1963...

[frigilux]

Drmitch-- I seem to recall International Harvester's name on a line of appliances when I was very young (early 60's). I could swear I recall an automatic washer with that branding. And we had an IH upright freezer in our basement. Anyway, wouldn't surprise me a bit if a wringer washer also sported the IH brand.

 

[toggleswitch]

Hi Doc Martin!
Good to see your post!

on my block there was

WP
GE
We-stink-house
Maytag

Believe it or not I had never seen a Fridinaire in my area-
Queens, New York City.

I thought Frigidaire was a southern thing-builders special IIRC. (Now I know better, LOL )

 

[tomturbomatic]

In 1963, there had to be a large number of GE washers in Atlanta because Rich's, the leading department store, sold the GE line; Norge also. I knew homes that had a Kenmore at first, but then after doing most of their shopping at Rich's, they switched to GE. Kenmore was probably tops, like it was most every where else. A lot of people had Maytags, but department stores did not sell Maytags until more than a decade later when Davison's (Macy's owned back even before 1912 when the Titanic sank) started selling Maytag. The Georgia Power Company picked up Maytag in maybe 1960. They also sold Hotpoint in the early 70s before the energy crisis threw a wrench in things and all of the appliance sales by utilities came to a stop. For years Davison's had Whirlpool, Westinghouse and for a while, Hotpoint. I think it was after they dropped Hopoint, that they picked up Frigidaire, because they had Frigidaire in the 60s and 70s. There were a lot of Westinghouse washers in Georgia because The Georgia Power Company sold Westinghouse for decades. In the early years of rural electrification, the electric utilities pushed appliances and the utilities let you pay on your electric or gas bill. When you went through small towns, there was almost always the very distinctive facade of a GPC office with retail space and often you would find a Sears catalog store, too. Many people in the area worked for GM in Doraville and they and their families had Frigidaire appliances. They received a discount on them. Years after the fact, I found out that a friend's father owned the Frigidaire dealership in Waycross, GA.

 

[DADoES]

Overwhelming majority in my town-of-birth would have been Whirlpool. A few Kenmores, one Philco that I knew, perhaps one or two Easy, and and maybe a few Maytags.

 

[norgeman]

washers in1963

Where I lived in western New York and north central Pennsylvaina on my mom's side of the family most of them had either a wringer washer or an Easy Spindrier. My Grandpa Joe had one and my Aunt Hazel had a Speed Queen Wringer Washer on her back pourch. My Aunt Margie had I believe a Norge set at first but by 1963 she got a new Hotpoint set, but for many years when she and my uncle were first married she had a Easy Spindrier. My mom had a Easy Spindrier as her first washer then she got her first automatic washer which was a Kenmore which they bought used and we had that machine for a few years. Then dad bought mom a brand new Kenmore in about 1963 or 64. But getting back to the question I would have to say growing up in western New York south of Buffalo in Springville probalily would have to be Kenmore the most sales as Sears gave credit to my dad and most everyone else and usually had the best pricing of anybody in the area and most people went to Bullalo to do most of their applance shopping. Although dad did buy mom an electric clothes dryer in Springville at Campbells it was a G.E.

http://[email protected]

 

[jamiel]

Tom, a slight correction...there are still some utilities selling appliances. Alabama Power still has appliance stores. Commonwealth Edison in Chicago sells light bulbs (!) Several gas utilities sell gas appliances (Laclede Gas in St. Louis comes to mind)

JL

 

[agiflow]

Most of the washers i seen in my neighborhood were either Ge, Hotpoint or Kenmore. A few families had Frigidaire washers. Several relatives also had Frigidaire appliances.
I only knew of a few people who had Maytags-mostly saw those in laundromats.

 

[norgeman]

Re: washers in the central states

When I moved here to Nebraska the two main brands were Maytag
as most farms and ranches had a maytag wringer washer or Speed
Queen this was in 1971 and for the most part it still holds today. But I would say that Fridigiare had some of the market also but not like Maytag or Speed Queen. What I wish is that Speed Queen would go back to building washers like they used to in the 1960's and 1970's when they were made by
Mcgraw-Edison co. The only thing they needed to do was have holes at the bottom of the washbasket for sand disposal, all it would have taken was like two rows of holes and the problem would have been solved.

