CdA Motel Still Offers Magic Fingers

“It’s still only a quarter,” said Shelley Williams, innkeeper at The Flamingo Motel about the 1950’s era Magic Fingers at the motel in Coeur d’Alene on Friday, Oct. 12. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

Russ and Rusty Gill were once the region’s Magic Fingers kingpins. In the late 1980s the father-son team from Spokane ran an 80-motel network with 2,000 of the machines, which vibrated a mattress for 15 minutes when a motel guest stuck a quarter into a coin box. By many accounts, the Gills were the last active Magic Fingers operators in the country. In 2002 the Wall Street Journal wrote about the business and said the Gills were probably the last of “the Magic Fingers men.” At this point, the Gills are writing the final chapter of the Magic Fingers saga. They have just one motel – the Flamingo, in Coeur d’Alene – that’s still using and promoting the mattress-vibrating gadgets/ Scott Maben , SR. More here.

Question: Anyone out there ever try this kind of machine?