Local lamp guy... a trip down memory lane (though I'm not old enough)

[Erin]

I just took two of my old lamp bases (one glitter, one lava) into the
local lamp repair guy across the river. We got to talking and he told me
about how him and his dad were in Chicago in the mid-60s and were
approached by a rep from Lava. He had a table with two lamps on it - one
red, one blue. The lava hadn't started flowing yet (so I can see why
they might not have been impressed). The rep asked if he (the guy I
know) and his father would want to be sellers/retailers for the Iowa,
Indiana and Illinois area. The man and his father politely declined
Lava's offer and walked away, chuckling about the odd lamp they had just
seen. My local lamp guy told me what a mistake that was!

I asked him if he remembered the name of the man with the table and the
two lamps, but he said he did not. He also mentioned he knew a couple of
guys from Florence Arts "back in the day". Also said he knew the
inventor of those rain lamps.

Kinda cool to hear these stories. Thought I'd share with everyone! I
only wish I could travel back in time to see all these old cool lamps at
their beginning.

Anyone else feel like lamps made now will never again be as cool and
well-built as they were back in the 60s and 70s? I feel like I'm a
little young to be saying that, in a way, but it's how I feel. I can't
think of any new lamps I'd be half as excited about as I am about
vintage lava and glitter lamps. :)

[LampHead]

Great story to hear. About the only thing I can add is most of these Chicago based companies did do alot of cross business between themselves. LavaSimplex/LavaWorld made most of the globes for the older versions of different companies lamps, some were simply just Consort globes on different bases. MasterCrafters Clocks, Florence Art, Heat Tapes Inc., Chicago Lighting are just a few of the companies that dealt with LavaSimplex in the early days.

[Erin]

Good to know! Thanks for sharing. :)

[bluecastlesky]

I'm proud to live in Chicago because of the lava history, that is a cool story, thanks for sharing, I like stuff like that too, guess we are both geeks! ;P

[Erin]

Yep, I'm a geek alright! I would have KILLED to be in that factory in the 70s. Or the 90s for that matter...

[bluecastlesky]

I heard that they used to give tours of the factory, I wish I would of found out about that in the 90s since now we will never see it again yeah

[Erin]

No kidding! I wish I could go back in time...