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Arthur Victor Maison

After my great great grandfather retired, my great grandfather, Arthur Victor Maison, took over the business, starting the second generation to run Bamboo and Rattan Works, Inc. He began manufacturing and selling hope chests. These chests were primarily for women to hold different possessions for their marriage, including wedding gowns and sheets/pillows. These chests were approximately 5 feet long and 1-½ feet wide. To sell this product, my great grandfather went to the Macys Department Store and talked to the owner. At first, Macys was not interested in doing business with our company however; my great grandfather convinced Macys to keep 4 or 5 of the chests to "see if they sold." He then went to my family members and had them go to Macys to buy them. When the chests sold so quickly, the owner of Macys contacted Bamboo and Rattan Works and started doing business with them.

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Besides these chests and other products, my great grandfather also sold dye sticks. These sticks, made from bamboo poles being cut to 2 feet long and about 3/4-5/8 in. in diameter, were sold to silk makers in order to be used for dyeing. Since bamboo is very sturdy, these dye sticks lasted longer than using wooden poles. Along the same lines, bamboo poles were also sold to different people to make umbrella skirts. These skirts were wrapped around the poles, creating wrinkles in the skirts .

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One of the greatest accomplishments for my great grandfather, besides building his own bamboo bar in his basement, was when our bamboo poles were used for pole-vaulting in the mid to late 1930's. Before bamboo poles were introduced, pole-vaulting was always performed using oak wood poles. A coach in one of the local high schools came to my great grandfathers' warehouse in 1903 and asked him if bamboo could be used instead. He wanted to steer away from oak wood because a few of his students had been hurt when the oak pole split from the tension.

1939 click to enlarge	Jan 14, 1949 click to enlarge

My great grandfather gave him some of our poles to use, and eventually by word of mouth, the use of bamboo poles for pole-vaulting spread to every school and university in the United States. People from around the country would come to our factory to choose their own poles. When necessary, my great grandfather would have to choose the poles himself. Word of the quality and performance of these poles even spread to the Olympics and were used there as well. At this time, these poles became one of our highest selling items .

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