The Barcalounger Company, once named the Barcalo Manufacturing Company, was founded by Edward J. Barcalo in 1896. It is the oldest manufacturer of reclining chairs in the U.S.A. After the company filed for bankruptcy in 2010, it shuttered its facilities in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Martinsville, Virginia, then restarted manufacturing at the plant in Morristown, Tennessee, in 2011, for manufacture of the Barcalounger chair. It is owned by the private equity firmHancock Park Associates. Barcalo Manufacturing also made beds in Welland, Ontario, under the Quality Beds name in the first decade of the 20th century.
Development of the "coffee break"
Barcalo, the country's oldest manufacturer of reclining chairs, is reputed to be the first American company to allow its employees coffee breaks, in 1902.
In Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Barcaloungers make an appearance in a reference to Kilgore Trout's novel 2 B R 0 2 B, where they provide luxury seating for wannabe suicides, with government encouragement; "2 B R 0 2 B" is actually a 1962 Vonnegut short story in which Barcaloungers do not figure. In the same author's Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim is strapped to a yellow Barcalounger in the alien's flying saucer as he is abducted and taken to their planet. In John Updike's Rabbit Is Rich, a Barcalounger originally belonging to Grandpa Fred Stringer looms large in the tensions between Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom and his son Nelson. In Cheers season 11, episode 8, Norm brings a Barcalounger into the bar for Thanksgiving dinner. Joey and Chandler from the hit NBC sitcom Friends owned a set of Barcalounger recliners, which were often used as a plot device within the show. Elaine and Jerry from the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeldmade love on a Barcalounger recliner. In the "Call Me Irresponsible" episode of another hit NBC sitcom, Frasier, the eponymous star brings a new girlfriend Catherine home. They are about to have sex on the chair belonging to Marty Crane. Frasier exclaims "I won't be out-performed by a Barcalounger" before moving to the couch. It is mentioned in the US version of the TV show Shameless, in the Season 5 premiere, titled "Milk of the Gods", as part of a conversation Mickey has with a potential furniture customer. A 7-inch single by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes was called "In Your Barcalounger". It is mentioned in the cinematic intro of the 1995 side-scrolling platform game Gex by publisher Crystal Dynamics. It is the chair in which Libby's father always sits in Philip Roth's Letting Go. It appears in the film BASEketball, starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone. There is a mention in the film Runaway Jury, making a point that the average juror does not have a vested interest in the court proceeding but that they would rather sit at home in their Barcalounger watching cable TV. The Barcalounger is also mentioned in the Robin Williams film RV : "...maybe even a Barcalounger that massages your ass and blows smoke at the same time."
