When thinking about advancements in recliner chair technology, one would not usually think of the former Suffolk Theater building. However, that's where this story begins.
Kurt Simisch, the founder of the Dual Manufacturing and Engineering Co. (Dual), graduated from Holyoke High School or Williston, as reports vary, in 1930. He received a baccalaureate in accounting from Northeastern University in 1937.
After his collegiate years, he briefly worked for D. Mackintosh & Sons Co., and as a credit manager for the former Farr Alpaca Co. Upon its closing in the late 1930s, he worked as a public accountant. Prior to forming Dual, he was the president of Cogswell Manufacturing Co. in West Springfield.
He founded Dual Manufacturing and Engineering Inc. (Dual) in 1946 and initially located the business in Springfield's Myrick Building. In November of that year, Mr. Simisch moved and commenced operations on the fourth floor of Holyoke's Rackliffe Building, which housed the Suffolk Theater. The building no longer exists and was located at the northwest corner of Railroad, now Heritage, and Suffolk Streets.
The Price & Lee Directory for 1946 reveals that the upper floors of the building, which housed the Suffolk Theater, were used by several start-up businesses. Companies such as Anker Printing, Holyoke Ruling and Binding, Paper City Engraving, Mansir Press, Marston-Warner Engravers, Advertisers Press, and several music studios conducted business there.
The State of Massachusetts indicates Dual's incorporation date was October 3, 1946. A day later, 35-year-old Kurt F. Semisch, the corporate President, Treasurer, and Manager, applied for a hydraulic automobile Jack Support patent. The patent was granted three years later.
The company's main business was producing mechanisms that operated recliners and rocker recliners. The devices were made in Holyoke and shipped to Berkline Corp. in Tennessee, where they were incorporated into the Berk-Lock platform rocker and the Berk-Liner recliner.
Over time, Mr. Semisch sold 14% of the company to Berkline of New England Inc., a furniture wholesaler in Chicopee, and 26% to Dual's key employees.
During the 1940s, recliners were very costly to produce and sold for over $300. Dual's Adelard "Pete" Belisle teamed with his workers and designed an efficient mechanism, reducing the selling price of a Berkline recliner to $100.
Mr. Simisch and Mr. Belisle were quite the inventors and held several patents. One of his notable products was the Flavor-Maker." The item was designed to boost the flavor of meats by injecting additional spices, garlic, or other natural enhancers into them. The product was available in major department stores, including Steigers, McAuslan & Wakelin, G. Fox, and Macy's.
In 1959, the company moved and leased space on Bigelow Street in Building "D" of the Holyoke Industrial Property Association. The plan was to double the workforce to 30 employees. Adelaid Belisle was the corporate president at the time. Shortly thereafter, the company moved to Two Bigelow Street in a building shared with Totsy Manufacturing Company.
In 1960, Mr. Semisch died in Florida at age 49. In 1959, he had sold his 60% interest in Dual Manufacturing to Berkline for $100,000.
As part of its twentieth anniversary celebration in 1968, Dual displayed some of its product line at Holyoke City Hall. Some products included furniture springs and mechanisms for recliners and rocker recliners. The display case showed the slogan, "What Holyoke Makes... Makes Holyoke." The Holyoke Chamber of Commerce sponsored the rotating industrial displays.
For those owning a recliner or rocker-recliner, Dual Manufacturing & Engineering Co. likely held the patent for the mechanisms. In fact, long-time Holyoke resident and Dual employee Frank M. Re secured six patents on various recliner mechanisms on behalf of the corporation. His most crucial design was likely the Wall-Away. A recliner chair back could be placed as close as three inches from a wall and fully recline, as the unit would slide forward and avoid the wall.
In 1972, Berkline Corporation, headquartered in Morristown, Tennessee, acquired Dual Manufacturing and Engineering Inc. The parent company indicated that the Holyoke subsidiary's operations would remain unchanged. Adelard J. Belisle remained president, and Francis Murphy was vice president.
However, this takeover was a foreshadowing of what was to come.
By 1975, Dual employed up to 108 employees and manufactured 24,000 recliner units each month, half of which were the Wall-away mechanism. Although domestic sales dropped by 35%, sales overseas increased by 10%. Products were shipped to Africa, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and behind the Iron Curtain.
In 1981, Fontaine Brothers Construction, under its corporate wing, R & L Realty, constructed a 30,000 square-foot building, leasing the factory back to Dual. The building was in addition to its space in the Totsy Manufacturing building.
On Friday, November 4, 1988, the plant shut down without notice to its 100 employees. Congress had recently passed a law requiring employers to give employees 60 days' notice before a factory shutdown, but the law was not yet in effect. The plant was moved to Tennessee, where employees were paid $1.70 per hour less than in Holyoke.
It is not known what happened to the 30,000 square-foot building constructed for Dual in 1981. It may have been demolished as part of the Green High-Performance Computing Center project around 2009.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
Registry of Deeds, Hampden County, Springfield, Massachusetts
City of Holyoke, Massachusetts, Assessors' Office
Ancestry.com, Price & Lee, Holyoke City Directories
Bigelow Street Location of Dual Manufacturing after moving from Building "D" on the same street. (Photo taken August 12, 2015)
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