Archival History Contributed By Jack Gerken of Norwalk:

Furniture World Magazine

John R. "Jack" Gerken, past president and chairman of Norwalk Furniture Corporation, recently contributed his files covering the Southern Furniture Manufacturers Association, the development of the International Woodworking Machinery Show and the Furniture Supply Fair (IWF) and the uniting of SFMA and National Association of Furniture Manufacturers. Mr. Gerken played a leading role in all of these developments. Gerken was installed in the American Furniture Hall of Fame in 1997. In addition, Lyons J. Heyman, Fox Manufacturing Company, Rome, Georgia, who served as president of SFMA and as chairman of the early committee to oppose upholstery flammability standards, which became UFAC, has contributed his files. Bob Keiningham, CEO of Cosec International and Scott Hood, president, have contributed a series of LEGENDS videotapes made in the early 1980's featuring octogenerians of the furniture industry. These tapes, moderated by Keiningham and produced by Hood, cover the earliest days of furniture retailing from peddlers into stores, in New York and Chicago. They include: Sidney Rosenburg, 84-year-old dean of retailers and founder of the American Furniture Associates (AEA); Milton Fish (106) of L. Fish Furniture in Chicago, whose grandfather David, an immigrant from Germany, started as a peddler then rented a store and lived above. The company grew to five large retail stores on Wabash Avenue. The company survived through four generations, the Chicago fire, the Civil War, and battles with unions. At one time, they started their own trading stamps-fish-shaped stamps given with purchases; and William A. "Bill" Feinberg, 91 years old, son of the founder of Standard Furniture Company in Albany, New York, who started the first store in 1907 when rent was $20 a month. Standard became a large, respected company lasting for four generations.