Dubbing his invention Magic Fingers, Houghtaling sold over a million of them to hotels by the 1970s, an era in which room amenities included things like heart-shaped beds. At the time, hotels ...

A motel room highlight was a Magic Fingers machine, though, being from the Midwest, and Catholic to boot, we were too shy to try it. Mom eyed it disapprovingly, as if the apparatus was more approp ...