Category: Celebrating 70 Years

Hi All, We are so excited that Lakeside is celebrating its 70th Birthday this week!

To mark this milestone in the company’s history, all week our Chairman Larry Moon is sharing moments in the past that have helped to shape the Lakeside we know today.

Lakeside was started in May of 1946 in the basement of Robert and Dick Moon’s parent’s home in Shorewood, Wisconsin.  Bob Moon had just been discharged from the Navy serving in World War II.  He knew he was not suited for working or others, so he started his own company with his brother, Dick.

The first Lakeside product was a wooden grill (with a metal firebox) that was sold locally. The unique feature was its ability to fold up for easy storage in a garage.  It was fabricated out of oak with a carbon steel firebox.

Lakeside’s first Product:  Folding wooden barbeque

Early advertisement for the barbeque.  I think that all the beer on the table was consumed in the photo shoot because the product seems to be buried way in the background.  Also not clear what it is—a table? Not quite to our standards today.

Rest assured that our family always tested our products.

I am sure that you are thinking that that a grill would be a no brainer to produce by today’s standards. Unfortunately, in 1946, the general public was not quite ready to grasp the concept of cooking outside—according to Bob Moon, “in 1946, the idea of people cooking in backyards with smoke blowing in their eyes and hot ashes falling on the grass was considered quite ridiculous.”

 Due to the limited success of the barbeque, it was dropped in favor of a new product, a painted carbon steel table.

The above product, white painted carbon steel table, was sold primarily to beauty supply distributors for use in beauty parlors.  The product had moderate success.  Big complaint of the table (voice of the customer) was that the hair dye would stain the white paint and look terrible. 

The solution:  make the product out of stainless steel.  This had a dual benefit.  The first was that the steel did not stain with the hair dyes.  The second was that stainless steel was actually more readably available.  Remember that in 1947, there was a building boom for homes taking place across the country.  All the veterans returning from the war were buying houses thanks to VA loans.  Each of these homes had new appliances, many built right across the street of Lakeside’s current plant in West Milwaukee at the General Electric Hotpoint plant—hence the reason it is called Electric Avenue. This along with all the pent up demand for cars and other products, caused a shortage of carbon steel.  Stainless steel, however, was more readable available.

The table product evolved eventually ending up with four casters on the bottom.

In late 1947, Bob Moon, after a sales call to a beauty supply house, took this table with wheels next door to Kiefer Restaurant supply on 19^th and Clybourn Avenue.  A discussion with Mr. Peters at Kiefer resulted in changing the size to fit a standard restaurant dishpan and the addition of a bottom shelf on and a handle.  This resulted in the development of the world’s first stainless steel utility cart (Model 311). 

Picture of current model 311—still in the line today!

You may not know that the 311 was engineered by Herb Moon, Bob’s father.  Herb was an engineer who also worked on the original design of the NESCO Roaster when he worked for the National Enameling and Stamping Company (NESCO). The design of the 311 was recognized by the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for its advanced modern design.

Herb Moon, did engineering part time from 1947 then full time until 1976.  Herb was influential in all the products introduced during his time at Lakeside.

 Little known factoid…To cover up minor manufacturing blemishes, Lakeside worked with Allegheny Ludlum Steel (a steel company specializing in stainless) to create a new finish on the metal.  The finish went from a highly polished (mirror-like) finish to the brushed finish that we know today.  This was referred to as the “Lakeside Finish” or when we moved to sourcing steel from Japan in the late 60’s as the “LKS” finish.

As Lakeside grew into the 1950’s and 1960’s expansions to the product line continued both with new product development and with acquisitions.  A number of non-Lakeside related acquisitions were made and or started during the 25 year period from 1950 to 1975.  Some you may be aware of, some you may not.

They include:

Jardair—a company that made paper mache products. The name, paper mache, comes from the French, chewed paper, and is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch or wallpaper paste.  This product used recycled paper—a bit ahead of its time for the mid 50’s. 

Paper was pulped and mixed with glue then pressed into a mold and cured with steam. Once the paper mache set, the product was printed and then dipped in a wax coating to seal it inside and out.

There were a variety of products produced for a number of different industries.

Ice Chests

Minnow buckets

 

Flower vases

Another acquisition was Columbia Builders which built garages.  This was an effort to get back into the woodworking business (remember the barbeque), but at a larger scale.  They built garages for all the homes that were built after World War II that did not have garages with them.

