Naughty Naugahyde

July 08, 2009

It almost sounds… naughty!

Naugahyde.
A most unusual and nasty word. Naugahyde.

A word I haven’t heard in years.



I reference the word of artificial leather and a booth appears.
I haven’t given thought to Naugahyde in 45 years.
Say it loud and a famous childhood dream cocktail,
Shirley Temple comes to mind.

I recall sitting perched on the slippery fabric while my tightly wound long blonde curls bobbed in anticipation of my adult-like beverage.

Naugahyde, an honest to goodness word with history and origin that might surprise and amuse even you. Nauga, artificial leather is supposedly named after Naugatuck, Connecticut (say that combination rapidly six times), the city where Naugahyde was first manufactured.

I can remember our first burnt orange 90 degree angled kitchen booth made out of the unspeakable fabric. When my friends came over to the house this piece of furniture was the focal/vocal point of any conversation.

And the booth came with a story or its own legend. The tale was told to me that Nauga was an animal that shed his skin for Naugahyde. It is said that this was a friendlier process than killing animals for leather for sofas, coats, belts, etc.

Our kitchen Naugahyde booth came to life in the early sixties when Allen Sherman popularized the fictional Nauga character in the Mary Poppins movie with the “Chim Chim Cheree “ song:

My chair is upholstered in real Naugahyde
When they killed that Nauga, I sat down and cried.
He moved to Chicago when that Nauga died!