Mass-Produced Mattresses Can’t Put Van Nuys Shop to Sleep

Bill Jackson says he feels personally insulted every time a customer in his Van Nuys shop asks, “What’s the cheapest mattress you’ve got?” or, “Is there a lifetime guarantee?”

Jackson is a man who practices the fine art of hand-tying the coils of an antique box spring, who knows how to shape mattress corners to fit a four-poster bed and who likes to talk for a while to find out if a customer is a super-soft or extra-firm type of person.

“I tell them if they want something cheap, go to a discount store,” he said.

Jackson, 61, is among a handful of “mattress makers,” and he sees himself as a craftsman, not a businessman. At a time when most mattresses are factory produced, name-brand products with lavish warranties, Jackson works in his little shop, the Van Nuys Mattress Co., turning out his custom cushions with near-antique machinery.

Small Firms ‘Pushed Out’

“There’s not too many of the small guys around anymore,” said Jules Blatt, president of Los Angeles-based Sleep E-Z Mattress Stores, a larger manufacturer. “The small maker has been pushed out.”

That seems to be why Jackson becomes a bit defensive when someone in his shop at Oxnard Street and Kester Avenue asks about the cheapest mattress or a lifetime guarantee.

“There is no such thing as a lifetime guarantee,” he said. “If you sleep on a mattress every night for 20 years, it’s going to wear out.”

Jackson said he can keep his prices competitive with large manufacturers because he has little overhead. His only paid employee is his son, Jim, 31. His wife, Darlene, sits behind a sewing machine in the back of the modest showroom, sewing mattress covers and serving as the saleswoman. Jackson personally delivers all of his mattresses.

‘I Do It All Myself’

A queen-size mattress runs be$289 to $438, with the cost reflecting the time it took to make rather than materials, Jackson said.

He also makes smaller mattresses--some for sofa beds, baby cribs and motor homes--for lower prices.

The company’s annual sales are about $110,000, Jackson said, with his take-home profit about $25,000.

“I’m just one step ahead of the average worker making mattresses in a factory,” he said. “But I do it all myself.”

Several Los Angeles-area manufacturers handle some custom orders, and at least one other San Fernando Valley-area firm, Sherman Oaks-based Melrose Sleep Shops, specializes in custom mattresses under the name “Master Craft.”

James Graham, executive vice president of Melrose Sleep Shops, said the company has more than 50 employees, a North Hollywood mattress assembly factory and three retail shops, two in the Valley and one in West Hollywood.

Little Advertising

Jackson said his small shop cannot be compared to bigger firms such as Melrose, which also sells imported bedroom furniture and name-brand mattresses. Turning out mattresses is all Jackson does. His only advertising is a small notice in the Yellow Pages.

“The Yellow Pages is all I need to keep my name out in the open,” Jackson said. “If I put an ad in the paper I couldn’t handle the business. I’m doing fine just the way I am.”

Jackson said he started making mattresses at age 10 in a small factory in Sherman, Tex.

“In those days, everything was all done by hand and we got 30 cents a mattress,” Jackson said. “A big fan would blow the cotton into the mattress cover. We would sew it together and then beat the cotton stuffing down with a stick. Those are the kind of mattresses you see in the old movies.”

It was only after World War II, when steel supplies became plentiful, that the inner-spring mattress became popular, he said.

Mattress Renovator

In 1946, after working for several years as a riveter at the Lockheed Corp. plant in Burbank, Jackson said, he took a $50-a-week job at a mattress factory in Glendale. In 1951 he and his brother went into the mattress-renovation business with a North Hollywood shop. They repaired mattresses for motels along San Fernando Road and Lankershim Boulevard and for the many furnished apartment buildings that had sprung up in the Valley.

“But in the last 20 years the mattress business made a 180-degree turnaround,” Jackson said. “We couldn’t compete with the big manufacturers. It was cheaper to buy a new mattress than to get the old one renovated.”

Jackson said his shop has survived because he turned to custom mattress making and kept the work in the family. Darlene Jackson, 61, sews together the mattress covers on a black iron Singer sewing machine.

“Oh, we bought all our machinery right after the war,” Darlene Jackson said. “We’ve had a couple of antique dealers wanting to buy some of it. But as long as we’re using it every day, it’s no antique.”

Complicated Business

The Jacksons, who live in Arleta, said they will turn the business over to their son when they retire.

Bill Jackson said that making mattresses has become a complicated business. He talks of extra-firm, firm, medium-soft and super-soft mattresses. A thicker spring means a harder mattress. A wider spring coil means a softer mattress.

On each side of the spring frame he layers insulation pads, several inches of a cotton-like blanket and a flame retardant foam pad. Then he slips on the mattress cover and sews the rims together with a mobile sewing machine.

Finally, the product is laid on a “button press,” which presses the mattress until it is thin. With a thick, 12-inch needle, Jackson then sews buttons into the mattress to hold the padding in place.

Over the years, he has made round mattresses, mattresses with indented corners for antique post beds and super-firm mattresses for heavy people.

Mattress With Hole in Middle

“You get these real heavy people who want the softest mattress we have,” Jackson said. “They’ll just sink to the floor with something like that. I’m the one who has to tell them they need something more substantial for their weight.”

Once, Jackson said, he made a mattress with a hole in the middle for a man trying to recover from bed sores. Another time, he made a mattress for a handicapped person who spent most of his time propped up in bed on his elbows.

“I just made it extra thick on one end so it wouldn’t wear out as fast.”

Several years ago, he agreed to make a “100% natural” mattress, meaning he could use no synthetic material, for a customer with severe allergies.

“I had to scrub the shop down and sterilize all my needles for that one,” he said.

But most of Jackson’s customers, he said, come to him for the standard twin, double, queen- and king-size beds.

“I have relatives all over the country staying with us, so we have several extra beds,” said Phyliss Harris of Simi Valley, a repeat customer. “And the first thing everyone says in the morning after their first night in the guest room is what a good night’s sleep they had. Everyone comments on how comfortable the bed is.”