1957 Console Look Ranges
Liberator, Stratoliner, Mainliner, Speedster, Stewardess, and the Spacemaker 30" & 24" lines.
Liberator, Stratoliner, Mainliner, Speedster, Stewardess, and the Spacemaker 30" & 24" lines.
59 GE Stove
- Thread starter goatfarmer
- Start date
Help Support :
The panel on the 57 appliances was not stainless, but aluminum and so soft that it will dent in you look at it cross eyed. The 1961 TOL Spacemaker 18.8 refrig-freezer had a full emobssed aluminum panel on the freezer door, but it could be removed and the regular door panel underneath was the same color as the rest of the cabinet.
The double oven Liberator was named after the big bomber that helped win WWII. 2 ovens liberated the cook. When the self-cleaning ovens came along, GE plastered all kinds of trim on the oven doors for a while to show the feature. There was a year when there were partial panels of dark glass on both of the ovens' doors from behind the handles to maybe a third of the way down. Maybe it was a way to reduce contact with the hot door surface. This was before they figured out how to have a window in the door so maybe it was a way to take away the plain look of a TOL range without an oven window. Did you ever notice how few Frigidaire TOL 40" ranges were sold with a window in the door of the main oven? Maybe it was because of the wider master oven doors that Westinghouse and GE made windows in doors look great, but a Frigidaire range with the two equal size door fronts looks somehow unbalanced with a window on the right aide. The 30 inch Frigidaire ranges looked OK with a window in the wide door and most of the wall ovens, too.
Is that Mainline Philadelphia range light blue or turquoise?
The double oven Liberator was named after the big bomber that helped win WWII. 2 ovens liberated the cook. When the self-cleaning ovens came along, GE plastered all kinds of trim on the oven doors for a while to show the feature. There was a year when there were partial panels of dark glass on both of the ovens' doors from behind the handles to maybe a third of the way down. Maybe it was a way to reduce contact with the hot door surface. This was before they figured out how to have a window in the door so maybe it was a way to take away the plain look of a TOL range without an oven window. Did you ever notice how few Frigidaire TOL 40" ranges were sold with a window in the door of the main oven? Maybe it was because of the wider master oven doors that Westinghouse and GE made windows in doors look great, but a Frigidaire range with the two equal size door fronts looks somehow unbalanced with a window on the right aide. The 30 inch Frigidaire ranges looked OK with a window in the wide door and most of the wall ovens, too.
Is that Mainline Philadelphia range light blue or turquoise?
danemodsandy
Well-known member
I'll second that on the trim panels- they are easy to dent. GE's TOL reefers had the panel in 1959 and 1960, too. We had a '59 that was the model below the TOL; it had the turn-around Spacemaker shelves and was otherwise identical to the TOL, but with a slightly smaller freezer drawer and no trim panel. The instruction manual showed the full line, including the TOL model and the incredible wall-mount cabinet reefers. I have friends in Houston with a 1960 TOL in pink, with the trim panel.
The turnaround shelves weren't really as useful as the brochures and ads made them look; human nature is such that one leaves them in place and rummages around exactly as in every other refrigerator. You COULD swivel them out, but you don't.
Too bad that GE backed off on its trim levels in the 1960s. I think a Liberator with the trim panels AND P-7 self-cleaning would be one very handsome, very useful, very desirable range.
The turnaround shelves weren't really as useful as the brochures and ads made them look; human nature is such that one leaves them in place and rummages around exactly as in every other refrigerator. You COULD swivel them out, but you don't.
Too bad that GE backed off on its trim levels in the 1960s. I think a Liberator with the trim panels AND P-7 self-cleaning would be one very handsome, very useful, very desirable range.
northwesty
Well-known member
Here is a 1952 Stratoliner that is just on the local Craigslist here. I have to comment that everybody is aware of these $3000 - $5000 restored range claims (I've seen the web page myself) and it sure is inflating the asking prices. Well, this fellow is only asking $350, not $1000 or so.
danemodsandy
Well-known member
Interesting how that's so similar to Brian's '48 with a little more glitz on the backguard. They weren't going crazy with the frequent restylings yet, and GE was better about that than some other companies.