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[gyrafoam]

Tom-------

Atlanta Gas Light Company sold Maytags-----and allowed their customers to pay them off any way they could. Many a blue collar family were able to afford a dollar a month for their appliances -----terms the department stores certainly could not match and those families were glad to have 'em!

I just do not remember many GE's in my old neighborhood although I do remember them at Rich's. I remember Dr. Robinson's wife had a pair and she was a BIG Rich's person. Our neighborhood was mostly Maytag early on (most likely because of the Maytag store right on the square in Buckhead) but after Sears opened nearby they really took a chunk of business. Saw lots of LK Combo's. Rich's at Lenox must have sold some GE's as well.

My friends over in N.E. Atlanta were in a sea of Frigidaire as were my friends in Decatur and south Atlanta. There were about six MAJOR Frigidaire dealers back in the day. Sharp's in "Little Five Points", Frank Hudson's over in Decatur, and Hawthorne-Colloms in East Point (also a Maytag dealer)just to name a few.

Castleberry's up in Chamblee did all GE/Hotpoint and I'm sure sold a lot of them up there in spite of the GM plant right up the road. J.C. Penny sold a lot of "Penncrest"(Hotpoint) too. Come to think of it, back in the day, I saw a lot more Hotpoint around here than GE.

Other than coin laundries I hardly ever saw a "Rustinghouse"F/L although I'm sure they were around.When the T/L Westy's came along I saw plenty of them. Saw lots of Norge and Philco and the occasional Speed Queen, Wizard or Bradford. I even remember a few Thors, and Easy's but don't remember a Blackstone---at least around here. Only Apex I saw were in Miami in the mid 50's.

Thats about it for what I remember. Oh yeah, the Philco-Bendix "Sunshine" laundries that popped up everywhere a Zayre was------big surprise (but not to those of us who knew the Sunshine family!).

 

[jeb]

popular washers

I was born in 61 but being from Mansfield Ohio the large majority were westinghouse slantfronts. Everone who was anyone worked at westinghouse or knew someone who did. They had employee discounts for all westinghouse employees to purchase thier products plus a scrach and dent store for employees only. My grandmother told the story of how they bought the washer at the scrach and dent store and grandpa borrowed a truck to bring it home, when he got home he suprised her with the matching dryer, The dents were on the sides of them so when they were put side by side you would never know. People can from around the neiborhood to watch them work throught the windows in the doors- soon the neiborhood was full of Laundromats and dryers. ( she never called them washers they were laundromats)

 

[neptunebob]

Pittsburgh liked the top loaders

Here in the Pittsburgh area many people worked for Westinghouse, but there were very few front loaders - mostly the top loaders. If you didn't work for Westinghouse then you owned Sears Kenmore. I never saw other brands until the late 70's, although one friend of my mother's had GE - I think she still has them.

I am puzzled as to why Westinghouse built top loaders if the front loaders were better.

 

[pturo]

1963 Popular Washers

In Syracuse, I lived in a suburb that was "new" early 60's ranches and colonials. While the builder chose overwhelmingly GE appliances in the kitchen, the laundry room was up to the owner. A preponderace of Whilpool washers, then next Kenmore were in my friends homes growing up. Of course Easy Washer was headquarted here, so some people had older Easy's. We were the oddity, we had a Maytag, they were as rare as a Mercedes in our development, I felt like a communist.

 

[toggleswitch]

Said: I am puzzled as to why Westinghouse built top-loaders if the front-loaders were better.

Larger (perceived) capacity
Speed (cycle times)
Ease-of-use / loading & unloading, no beniding
Psychological benefit of plenty of water.

and the number one reason IMHO....
because the majority of machines were T/L at that time.

 

[chaskelljr2]

"Brandonkoons":

1963???? WOW!!!!!! What a GREAT year...... That was the year I was born.

