’ rotation manner whitethorn nary longer beryllium portion of nan corporate consciousness isolated from arsenic nan butt of a joke successful a play film aliases arsenic a forbidden point connected a boilerplate flat lease. But they tin still beryllium recovered mildly rippling successful a fistful of Southern California bedrooms.

Waterbeds relationship for little than 2% of each mattress income today, according to nan Specialty Sleep Assn., but nan fewer remaining retailers person regular calls from stubborn holdouts for illustration Gerrish — mostly older folks who bought a fluid-filled mattress decades ago, fell successful emotion pinch its wavy mobility and won’t slumber connected thing else. Now, these waterbed enthusiasts scour nan net for replacement mattresses, heaters and h2o curen systems, wished to defy sleeping connected modular mattresses — what they telephone “dead beds” — for arsenic agelong arsenic they can.

“I worry,” said Donna Martin, 77, of Glendale, who has been sleeping successful a waterbed for 50 years. “I deliberation to myself if I ever person to spell into a home, they won’t springiness maine nary waterbed.”

Forty-seven students from UCLA heap connected apical of a h2o furniture , March 10, 1976, to found a caller grounds for a quality pyramid connected a h2o furniture successful Los Angeles. They collapsed nan aged grounds of 16, according to nan property agent, successful a stunt to publicize a then-current Hollywood production.

(Wally Fong / Associated Press)

The ‘Pleasure Pit’ boom

The modern waterbed was invented successful 1968 by Charles Hall, a postgraduate student astatine San Francisco State, arsenic portion of his master’s thesis successful design. Hall, past 24, had primitively group retired to create nan world’s astir comfortable chair, filling a integrative sack pinch gelatin and past cornstarch pinch disappointing results. Eventually, he landed connected a winning look — an 8-foot water-filled quadrate vinyl mattress. He called it nan “Pleasure Pit” and imagined it arsenic a bed-chair hybrid — nan only portion of furnishings 1 would need.

His prototype was featured successful a show called “Happy Happenings” astatine nan San Francisco Cannery creation assemblage that summertime and articles astir a new-fangled waterbed soon were appearing successful newspapers and magazines crossed nan country. A modern slumber inclination was born.

“It was new, it was exciting, it was different, it was sexy, it was fun,” said Denny Boyd, erstwhile president of nan Waterbed Manufacturers Assn., who erstwhile owned 35 waterbed stores passim Texas, Missouri and Louisiana. “It was our generation’s bed.”

Waterbed income skyrocketed from an estimated $13 cardinal successful 1971 to $1.9 cardinal successful 1986, according to the New York Times. The mattresses were reasonably cheap, but income of nan dense wood frames that kept nan mattresses from flopping around, positive h2o heaters and conditioners, brought successful large bucks. By 1991, astir 1 successful each 5 mattresses sold successful America was fluid-filled, according to the Washington Post. Hall received a patent for his invention successful 1971 but seldom enforced it, and young entrepreneurs quickly turned nan waterbed business into a lucrative industry.

“There were a full batch of group who were millionaires by nan clip they were 25,” Boyd said.

It was a wild, sex-soaked business. One early advertisement declared, “Two things are amended connected a waterbed. One of them is sleeping.” Boyd remembers hosting pajama statement income events astatine his stores wherever customers would show up successful outrageous sleepwear — see-through nighties and G-strings. The shop served vino and food and stayed unfastened until 3 aliases 4 a.m.

“It was much than R-rated,” Boyd said.

Competition among nan mostly antheral income unit was fierce. “People utilized to propulsion rocks astatine each other’s stores and look successful dustbins to spot customer lists,” Boyd said. “At nan waste and acquisition shows, you had to prosecute a information defender to watch your abstraction truthful group wouldn’t sneak backmost successful and flick holes successful your mattress.”

By nan mid-1990s, however, nan statement was over. After a precipitous rise, nan waterbed marketplace dried up. Boyd says nan diminution was owed to a fistful of factors, 1 of which was nan advent of nan “softside” waterbed mattress, which looked and felt much for illustration a accepted furniture and didn’t require pricy furniture frames aliases typical sheets — accessories that generated nan bulk of nan gross for waterbed stores. At nan aforesaid time, respective caller replacement mattress technologies deed nan market, including airbeds, nan Sleep Number, Tempur-Pedic and representation foam.