This evolved into making play house for kids:

And yes… you will find someone you know in the picture. This was another product we had in our backyard for a number of years.  A product for a more adventurous age (at least for kids) and certainly a less litigious age. 

In 1965 for nine months we owned a commercial bakery called Heinemann’s.  The bakery supplied mostly supermarkets in the Milwaukee area. My father bought it because he wanted to get closer to the commercial side of foodservice.  It turned out that it was a little too close.  I still have vivid memories of going to the bakery after getting our Friday night Fish Fry.  Also spending Saturday mornings in the bakery after having breakfast at the Dutchland Dairy restaurant.  It was fun to open up the plastic barrels of frosting and have a sample.  Hmm, wonder if that had any lasting effect.  Well before people were talking about HACCP (a systematic preventive approach to food safety).

 In 1962, Bob Moon bought about 800 acres of land on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands to start a land development company.  The venture had all sorts of promise until the unrest on the island caused a shift in the number of people wanting to go there.

 

Among the more unusual ventures that Bob Moon invested in was a furniture company in Tunisia in the mid 60’s.  This was with three other United States businessmen through the State Department’s Agency for International Development.  They worked hard to help the company institute new manufacturing techniques which were quite successful until the late 60’s when the political situation became too unstable for them to continue.

 While not every acquisition worked out the way we thought it should, there has always been an ongoing effort to grow and expand the business beyond utility carts to continue to provide a strong base upon which to grow for the future.

Lakeside has always had a history of developing new products to leverage the company’s manufacturing ability and market relationships.

Now we will share some of the products that everyone thought would be a big hit… but not so much.

HOT TOP and Extra Maid

In the early 50’s, Lakeside took the Model 311 (utility cart) and modified it for the consumer market.  There were several versions offered as shown below.

The Extra Maid was basically a 311 sold to the consumer market.  The Hot Top was a 311 with a heated top shelf and a wood handle.  This was promoted as something to serve dinner from while keeping all the food nice and hot. There was also a model that was a stand-alone unit which was only the top shelf. This served as a tray that had the same heating mechanism as the Hot Top. 

We used a Hot Top for every dinner for as long as I can remember up until the time that my mother stopped cooking.  While Judy and I do not use our Hot Top cart for dinners, we do use several of the Lakeside heated trays when we have parties.

 Every once in a while we will get a call for replacement parts of the original Hot Top units.   

Interesting tidbit of information: When Mary Jane and Bob Moon were first married, they would go cross-country in their station wagon taking a Hot Top to department store buyers.  For days on end, my dad would take the cart into buyers and try to get them to add the product to the stores.  When they were in New York City, because the parking was so expensive, Mary Jane would drop Bob off and circle around the block until he finished his appointment with the buyer.

Chuck Wagon

Another consumer product that was in the line was the Chuck Wagon.  This was short lived but you can see that they tried to have it accessorized for a companion piece for outdoor grilling.  (Sometimes the dream won’t die.)  Note the freight included pricing $29.95 and $32.50 (West of the Rockies).

While many would think that these products would be a natural for continued consumer use, there is a specific reason why we have no “consumer” products still in our product line.  As the efforts were underway to sell products to department stores, my father would continue to get more and more frustrated in dealing with department store buyers.  This was a different time in business and it was customary for buyers to expect some type of personal compensation to make a decision to add a product to the store.  This infuriated my father so much he basically made the decision that Lakeside will “never make another product for the consumer market!”

Lakeside Precision Casters

You may not know this, but Lakeside at one point made all of the caster it used on products.  This was started in the 1950’s and continued until the late 1990’s.  At one point, Lakeside made nearly 200 models of casters.  With the wide variety of casters, Lakeside attempted (for a very short time) to market their caster making expertise to others.

LCCS

In the early 1960’s Lakeside was continuing to try to fine new products that fit into their manufacturing capabilities.  The LCCS (Lakeside Cadaver Cooling System) was one example of this.  This was Lakeside’s first attempt at using refrigeration in a product.  This was a product mainly oriented to Medical Examiners.  I believe that we sold 5-10 of the units.  Not one of our most successful products.  We were accustomed to selling products for $30-40 to foodservice and medical equipment dealers. This product, selling for $1495 was a significant deviation from what we knew how to do so well.  It didn’t last for long.

Interesting tidbit: when my brother, Scott and I would come down to the office with Dad on Saturday morning, we would entertain ourselves (play) on different products that were outside his office in the engineering area.  Sometimes it was dolly races down the hallway. (Would be totally frowned upon today—in case anyone has any ideas.) The Lakeside Cadaver Cooling System is a product that I remember so well—we used to take turns locking each other inside the LCCS.  (Parents: do you know where your children are?)

