A/C in _The Seven Year Itch_

[danemodsandy]

Mark:

These "stirs" are what set us to digging and researching, with the result that a little more information is found, so that we can all learn from it. So, ya done good by starting this thread.

The objects seen on the sets of movies used to be selected very carefully, to help further the story. This was an expensive air conditioner - suitable to the setting of the story - and it was a large-capacity air conditioner - needed to cool the large area of the apartment. While the average 1955 moviegoer would not have known one A/C unit from another, movie studios used to be very careful to "cast" objects correctly, so that even the very few audience members familiar with Emerson's line of air conditioners could not say something like: "I sell those things, and that model could never cool an apartment that size!" Much less care is taken today, as our recent Mad Men thread points out.

I'll hope to hear from you while you're in town - look forward to seeing you again!

 

[circlew]

The first window air conditioner I remember seeing belonged to my dad's aunt & uncle. It was a Friedrich, and stuck out well over 2' on the outside. It had steel supports angling up from the wall to support the unit, and filled nearly the entire lower part of the window. What it weighed I don't know, but had to be extremely heavy. It operated on 240V, and produced very cold air. It was not new even when I was a toddler, and I think I remember Uncle Fred saying they bought it in 1949. They were probably the first ones in town to have any air conditioning. They used the unit until sometime circa 1972, when they had central air installed.

My Aunt Doris was the first I remember with central air, which came with their new 1957 house in Long Beach, MS. She always had central air in every house from then on.

We got the first window unit in our house around 1961, and it was a used Mitchell. It would put out some cold air, but blew fuses a lot if anything else was on the same circuit.

 

[frigilux]

Only at AW: A photo of Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe and we're taken with the A/C unit!

Yet another classic example of why I love this website.

 

[toploader55]

PhilR

Thanks for that great link to those A/C archives.

Great Thread.

 

[norgeway]

Emerson!!

Glad the mystery is solved...it does look Mitchelesque though!!LOL...One thing is for sure, those old ACs really did cool...unlike todays window units they blew out bone chilling icy air!

 

[crevicetool]

yeah, yeah, yeah...

1955,
cold air,
Marilyn Monroe,
"casting" objects,
Mad Men
Waterloo...blah, blah, blah...

Am I the only one seein' that big honkin' black knob on the left side of the Emerson that ain't in any pictures heretofore presented other than the movie stills?

What the heck is that for?

Hmmmm?

 

[danemodsandy]

Rick:

I've also been wondering about it, but I haven't found a clear shot that explains it.

It appears that it might be a louver adjustment knob - the sort of thing that you loosen to move the louvers to a desired position, and then re-tighten to lock them into place.

Since Ken has said this is an earlier unit than any we've found pictures of that weren't connected to the movie, it could have features not seen on those other photos.

By the way, am I the only one laughing at that window installation? The weight of the unit would put a huge strain on the mullions and glass, and the vibration would likely shake the whole thing apart in not too much time. Of course, the unit seen in the movie didn't actually have to operate, just blow air, which meant the real-life headaches inherent in such an installation weren't a worry.

But even braced from outside where it wouldn't be visible in these shots, that installation would have some real problems, seems to me.

 

[KenHoran]

'Seven Year Itch' air conditioners

PhilR advised me about this thread so I thought I'd respond. The window air conditioner shown in the living room set of 'The Seven Year Itch' (1955) is indeed a 1954 Emerson 'Custom' series room air conditioner. I've attached a frame capture showing the unit from the outside. The knob on the side of the interior cabinet is fake and was put there by the studio prop department to make it easier to see Tom Ewell switch the unit on. The unit was actually switched on by a technician off camera. It would not be very visual for Tom Ewell to open the control panel door and push the correct button to switch the unit on. The Emerson trademark on the control panel door was probably removed by accident by the studio grips handling the unit. The other window air conditioners in the story, one in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen were 1954 Emerson 'Compact' series room air conditioners. In the attached photo of the 1954 Emerson 'Compact' unit in the kitchen you can plainly see the Emerson trademark in the lower right hand corner of the interior cabinet. I've also attached a photo showing the 1954 Emerson 'Compact' unit from the outside with Marilyn leaning over it.

http://air-conditioner-man.tumblr.com

 

[kenmore71]

Ken, welcome to AW.org!

 

Thanks for taking time to respond to this post!

 

The signal-to-noise ratio on this forum varies, but in the end the serious collector and/or enthusiast is almost ALWAYS rewarded by the wealth of information that others share out of TRUE passion for their interests and hobbies!

 

Thanks again!

 

[petek]

Thanks Ken... enjoyed your page as well. Do you happen to have any of those split Heat Controller units. I lent mine out a few years ago to a family member and never got it back.. hoping one will cross my path again.

 

[KenHoran]

Petek:

I did have several of those units under Hotpoint and Montgomery Ward's brands but no longer. Because of their popularity they sold for a nice high price.