“These were much accepted beds, easier to waste and little complicated,” Boyd said. “They besides had tons of advertizing down them.”

In 1995, nan Waterbed Manufacturers Assn. rebranded itself arsenic nan Specialty Sleep Assn.

Donna Martin, 77, rests connected her waterbed successful her flat successful Glendale. Martin has utilized waterbeds for nan past 50 years.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Dedicated ‘water heads’ remain

For some, nan waterbed was ne'er a passing trend. It‘s a lifelong devotion.

Gerrish, nan financial planner from Los Feliz, bought her first water-filled mattress successful 1996 aft sleeping connected a friend’s waterbed. “I couldn’t judge really comfortable it was,” she said. “It’s very soft connected each your joints, and if you for illustration to cuddle, your limb sinks into nan furniture truthful there’s nary unit connected it.”

She moved her waterbed to Los Angeles from New York 21 years ago. When she yet sells her Los Feliz home, she hopes to return it pinch her wherever she moves next. (She was relieved to study that it is illegal for landlords to forbid waterbeds successful California successful rental units built aft 1973, though they tin require tenants to person security for harm caused by nan bed.)

“I consciousness truthful cozy. It’s difficult to get retired of it,” she said. “And anyone visiting maine loves it. I deliberation nan [traditional] mattress companies don’t want this accusation getting out.”

Gerrish has been sleeping connected a water-filled mattress for 28 years, but respective L.A. waterbed lovers person had an moreover longer narration pinch Hall’s 1968 invention.

Martin, nan 77-year-old successful Glendale, has been sleeping connected a waterbed since she sewage her first 1 arsenic a hand-me-down from a friend.

“I’ve had 5 mattresses since nan first clip I group 1 up. I emotion it,” she said.

Recently, she slept connected her sister’s Swedish representation foam mattress while taking attraction of her pets for nan weekend. The verdict? No, convey you. Martin has a squashed disk successful her spine and finds nan waterbed is easier connected her hips.

“At first it was OK, but past nan aforesaid point happened, excessively overmuch pressure,” she said. “I would alternatively not slumber successful thing else.”

A closeup of a waterbed astatine nan Afloat mill successful Corona.

(Chris Carlson / Associated Press)

City Furniture CEO Keith Koenig shows nan caller waterbed connected show arsenic he speaks during an question and reply pinch nan Associated Press successful Tamarac, Fla., successful 2018. Koenig and inventor Charles Hall, pioneers of nan waterbed manufacture successful nan United States, are hoping to make a caller activity of fame for nan aged furnishings conception by utilizing a wholesome caller pitch.

(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Steve Hertzmann, 62, of San Pedro, gets it. He’s been a waterbed devotee for 40 years and is amazed that nan wavy mattresses person ne'er made a comeback.

“The champion portion is successful nan wintertime erstwhile you’re freezing cold,” he said. “The waterbed has a heater, and you hop successful and you’re each warm.”

Marty Pojar, who has a shop called nan Waterbed Doctor successful Westminster, would emotion to spot a renaissance, but he thinks nan exertion needs a rebrand.

“The connection ‘waterbed’ creates a stigma,” he said. “When group perceive it, they are reasoning of nan big, aged wood-frame waterbeds pinch tons of activity action.”

In fact, waterbeds person evolved complete nan years. Consumers tin now prime among mattresses that connection old-school full-motion waves and others that are semi-waveless aliases person almost nary waves astatine all. Many beds besides person 2 abstracted h2o mattresses, 1 connected each side, truthful if 2 group are sleeping together and 1 personification gets retired of bed, nan different doesn’t acquisition immoderate rocking.

With capable advertizing dollars down it, Pojar thinks renaming waterbeds “flotation slumber systems pinch somesthesia control” could bring successful caller customers.

“Reeducating nan nationalist is simply a large challenge, but location is simply a large opportunity there, I believe,” Pojar said.

For now, longtime devotees are keeping his business alive. Change tin beryllium difficult for a lifelong waterbed fan, arsenic Larry Johnson of Mar Vista has learned firsthand.

The accountant slept connected a waterbed for 50 years, until May, erstwhile his woman convinced him that a modular mattress would make it easier to get retired of furniture arsenic they age.

A fewer days in, Johnson was connected nan fence. The “dead bed” was not arsenic soft arsenic his waterbed. He missed nan rocking motion.

“It’s going to return immoderate getting utilized to,” he said.