 Lakematic Motorized Wheel Chair

The Lakematic powered wheelchair is a product that was developed in the 1970’s.  The product was meant as a way add mobility to many people’s lives. We had an assembly line dedicated to making the Lakematic. The Lakematic had a fair amount of success for a number of years.

The product was a fairly simple design with a welded frame and one wheel that had an electric motor powering a drive wheel incased in a plastic shell.  You can see the drive mechanism in the front closest corner.  This powered the chair.  The power unit swiveled using the handle that the model’s left hand is resting on.  The speed was regulated by the rheostat dead-man’s switch operated by a plunger on top of the control.

This product is responsible for one of Bob Moon’s most colossal sales opportunity fails.  Our largest medical distributor was American Hospital Supply (eventually purchased by Cardinal Health).  My father was able to get the President of American Hospital to agree to see a demonstration of the Lakematic.  As my father sat down to show everyone how the product worked, his pants pocket caught on the control box and ripped—significantly.  I don’t recall if he got the sale, but I remember the story.

The Lakematic was finally dropped from production about 1976.  The ultimate reason for ending this chapter in Lakeside’s history was the fact that our insurance company (product liability) refused to insure the company if we continued to sell the product.

Salad Bars

Lakeside, during the late 1960’s through the mid 1990’s offered a complete line of portable buffet/salad bars.  Styling never changed during the entire time the product was offered.  You could get it in any color you wanted as long as it was “walnut!” Forget it if you wanted a different size.

Watch out Multiteria, we still have all the original drawings…

Courtier II Serving and Dessert Carts

A warm-up for Aris which eventually became the Geneva product line. 

Everyone though that the waitress/waiter stations “introduced” a few years ago were new.  Unlike the current models, the ones pictured could not be modified.  Color, size were constant.  The size for the products could not be changed because everything was “hard tooled” and fixtured. This made it very difficult to change the size of a product.

Conclusion:  Lakeside has never been afraid of trying new things.  New products, new markets, new ideas.  Our history has set the foundation for our current and future actions.  The spirit of always trying new things clearly lives on today.

From my perspective, the history of Lakeside has only partly related to the things written above.  It is not about the products or our acquisitions or ventures.  It is simply about the people.  None of the output or success of any organization is possible without people.  What makes Lakeside unique is its culture.  To understand the culture, you can either feel it directly by being a part of it or you need a proxy to help you understand what makes the company who it is.  Why the last four emails are important, the reason I chose to talk about the things I did, is that each one gives some idea of who Lakeside is and how it got there. But I recognize that it is the people who did the things that really defines our rich history.

Bob Moon shaking Eleanor Roosevelt’s hand while in the Navy.

Dick Moon about 1955

The start of the company showed the entrepreneurial spirit of two brothers, Bob and Dick Moon.  Taking a huge risk with every dollar of their savings. Starting up with nothing more than an idea. Running out of cash, tapping their parents and friends of their parents to invest in their vision.  They were able to convince enough people to give them the ability to work on developing the company to the point of surviving and thriving.

1946 Tax Return for Lakeside (Sales of $227.50, Loss of $962.02)

When the original product didn’t work, they tried another one.  They worked hard to make the company successful.

Bob Moon in first factory on Vine Street in Milwaukee.  Note the “rolled up sleeves and the combination pants/hand wiper.

Dick Moon in first factory on Vine Street in Milwaukee. When Bob and Dick’s father Herb joined the company, he added a significant amount of engineering expertise to the company.  He designed products, machines and fixtures.  Herb worked for Lakeside until shortly before his death in 1974.

Herb Moon, Larry Moon, Gladys Moon (about 1960)

Bob and Dick built the foundation of Lakeside in the early years of the company.  They worked together until 1962 when they decided to go their own ways.  Bob bought Dick’s interest and Dick ended up moving to California where he started a plastics company.

There were countless people who helped Lakeside grow into a successful company. In 1965, Bob was spending a significant portion of his time in St. Croix on the land development company.  He recognized that he could not grow and support the company like he had in the past.  He appointed Ray Donovan as president of Lakeside. Ray had worked at Lakeside for a number of years prior to becoming president starting in the industrial engineering department.

 

Ray Donovan and Bob Moon (in front of the new Lakeside trade show booth about 1965–Notice the state of the art lighting system.)