 

[petek]

Shame they don't make them any longer. I doubt there was any window shaker as quiet as those were. I used to have mine in the sliding window above my bed and head and it was no louder than a small table fan on low

 

[danemodsandy]

Hi Ken:

First, thanks for contributing your expertise and some great photos to this thread! I'm also grateful to you for clearing up the mystery about the big knob on the upper left side.

I would like to speak to the idea that prop men knocked the Emerson logo off by accident. That might indeed have occurred, but it is also true that studios in Hollywood's heyday frequently modified consumer products to get rid of obtrusive logos.

I'm posting four photos of two examples of this in Hitchcock films.

The first photo is of the freezer door of a Servel Model S-600 refrigerator; note the very large "Servel" logo screen-printed on the blue glass of the door. The second photo is of the same model Servel, in a frame grab from 1948's Rope. Note that the logo has been painted out, using paint in a blue similar to that of the glass. Other logos were left intact on this refrigerator, because they were not large enough to be distracting, but this one was distracting and it was dealt with.

The third photo is of a 1956-57 RCA Model 6-HF-5 New Orthophonic phongraph. Note the large logo badge on the underside of its lid. The fourth photo is of the same model, used in 1958's Vertigo. Note that the badge has been removed entirely. The nameplate on the phono's front was left intact; only the under-lid badge was gotten rid of.

Like the air conditioner in The Seven Year Itch, both these products were brand-new, current models at the times these films were made.

So, either scenario is possible, but moviemakers did modify, conceal and remove logo elements that were distracting, all the time. [this post was last edited: 12/18/2014-17:47]

 

[whirlaway]

My Ole Mitchell!

That was a very quiet AC,it had 2motors in it one for the evaporater and one for the condenser.It was very cold a freon 12 unit most of the pre 1960 models were 12.To boot it ran on 110 and only once blew a fuse I had to oil the condenser motor,I didnt know it had oil ports on it.It also had an electric heater in it and about a half inch of tar in the base so it never rusted.I hated to get rid of it,was getting low on freon so I knew it had a tiny leak in it.I bought a new Samsung nowhere as good as the old one.As a back-up I have an old fedders I bought at the restore store for ten dollars.It runs great the old weather wheel model.Very clean it was not used much and not left in the window year around.

 

[crevicetool]

There was a thread on Vacuumland....

....several years ago about pianos. I was interested in knowing what make of piano was used in a particular Marx Brothers movie. The thread developed and folks were able to help me find out the maker of the piano. It turned out to be a Knabe, but only by recognizing the shape of the piano since no name was visible.

Piano name boards (fall boards) proudly proclaim the manufacture, often in elaborate gold leaf decals. Rarely in classic film does the name appear. It has been blacked out, or covered with a mirror etc. When the camera is doing a close-up of the pianist's fingers on the keys, it would be inevitable that the name would show within the frame.

I always just assumed the covering of the name would be so not to endorse any brand over the other. Sandy, it did not occur to me that it would be a distraction - but that makes sense as well.

 

[danemodsandy]

Rick:

Here's what I think could have happened - just an educated guess, okay? I'm not saying I know for sure.

Below is a frame grab I doctored to put the logo back on the left-hand louver, where it is in the first identification photo of a Custom posted in this thread. This was a little photo-editing job of mine. I'm assuming the logo was gold-tone; a lot of '50s appliance trim was. I could be wrong about that, but whether the logo was gold or silver makes no difference to what I'm about to posit.

That logo is head-on to the camera, which means it's going to be legible if the camera is close, and puzzling if the camera is far away.

The Compact shown in the shot of the kitchen that Ken posted is not shot from a head-on position; you can't really see its logo, so it doesn't distract.

But head-on, the Custom's logo is kind of an attention-grabber. So, that could be why it was removed.

 

[a440]

Such great investigation!  I love it!

Here is one that I have never been able to get answers on from other websites.  Although they did remember them, they could never pinpoint  who they were built by.

In a Catholic School I was in years ago there were window units.  They looked very much like the Emerson Units that are pictured above.  The only difference was that they were also heating units.  The Heating part of the units  were Natural Gas.  When you looked at the unit outside the regular part of the Air-Conditioner was on the right side of the unit.  The heating part was on the left and it was to the visual eye a heat exchanger  with two exhaust openings at the top.  And yes these were window units.  When you looked at the unit from the outside there was a drain tube and on the left of the unit was a gas tube.  They had these units for many years.

Any of you out there know what type of unit this was?  They were very effective at cooling and heating.

Brent

 

[KenHoran]

danemodsandy:

Any of these scenarios are possible. The Emerson trademark is gold and possibly would reflect light into the camera making it a distraction. Cinematographers were very specialized artists and when lighting a set strived for perfection. Very interesting about "Servel" being painted out.

 

[KenHoran]

A440:

The only such units I am aware of were made by Suburban Manufacturing Company.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Another glitch is the record player was not turned on when the tone arm was placed on the the record and the music started. The light in the tuner dial was not on. I remember from our mid 50s Magnavox combination that the tuner-amplifier had to be turned on and had to warm up before you could play a record.