J. Dwight Gregson 4 left) ond Jim Gregson ot their plont in Liberty.
From Gone Bottom
to the Big Time
Why Dwight Gregson didn't laugh
when Jerry Lewis did his broken
ehair act.
By CONRAD PVYSOIU
J. Dwight Gregson, president of
Gregson Manufacturing Co. at Lib¬
erty, was watching Jerry' Lewis on tele¬
vision one night.
Lewis was playing the part of a
bungler. Everything he did turned out
wrong.
In one scene, Gregson spotted a
chair that was made by Gregson
Manufacturing Co. Lewis plopped
down in one chair and threw his feet
up on the Gregson chair.
The chair caved in.
“I almost dropped my eye teeth,”
Gregson recalled recently.
It wasn’t the fact that the chair
made by Gregson Manufacturing Co.
was used on the program that excited
Gregson. In fact, about every night, a
piece of furniture manufactured by the
company is displayed on some pro¬
gram on national television.
What did upset Gregson was the
fact that the chair broke — something
that never happens to a piece of Greg¬
son furniture.
The chair, of course, had been
carefully altered so that when Lewis
put his feet on it, it would break,
creating a funny scene.
Gregson Manufacturing is one of
the nation’s four or five leading manu¬
facturers of wood institutional seat¬
ing. Institutional seating is more sturdy
and of higher quality than seating
used in homes, because it is subjected
to more wear. That’s why the people
who produced that Jerry Lewis show
had to doctor the chair to get it to
break.
Gregson’s furniture is used by ho¬
tels, hospitals, governmental agencies,
offices, schools, libraries and other
such places.
It is now sold in all 50 states and in
Puerto Rico.
The company was founded in 1 92 1
when B. J. Gregson, Dwight Gregson’s
father, bought the Liberty Manufac¬
turing Co. The company, at that time,
was making parts for horse-drawn
wagons. Later, the company started
making components for weaving looms.
One of the side-line products was a
cane bottom ehair that proved popular
with local residents,
The humble canc bottom chair was
the beginning that led the company
into the institutional furniture business.
The business is a family affair.
Dwight Gregson joined the company
in 1937 and two years later, his
youngest brother, J. G. (Joe) Gregson,
went to work for the company. He is
now secretary and treasurer. H. L.
Baldwin, a brother-in-law of Joe and
Dwight, is factory superintendent and
Mrs. Baldwin is vice president.
Jim Gregson, Dwight’s son, is sales
manager and represents the third gen¬
eration of the family to be associated
with the company.
Dwight’s first job with the company
was the hot and sweaty task of stacking
lumber.
“I don’t care anything about re¬
membering that,” he said.
Institutional furniture, because it is
of higher quality and requires belter
workmanship than household furni¬
ture, is more expensive.
However, a few people do use it in
furnishing homes.
“But let’s face it, the average person
does not want to spend that much
money on furniture,” Jim Gregson
said.
He said the company has plans to
bring out a few lines that will be di¬
rected to the householder.
Some of the institutions that now use
Gregson seating include the Civil
Aeronautics Board headquarters, a
number of leading motels and hotels,
First City National Bank of New York,
the National Academy of Sciences,
United Aircraft, Boeing and a number
of other leading private businesses and
governmental institutions.
“But don't get the wrong idea,”
Dwight Gregson said. “The bulk of
our business continues to come from
the one and two-man small offices.”
The way Gregson furniture finds
its way into movies and television is
that the company sells furniture to a
leasing company on the West Coast.
The leasing company rents the furni¬
ture to studios.
In addition to seating, which in¬
cludes such things as chairs and sofas,
( Continued on page 22 )
the state, July is. 196a
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