1948 GE Airliner 40-Inch Range - Luverne, MN

[danemodsandy]

Seller says to make an offer.

This range has the glass for the cooktop light missing, but otherwise seems to be pretty complete. Deep well cooker is not shown or mentioned.

Airliners were an MOL choice at this point in GE's history.

http://masoncity.craigslist.org/atq/4314493810.html

 

[danemodsandy]

Here's What....

....This range looked like when new:

 

[tomturbomatic]

I would rather have a range like this than the WCI POS offered for free in Mitchelville, IA. Quality-wise there is no comparrison.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tom:

Each of them is what it is. You pay your money - or in the case of the Mitchellville range, don't - and you take your choice.

 

[goatfarmer]

Art Linkletter was the best...........

 

[ovrphil]

Art could sell manure

A gifted man, I thought - that ad would definitely bring me in to look at the stove...There are four doors, one oven...are the rest for storage????

Not sure if that ad co-incided with his TV show, "Kids Say the Darned-est Things", which aired a long time on TV, but for people who might wonder who Art Linkletter was...check out this video, it'll have you laughing.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Well, at the time of this range, the program was not on TV. The Art Linkletter House Party had a segment where he interviewed kids and from that came the book KSTDT.

I remember when his daughter dropped acid and jumped out of a building.

 

[ovrphil]

House Party - right ...! ...and ugh, that about his daughter I didn't remember...anyways, we're awake now ...back to our GE sponsor

 

[danemodsandy]

Another Airliner:

Here's a shot of a '48 Airliner, complete and in better shape, from my Appliance Porn folder:

 

[danemodsandy]

Phil:

"There are four doors, one oven...are the rest for storage????"

Took a while to find this pic on my hard drive, but here's your answer: There was only one oven on this range. The left-hand compartment was storage, as were the two drawers below.

The upper-series Stratoliner shared this configuration with the Airliner, as it did everything else but styling - there were not any more features on the Stratoliner than on the Airliner, except for a fluorescent cooktop light instead of an incandescent one, plus the slightly snappier styling. My understanding is that there may have been a TOL Liberator model with a "companion oven" at the left, but that's an assumption pieced together from sketchy discussion of these ranges I've seen online. I have only two pages of the 1948 owner's manual from which the photo below was taken.

 

[ovrphil]

Thanks Sandy, I didn't think there were more ovens or Art LinkLetter would have smiled at both of them.
That's a LOT of storage, but then...some people didn't have much storage, or if they did, they weren't using them for pots and pans /baking arsenal. That styling reminds again of some of the car designs of the period.

 

[danemodsandy]

Phil:

You're right - those storage drawers were very important to homeowners of the period. In fact, for homeowners of some years to come. In "starter" tract housing of the late '40s and early '50s, eight feet of base cabinets was a lot. Those houses were very low-priced when new, but they were basic to a degree very, very few new homebuyers would be prepared to tolerate today.

P.S.: That Art Linkletter ad makes me want to run right out and buy an Airliner, some metal kitchen cabinets, a Cosco stool and several rolls of plaid wallpaper. [this post was last edited: 3/9/2014-17:48]

 

[tomturbomatic]

Older homes did not necessarily have a lot of kitchen counter or cabinet space either. Not only the storage space in a 40" range, but the work space next to the surface units was highly prized. It was sometimes seen in pictures being used for the mixer when baking because there was an outlet right there. Outlets were also in short supply in older kitchens. With sometimes only a single overhead light in the kitchen which meant the cook was often standing in a self-created shadow, the additional light on the cooking surface was a plus, even if it was not always designed to throw light where most needed.

 

[ovrphil]

ah, the good old days of small spaces, few outlets and inadequate lighting...but the best part....the war was over