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This week's film is from Maytag, pushing the advantages of *fully-automatic* clothes drying with their new Halo of Heat model with electronic sensing. I believe that puts this film right around 1960. Run time is approximately 5 minutes.

Reply #36: If that's true, I'd love to see some proof, and I do mean that in the most earnest way. Google is silent on the matter, but I'd think it would be disclosed in an annual report some place, especially if controlling interest. Adding to the complication was WP's mergers and...

The story of the WP/Sears relationship is actually quite interesting. (Films are in the queue!) The CNBC link is a little misleading; Sears never really owned part of WP, but they did agree to a mutually-beneficial business relationship. In 1921, Sears approached Upton Machine for a large order...

What to do with those commercial shorts that don't warrant a "major release"? Friday Film Bonus! Here's a fun ad from 1970 for the GE folks...

Don't you just love the rough pine board stuck in there with the knot in the end? Ha!

New this week from The Appliance Archive, it's the story of the 1957 Kenmore Turbo-Matic washer/dryer. I have a hunch Whirlpool wasn't waiting around for Sears to pitch the idea to them, but it's still a fun plot. If you're a Kenmore fan, it doesn't get much better than this.

Only pure, rich, lively suds! LOL Not only an entertaining video, but a real boat-load of work to put together. My hat's off to you!

2 Words: Daniel Krumm The poor decisions Tom mentions were only some of Krumm's bright ideas. He was a CEO in the modern sense: product, history, reputation, people, all expendable if it meant short term profit and happy shareholders. Fred II had battled cancer for almost 2 years when he...

Thanks guys, I'm having a lot of fun scanning these! Reply #3: Fizzled, only in terms of a conversation starter here at AW, though I did spam the link on a few FB groups this time which might account for views. I'll admit, it wasn't very laundry-centric, but I did learn something. I never...

Well, it looks like last week’s film fizzled, so how about a crossover: classic television -and- Maytag. We’ve got a clip from the Today Show with Dave Garroway and Fred II touting Maytag’s automatic with Gyrafoam action. This was a kinescope print but transferred pretty well.

Here's one from 1957 for the Frigidaire fans. Those control towers look right at home in a modern kitchen. Lots of neat design ideas, too.

WP A/C That's really interesting about the Servel re-brand. I had heard of these growing up but never knew anyone that had one. Even in the era of cheap NG, I wonder what operating costs were like compared to a traditional unit.

Instead of a film this week, I've put together a few vintage 30 sec radio jingles for Whirlpool Corp, along with some period photos. And an open-invitation to anyone who has the odd appliance film, if you can get it to me, I'm happy to digitize and upload it to The Appliance Archive. Enjoy!

I'm just glad you guys are enjoying these, and I believe Robert has the pamphlet for "Tale of the Tub" available in the ephemera library. For some of these films, there may not be many copies left, and unfortunately, we're at the point where vinegar syndrome is destroying a lot of this. I'm...

This week's film takes us to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry to see Maytag's exhibit on the history of home laundering..."The Tale of A Tub". No doubt some of you are familiar with the exhibit which ran for several years. I believe it also saw a late 60's update, but haven't found...

Re#5: Isn't that demo washer great?! And of course there was the matching dryer. And you're correct, these are silent films, often the only copy made. But I do have some commercially produced films with soundtracks in the pipeline. Re#8: The Benton Harbor / St. Joe facility was absolutely...

Set your wayback machine for October, 1953, and come along for a tour and open house at Whirlpool Corp, St. Joe, MI. If the 16mm Kodachrome isn't enough, there's also the still photos taken by WP's PR Dept, uploaded in Part 2. If you like these vids, please subscribe to The Laundry Archive. My...

Re Maytag & WP... Two very different business approaches. MT was built on old fashioned, conservative growth, with almost total vertical integration. That translated well to maintaining high quality standards and rapid design changes, but limited flexibility. When MT offered the Dutch Oven, it...

There's a neat article out there (Business Week?) where Fred II explains the Maytag philosophy on how they avoid 'change for the sake of change', and that they only introduce new features when it's truly warranted and thoroughly evaluated. Now I do love those late 50's annual styling changes...

Hey thanks guys! Ben, appreciate the correction. IIRC, 10M was still washers, but 12M included dryers. That's another film I've scanned, but will require quite a bit of processing before release. Benny, on use of the clip, I'll shoot you an email at your profile address. -C