Can Anyone Identify These?

[danemodsandy]

Hello:

I am presently researching Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo for a magazine project, and I am trying to get two items seen on one of the movie's sets identified. They are a television set and a combination sink/range/refrigerator unit.

What I'm looking for is at least manufacturer info; if any model numbers are known to anyone, that would be the icing on the cake.

Any help on this would be ENORMOUSLY appreciated!

Here's the television set (at the extreme left of the frame); that's James Stewart and Kim Novak in the shot:

 

[danemodsandy]

Sink/Range/Fridge Unit:

This is not much information to go on, I know, but this combo unit is seen only very briefly:

 

[americansuds]

Seems like Kitchen Aid made a fridge/sink/cooktop/dw combo type thing. just a faint memory. someone here will know. I remember the ads in Life Magazine I think.

 

[danemodsandy]

Clearer Shot of Combo Unit:

I was able to find one place in the movie where the kitchen's combo unit is seen a little more clearly, so here goes. Fair warning: the oven door is open, so you can't see the range part as well as could be. What's going on in the scene is the Jimmy Stewart is drying Kim Novak's clothes in his kitchen by hanging them up and running the oven with the door open.

 

[rp2813]

Try This

Someone on the Antique Radios Forum can probably identify the TV. The link below is to the forum section for vintage television.

Antique Television Discussions

Share collecting tips/ideas, discuss antique televisions and related items. Ads are not permitted.

www.antiqueradios.com

 

[danemodsandy]

Ralph:

I'll try that if no one here is able to I.D. it, thanks. BTW, the S.F. apartment used for the exterior shots in this scene was real; it's at 900 Lombard, corner of Lombard and Jones. Still looks very much the way it did in the movie, aside from some seriously overgrown shrubbery.

 

[maytagbear]

Television looks like

an RCA to me, and all-in-one kitchen looks like a Dwyer.

Just guesses.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[danemodsandy]

Lawrence, You Did It!

You nailed the kitchen for certain; a little research turned up an almost identical unit in someone's apartment in Astoria. Oddly, though the Astoria unit is identified on its nameplate as a product of Dwyer, it also has the name "Murph-Cabranette" on the nameplate as well. But it's definitely Dwyer; some cross-checking turned up other units as well.

Thank you SO much. I'm checking the TV out, too, but that may be a little harder.

 

[danemodsandy]

Dingdingdingdingding!

Ralph and Lawrence:

Thank you both so much! Lawrence, you nailed the Dwyer combo kitchen, and Ralph, your suggestion to ask at the Antique Radio Forums TV forum page was an excellent one; someone identified it as a Muntz, and some additional research confirmed that information.

Unbelievable what people know! Thanks again.

 

[jasonl]

Pun intended

And it was being used as a "Dwyer" in the movie as well.

 

[maytagbear]

Sandy

I'm smarter than I look. Sometimes.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[danemodsandy]

Now, Now, Lawrence:

"I'm smarter than I look."

You do okay, trust me.

 

[danemodsandy]

jasonl:

GRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!

;-)

 

[toggleswitch2]

Where is Yogi when you need him?

Would that be "Smarter than the average bear?"

 

[yogitunes]

Toggles...your funny

I really needed to laugh today

Thanks a million

 

[toggleswitch2]

 

[rp2813]

Muntz

I'm glad somebody on the ARF was able to get you a quick answer. I checked the Early Televison Foundation site and they only had really early stuff there. I have to say that Muntz would never have made it into my slew of guesses. I thought they only made larger sets. The interesting thing about Muntz is that they have a very sparse chassis compared to most vintage sets. I like the case on that TV. Very smart color scheme.

I just watched Vertigo again on TV not too long ago. Great vintage views of the City By The Bay, and it also triggered me to suggest a day trip to San Juan Bautista with some friends who are relatively new to this area.

Have fun with your project Sandy!

 

[panthera]

Lawrence

is not only smarter than the average bear - if I'm the standard - but he's also sweet through and through.
(pun not intended, but no doubt taken).

 

[danemodsandy]

Ralph:

Ah, San Juan Bautista! A beautiful place. I've had several great phone conversations about Vertigo with the staff there; they were able to tell me things I didn't know, and I was able to share some tidbits with them, too (they hadn't realised that Hitchcock changed the archways that carriages used to pass through; they're square in real life, but Hitchcock had them rounded with plywood and plaster temporary constructions).

One of the things I like about the movie is that it serves as a record of a time when San Francisco worked better for people from all walks of life. Today, it's not a city for an average wage-earner, and that's a shame. I hope S.F. can somehow get back to some of that in the future. I also liked the city better before the big skyscrapers began springing up; it was a very human-scale, almost European place. Ah well - time marches on.

Today, a lot of the locations seen in Vertigo are changed. Ernie's is gone, and the building greatly changed. Ransohoff's is long since closed, and the building was Escada for a while, and now that's gone, too. The run-down Empire Hotel became the upscale York, and is now the Vertigo Hotel (blecch!). Old Fort Point and Marine Drive look much as they did in the movie, and the Palace of Fine Arts and the Palace of the Legion of Honour do, too. Mission Dolores is still intact, but the old house at the corner of Eddy and Gough that was used for the McKittrick Hotel (the Fortmann Mansion) survived barely eighteen months after Vertigo was filmed, then was lost to a fire.

Did I mention that I really love Vertigo? ;-)