You’ve Got An Uncle in the Furniture Business – and His Body is in the Trunk: Joshua Doore, 1970s

“You've got an uncle in the furniture business: Joshua Doore...Joshua Doore”...so went the familiar TV and radio jingle back in the 1970s.

The name just seems to roll smoothly out of your mouth...but the jingle could have went: “You've got an uncle in the furniture business, Harvey Leach – Harvey Leach.” Nah...that doesn't quite make it.

It was Harvey who took over a small Detroit furniture biz in 1971 called Robinson Furniture and re-named it “Joshua Doore.” Media advertising went all out and came up with one of the all-time most memorable jingles. Joshua Doore opened at Eureka and I-75 in Taylor and stayed there for ten years.

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However, Harvey wasn't going to enjoy his recently-found money-maker very long. On his wedding day – March 16, 1974 - his body was found with his throat slashed in the trunk of a parked car at the Congress Building on Southfield Road – an hour before the wedding ceremony was to take place. This happened a year before the infamous disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, leading many to believe Leach was done-in in a similar circumstance as Hoffa. The theory is: he was abducted while on his way to a business meeting.

According to Down River Things, Leach wanted to expand his Joshua Doore empire and was looking for loans. His business was losing money and a possible sale of the business fell through.

Afterward, Joshua Doore gradually went into bankruptcy, was purchased, and the name reverted back to Robinson Furniture. They tried to keep that “you've got an uncle in the biz” thing going, but the term 'Uncle Robinson' didn't catch on with the public.

So.....was there a real guy named 'Joshua Doore'?
Nope. Just made up, as far as we know. But the mascot – a little cartoon bald-headed guy with tufts of white hair – was depicted as 'your furniture business relative, Uncle Joshua.'

Listen below to the original jingle that most people remember...

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