Benjamin Franklin, the man who tamed the power of lightning, also sought to tame bad dreams. His advice, if heeded today, would provide a nice boost for the U.S. mattress industry: Buy two beds so you’ll have a cool bed ready if your first bed gets too hot.

I stumbled across Ben’s bedding wisdom the other day as I read “Ben Franklin: An American Life,” Walter Isaacson’s superb biography of this remarkable Founding Father. It shouldn’t have surprised me to find Ben speaking to the mattress industry.

This great man, an accomplished writer, inventor, scientist, media baron, diplomat and business strategist, as the book jacket notes, was fascinated by problems large and small.

Could it be that the man who edited the Declaration of Independence and helped shape our Constitution might have made his greatest contribut...Read More

It’s time for a Las Vegas edition of the Perrys, presented by yours truly for notable achievements in the bedding marketplace.

Best achievement in mattress flammability: Sealy, for its inclusion of fire-resistant materials throughout its new flagship Posturepedic line. Now that Sealy has added FR protection to the bulk of its lines, we hope other majors quickly will follow suit. Time is life on this issue.

Best new ad campaign: Simmons, for the return of the bowling ball. Dealers wanted it and Simmons delivered — reworked, in touch with the times and carrying a key message. I especially enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at how Simmons filmed the spots at a Hollywood shoot.

Best market...Read More

A few weeks ago I got a call from the president of a bedding company that doesn’t show at the Las Vegas market. “Can you put something about us in the paper?” he asked. “We don’t want to get lost in all the excitement about Las Vegas.”

Sorry, Charlie (not his real name), I responded. The Vegas market dominates the bedding landscape this time of year. Stories about Las Vegas bedding happenings are more plentiful these days than showgirls on the Strip (although somewhat less revealing, perhaps).

My caller, partial to the High Point market, doesn’t like all the attention Las Vegas is generating. He’s in the distinct minority. Literally dozens of bedding producers are delighting in the opportunity to do business in Las Vegas.

As I write this, the second editi...Read More