William L. Murphy, the man who invented the Murphy bed
William
Lawrence Murphy (1876 – May 23, 1957) was born in California and moved
to San Francisco at the turn of the century, where he rented a one-room
apartment. Murphy’s standard bed took up most of the apartment’s floor
space, which made having company a little difficult.
Murphy became
infatuated with a young, female opera singer and wanted to have her over
to his place, but the moral standards of the time made it very clear that
it was inappropriate for a man to have a woman in his bedroom. Thus, his
great challenge was to somehow make that bed quickly disappear when necessary, instantly
turning his bedroom into a more innocent living room. Murphy applied for
his first patent around 1900 and created the "Murphy Wall Bed
Company" in that same that year.
After
establishing the Murphy Bed Company, sales took off. Murphy got lucky with the timing of his invention. After
the whirlwind of the industrial revolution, and with people streaming to urban
centers for the manufacturing jobs offered there, living spaces were at a
premium, and thus getting smaller. This meant that a creative space-saving
furnishing like the Murphy bed was greeted with open arms, having reached its
peak of popularity in 1925, when the Murphy Bed Company moved to New York
City. That same company still exists today, almost 100 years later.
Charlie Chaplin film starring a Murphy Wall bed (1916)
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