— The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles

This month, Los Angles Magazine wrote a feature story on me and we talked about the history of Sit ‘n Sleep, how we’ve persevered during hard times and our TV and radio ads.

To read the entire story, click here >>

Los Angeles

Carl from Van Nuys recently wrote me asking about my favorite places to hang out in Los Angeles. Well, being a Southern California native there are lots of places that I love—from Palm Springs and Ventura down to San Diego. But my favorite place to hang out would have to be the beach. I make it a point to get to the beach almost every weekend, whether it’s taking a walk on the sand alone or meeting friends for a meal at a beachside restaurant.

Another favorite thing to do is go to sporting events. The Lakers are a true passion of mine and I’ll only miss a game if I’m out of town or sick. I’m a big Dodgers fan, too, but the one sport that I watch obsessively is football. Sundays are reserved for having friends over to watch as much football as possible. I love putting out a large spread of sandwiches and wings and entertaining my friends, many of whom I’ve known since I was a kid.

For concerts, the Hollywood Bowl is tremendous, there’s nowhere else like it in the world, and I’ll also go to the Nokia Theater and check out the restaurants in the area. I also love a great breakfast, so on the weekends I usually go to C.J.’s for the omelets and for the best Sunday brunch in town I’ll go to Chez Melange, both in Redondo Beach. But Carl, my favorite thing to do is to hang out with my kids and my 90-year-old mom. I’m truly blessed that she’s alive and in good health. My family is by far the most important and precious thing to me, so anywhere that we are together is my favorite place to be.

"Shogun" Influenced Sit 'n Sleep

I went on a trip to Japan in the late 1970’s and one night I ended up sleeping on something called a Futon. I’d never heard of one or seen one before. It was a soft mattress on a frame that you could use as a bed and then adjust to become a small sofa.

At the time I thought that was pretty neat.

I got back to California and the mini-series “Shogun” about Japanese warriors was a big hit, Americans were starting to eat sushi … so I figured maybe they’ll sleep on this bed/chair thing from Japan.

At the time there were only two other places in all of Los Angeles where you could even find a Futon. One was a tiny store in an area called Little Tokyo and the other was an even smaller store in a predominantly Japanese area of west Los Angeles. So I went ahead and imported a Futon from Japan and had the mattress part copied.  But I had an impossible time finding anyone who could make the adjustable frame. Finally, after many frustrating calls and trips, I found someone who could make the frame … in Brazil!

Meanwhile, my dad (who was also my business partner) thought I was completely nuts. He told me, “Nobody is going to sleep on that bag of cotton!”

But dad agreed to let me try selling these weird new beds because, at the time, we really had nothing to lose! We were just scraping by month to month trying to keep our little store open.

Well, thankfully the response to our Futons was incredible. Most days I’d be selling five or six customers at the same time! We sold thousands over the next few years. And because of those “bags of cotton,” and the mattresses we sold, the store was called Sit ‘n Sleep. By the time the Futon craze died down years later, Sit ‘n Sleep was a very established name due to our radio and television advertising.  And, look, it’s “business 101” that you don’t just change your brand name to keep up with trends.

Who knows? Maybe the Futon craze of the late 70’s and early 80’s will strike again someday and our name will make complete sense.