 

 

 

 

 

Ray Donovan, President, Lakeside Manufacturing, Inc. (1965-1997)

The appointment of Ray as president turned out to be a blessing for the life of Lakeside.  On the morning of April 2, 1974, Bob Moon had a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away.  It was a shock to everyone who knew him.  It hit the employees at Lakeside especially hard.  According to the Family Business Institute, nearly 30% of family owned business fail because the owner dies.  The Moon family and the people working for Lakeside were fortunate that there was such a competent person in Ray Donovan leading the company at this time.  It allowed for the continuity of management during this difficult time.

Robert W. Moon (1919-1974)

Two weeks after Bob’s death Mary Jane Moon joined Lakeside.  She became Chairman and focused most of her time on continuing to wind down the land development business in St. Croix. She continued as Chairman until 1997 when she retired from Lakeside.

Mary Jane Moon, Chairman, Lakeside Mfg., Inc. (1974-1997)

These people obviously had a profound influence on the company.  But they are not the only ones. In 1979. A holding company was created (DLSM, Inc.).  We bought Res Manufacturing, a Milwaukee based contract metal stamping company.  Scott Moon, joined the company to run that company.

A year later, in 1980, Lakeside purchased Aris Manufacturing. Aris was a company located in San Francisco, California.  Larry Moon joined the company to run this new acquisition as a division of Lakeside.  The operation was moved to Milwaukee after the purchase. Aris was rebranded a few years ago and became Geneva.

 

 

 

Larry Moon in San Francisco in 1980 loading inventory into trailers after Aris acquisition.

Through all this, one of Lakeside’s key advisors was it lawyer, Roger Boerner.  He was a part of the business from the late 1950’s until his retirement in the late 1990’s.  During this time, he was a trusted counsel to Bob, Dick and Herb Moon.  He then became integral to the business working closely with Ray Donovan, Mary Jane Moon and both Scott Moon and me.  He was a valued part of every critical decision we made during nearly 40 years of Lakeside’s history.

Roger Boerner (right) with Warren Young (Lakeside’s St. Croix Attorney) at the 1962 signing of the first land acquisition in St. Croix.

DLSM continued until 1998 when Scott, Deborah and Larry Moon decided to split the company so we all could do our own things.  Larry ended up with Lakeside to begin yet another stage of the company’s life. 

In 1998, Larry appointed Joe Carlson as president of Lakeside.  Joe had started at Lakeside in 1994 working in business development and sales and marketing.  Joe continues in this role today. Since 1998, Joe has worked tirelessly and relentlessly on positioning Lakeside for the future.  The addition to Sandstone of Alliance, Multiteria, Made-to-Drain and Alluserv are all there to support the continued growth of the Sandstone as well as Lakeside for the future.  New products such as case carts, Stealth carts, and Modified/Custom products are all helping to shape our next 70 years.  Joe continues Lakeside’s rich history of continuous improvement and innovation to assure us of long term success.

Joe Carlson, Lakeside President, at the 2005 Lakeside Holiday Party

But even all the people mentioned so far are not sufficient to define who Lakeside is.  There have been literally thousands of people who have shaped Lakeside over the last 70 years.  If you take all the people working directly with Lakeside then add temporary workers, consultants, advisors, suppliers, board members . . . the list goes on and on.  It is all these people, good, bad or indifferent who have had their hand in creating what we know today as Lakeside. 

A special note needs to be added for all the spouses and partners of all these people as well.  These are the ones who have been at home, holding down the fort while we have been with customers or at trade shows or visiting suppliers both domestic and internationally—or just working late.  I know that I could not have done what I have been doing without someone like Judy at home supporting my efforts. Thanks to everyone else who has been in the background supporting us, seen or unseen.

As we enter our future we can no longer rely on barbeques or even the Model 311’s to drive our success.  We forever need to create new opportunities, just as we have in the past. 

We constantly need to acknowledge everyone working directly or indirectly for Lakeside and supporting our efforts to continue the legacy of our past. 

A huge thank you to everyone who has had a part in Lakeside’s past.  Every touch of every person has helped to make us who we are today.

One of our greatest strengths is our reliability, our consistency and our integrity. We are recognized by our customers, our employees and our suppliers as a special company. That gives our ultimate customer the trust and confidence that we will continue to meet their needs, as we have in the past, well into the future.

 Happy 70^th Birthday Lakeside!  Here’s to the next 70 years!