But, formalities aside..... what automatic washer was common in my area (which is Washington, D. C.) in the 1960's was Maytag, RCA-Whirlpool and Kenmore (in THAT order for the top three), and then there were the occasional GE, Hotpoint or Philco. I didn't see a whole lot of Frigidaires in my area during that time. When I moved to Columbia, South Carolina in the mid 1970's, then I saw quite a few Frigidaires, but even then, what I still saw mostly were Maytags, Whirlpools and Kenmores (once again). We didn't get our first washer until 1967, and our first washer was a Kenmore. I had aunts on both sides of the family that had bought Kenmores before we had bought ours a few years later. We started out with a BOL Kenmore in 1967, but the years before, both aunts had Lady Kenmores. My mother's sister had a Model 800 (1963) and my father's aunt had a Keyboard model (1966-67).

But once again, if I had to say what the average home in Washington, D. C. had as a clothes washer back in 1963, then I had to say:

(01). Maytag
(02). RCA-Whirlpool
(03). Sears Kenmore

In that EXACT order.

--Charles--

 

[rchris]

Here in Birmingham, Kenmore, Whirlpool, and GE were big in the early 60s. In the late 60s, early 70s, it was Maytag, GE, and Whirlpool.

 

[whirlcool]

In the Chicago suburbs where I grew up in 1963 there were Frigidaires, GE Filter Flos, lots of Norge and Hotpoints. Hotpoint had a big factory in Chicago, if I remember correctly. When I was a kid we got to go to a Hotpoint company picnic cause one of my uncles worked for Hotpoint.

 

[rchris]

Hard to believe, whirlcool, that there wouldnt be a lot of Kenmores, since Chicago is the home of Sears Roebuck.

Seems that Norge had some kind of headquarters in Chitown, too, so I can see lots of Norge owners.

 

[abcomatic]

1963 washers in Pontiac, Il I was 14 then

My mother bought our first automatic washer and matching dryer. She looked all over town at the following: Speed Queen, Hamilton, Maytag, GE, Dexter, Kelvinator, Philco, Easy, Kenmore, Norge,Westinghouse, Ward's Signature and Blackstone. That is when the stores (not Sears or Wards) would bring the machines out to the house, hook them all up and let you use them for a month FREE, of all things. If you didn't want them, back they went.
We went to Gambles and she bought the dreaded CORANADO. The fanciest thing that they offered;16 cycles,lights all over the place, over-flow rinse, automatic bleach dispenser.
The only reason why she bought the pair was that she got FREE canned food. I hate cannned peas, carrots and corn to this very day! lol
The washer was awful! It vibrated so much that my father had to replace the floor about 5 years later. You have never heard so much swearing in your life! lol The agitator self-destructed and had to be replaced 3 times. Finally, the washer killed itself in 1971 with a tub full of soapy water. The tub broke lose and just laid over and died.
Water flooded the kitchen and even went into the living room! My father was ecstatic and my mother swore a blue streak a mile long! (My brother and I went into hiding). The gas dryer on the other hand with only one repair lasted until 1995!
IF anyone knows - Who made washers and dryers for Gambles in 1963? I would love to know and so would my mom who is now 83. (She wants her money back) lol
I have lots more stories about washers and wash day. Thanks for listening. ABComatic

 

[frigilux]

In lieu of the resident experts, I'll try to answer (without being a smartass, since I'm still fighting the stomach flu and not up to being clever):

I believe Coronado's were made by Beam, who also made the Wizard washers. If you find the video of Robert's '66 Wizard, you'll probably recognize the snorting noises, the tub ring, the agitator and the indexing tub.

 

[spinout]

In southern CA, Kenmore seemed to outnumber everything else

About 10 years ago I spent a few evenings at the UCSD library pulling all of the 1960's issues of Consumers Reports having anything to do with washers & dryers. In one issue dating to the early or mid sixties, I don't remember exactly, they did a breakout of sales by manufacturer. What I do remember is that Whirlpool + Kenmore had at least 50% of the (domestic) market. The other 50% was pretty much divided up among the balance of manufacturers. It was different than what my impressions might have suggested. Unfortunately, I don't remember any other numbers except that I expected GE to have a greater share than they did. They actually published production figures for each manufacture that year. I also remember seeing an issue where they had an agitator shoot-out. The spirals and ramps vs. the venerable straight vane. Anyway, I thought that there was a lot of interesting info presented during that period. And I even recall that CU once awarded the top spot to a Filter-Flo.

Pehaps, someday, those reviews will too, grace this site as I think they are quite worthwhile. If someone has access to these issues, and is willing to scan them in, it would be informative and interesting to see those articles here.