As Hurricane Harvey’s record setting devastation ravaged the Texas coast, local heroes emerged. Our neighborhood took in evacuees, sent help down to Houston and lived up to its reputation as one that steps up for those in need. And so it makes sense that one of East Dallas’ native sons helped provide for Harvey victims at great cost to his business.
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, a Bishop Lynch graduate, has been one of the stand-out figures in wake of the hurricane. Already a legend because of his over-the-top commercials for his store, Gallery Furniture, McIngvale opened the doors to his stores following the hurricane. People who had lost everything were able to shelter in his stores, which were full of new furniture and mattresses.
McIngvale sent his furniture trucks out into the city to rescue stranded Houstonians, while those who made it to the store were able to sleep on the mattresses, couches and chairs that had been for sale — hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.
McIngvale went from Bishop Lynch to the football team at the University of Texas, winning a national championship before transferring to the University of North Texas because of two problems. “I was too small and too slow,” he told Dallas Morning News. He got married, moved to Houston and got into the furniture business in 1981, and his “Gallery Furniture saves you money” catchphrase soon made him a household name.
This is not the first time his store has been a refuge after a Hurricane. When Houston became a new home for many after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, McIngvale put a sign that said “Louisiana residents sleep here free,” and several hundred took him up on the offer.
McIngvale might have moved far from the neighborhood, but he represents it well, and hasn’t forgotten where he came from. He told the Dallas Morning News, “I’m an old East Dallas boy and proud of it, too.”
