Classics Streamlined

Jealous as a hen with one chick is Grand Rapids of its furniture shows. Mad as a wet hen is Grand Rapids when Chicago's bigger furniture shows are compared to Grand Rapids'. Pointing out that at the Chicago Mart buyers can purchase anything from iron nails to beef on the hoof, Grand Rapidans boast that their Market sells only furniture.

Last week Grand Rapids cackled with delight as its 123rd semi-annual market opened. On display for the first time was a brand-new furniture style, designed to "perpetuate Grand Rapids' reputation as the furniture capital of America." Grand Rapids (of Kent County, Michigan) named it Kentwood.

Visiting buyers, 700 strong, roamed through a ten-room Kentwood House, peered and poked at beds, chairs, desks, tables and sideboards that looked like classical pieces with the classical ornaments knocked off. Modernistic extremes were lacking, but living-room furniture was scaled down in size, upholstery was in modernistic shades of blue and pink. Proud Grand Rapidans called Kentwood a "distinct American style, capable of change to suit a changing world." Purists grumbled that it was a bastard style, neither classic nor modern.

Kentwood was the idea of nine manufacturers* who teamed up in Depression to form the Grand Rapids Furniture Makers Guild and promote the prestige of Guild-stamped furniture. First plans were drawn by a designer named David Laing Evans, a pipe-smoking, spare-time student of astronomy. Designer Evans submitted ideas that were basically classical. Thereafter the designers for all nine Guildsmen collaborated in streamlining the classics. The pooling of their efforts was an unheard-of procedure in their individualistic industry.

Last week the furniture makers were cheerful as buyers placed orders for Kentwood. Although home-building bucked the recession tide, the furniture industry did not. Furniture follows the general business cycle rather than the building cycle, and the automobile has long since displaced it as Public Want No. 2 (No. 1 is food & clothing). But even in 1938 manufacturers turned out nearly $400,000,000 worth of furniture, double their 1932 volume, and forecasters are cheerful about the industry's 1939 prospects. Grand Rapids is especially cheerful about Kentwood's prospects.

*The nine: Imperial Furniture Co., Mueller Furniture Co., Johnson Furniture Co., Johnson, Handley & Johnson, Grand Rapids Chair Co., The Widdicomb Furniture Co., Ralph Morse Furniture Co., John Widdicomb Co., Brower Furniture Co.

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