Made by the Koehler Manufacturing Co., a Naperville-based furniture maker, this silent promotional film tells the story of the company and it’s product’s “Hidden Qualities”. The film showcases a variety of mass-produced furnishings, all made through a version of the assembly line process that nevertheless produced a high-quality end product. Hardwood made up the frames, steel the springs, and strong fabrics were used for upholstery. The film provides an interesting insight into manufacturing processes in the pre-WWII era.
This film begins with a focus on the high quality Spanish moss used as stuffing material, and then turns it attention to the steel wire and hard wood, as well as superior fabrics, used to make up the springs and frames of the furniture.
The film, one of the earliest to be made by the Jam Handy Organization, is not quite complete but compelling nonetheless.
Background on this: in 1902, Peter E. Kroehler started the Naperville Lounge Co., a maker of wooden lounge chairs and upholstered furniture. Kroehler built a new factory in Naperville in 1913 after the original facility was destroyed by a tornado. Soon thereafter, he renamed the company Kroehler Manufacturing Co. This enterprise soon operated across the country and employed several hundred men and women in the Chicago area. By the middle of the 1940s, with over $20 million in annual sales, Kroehler was the second-largest furniture maker in the United States. During the 1960s, when the company employed close to 8,000 people around the country, annual revenues passed $100 million. The company struggled during the 1970s, closing its historic Naperville factory in 1978 and ending its operations in the area. In 1981 Kroehler was acquired by the ATR Group of Northbrook, which put the com- pany up for sale. By the early 2000s, furniture was still manufactured under the Kroehler name by two unrelated companies, one in North Carolina and the other in Ontario, Canada
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
