Floral City Furniture Advertisement, "Growing with Monroe," December 31, 1927

In 1927, cousins and business partners Edwin Shoemaker and Edward Knabusch co-founded the Floral City Furniture Company and began producing novelty furniture. They were a perfect pair: Shoemaker was fascinated with technology and Knabusch was a master marketer. The cousins would go on to create a reclining armchair that became a furniture icon -- the La-Z-Boy recliner.