The Shaking Has Stopped for an American Entrepreneur

When you traveled as a kid did you ever stay in a motel with a "Magic Fingers" vibrating bed? If so, you can thank the inventor who just passed away at age 92:

John Houghtaling, inventor of the vibrating Magic Fingers bed that once was pervasive in motel rooms and became a cultural touchstone for a generation of American travelers, has died. He was 92.

Houghtaling died Wednesday at his Fort Pierce, Fla., home of a brain hemorrhage after apparently falling and hitting his head, said his son Paul.

In 1958, Houghtaling -- pronounced "Huff-tail-ing" -- devised the Magic Fingers machines after he was hired to sell a combination mattress and box spring with a pre-installed vibrating mechanism. The beds didn't sell well and were far too expensive, but he thought he saw a way to shake quarters out of motel guests.

Working in his New Jersey basement, he developed a fist-size motor that snapped onto existing box springs, transforming the bed into a "relaxation service," as the Magic Fingers coin machines would advertise.

By feeding a quarter into a machine, motel guests could purchase about 15 minutes of shaking, a curious luxury that surely enticed children traveling with their parents, said Ed Watkins, editor of Lodging Hospitality magazine.

"It was probably the first guest-room amenity after the TV, and almost ubiquitous in motels in the 1960s and into the 1970s," Watkins told The Times on Friday.

Within a few years, Houghtaling was selling more than $1 million worth of the devices annually to franchise operators, who installed them in motels on a revenue-sharing basis, according to a 2002 Wall Street Journal article.

At the height of their popularity, about 250,000 of the gadgets were in place across the country. The average coin box took in eight quarters a week, which added up to about $2 million a month in sales, American Heritage magazine reported in 2000.

Flags will be flown at half-staff at cheesy motels nationwide.