Do you suppose they ever went bowling together?

[dalangdon]

One of the things I think is fun about the old owner's manuals is how much more personalized they were. I was looking through a few tonight, and found two from the same town!

First, we have greetings from Mrs. Julia Kiene, on the occassion of a new Westinghouse Roaster oven:

 

[dalangdon]

And then we have the much more modest (and notably more terse) Betty Brown, congratulating us on the Tappan

 

[dalangdon]

Meanwhile, over at Reynolds Wrap...

The foil lady seems to be smelling something foul while she sends us holiday greetings

 

[dalangdon]

But the ladies in the "Home Service Department" of the Omaha Public Power District don't care how we smell. They just want us to have a nice holiday season, preferably with lots of electrical consumption. I wish they had included a group shot!

 

[dalangdon]

But in conclusion, just remember

FOOD IS FUN! Especially when you take hallucinogens that make you see disembodied heads floating around your kitchen!

 

[tolivac]

Note how most are "cartoon" people--only the Westinghouse book shows the picture of a "real" person-framed in a "TV" screen image.That was one thing that was creepy about 50's ads--the "floating heads"See lots of "Floaters" in my old Better Homes and Gardens magazines,American Home-that I got from the used bookstare here.It does make you kinda feel like you were on a bad "trip".Also like the cartoon "Typewriter" in the Westinghouse picture.

 

[gansky1]

Food is Fun

Until she can't take anymore of the backbreaking housework, removes the turkey, blows out the pilot and sticks her head in the oven...

 

[brettsomers]

Greg

she doesnt even have the turkey out of the oven!

 

[tomturbomatic]

A teacher friend in high school knew Julia Kiene. I wonder if they are still whipping up stuff in Heaven?

Poor Betty Brown either did not exist or was not photogenic. "Face that would make a cake fall," or "had looks that would stop an 8 day clock."

They would have needed a wide angle lens to get the whole Home Services Department from the Omaha Power Company with that many people.

Jean Parker from Kenmore had her picture in their earlier owner's manuals.

 

[dalangdon]

Julia Kiene was a real person?

That's nice to know. I thought maybe she was a creation from a stock photo or something. She looks a lot like my late paternal grandmother.

I think I'm jaded from my experience as a temp at Betty Crocker (I did a project on marketing numbers for instant mashed potatoes. They sold best in the south and on military bases. Please make a note of it)

The lobby of Betty Crocker had oil paintings of the various "bettys" through the years. It was really quite impressive, and a lot of fun to peruse them.

I would have been very happy at Betty Crocker, if only they hadn't kept pushing this horrible new children's juice product on me. It was so sweet I couldn't drink it and kept pouring it in a plant. Maybe the mashed potato project was a ruse, and I was the clinical study....

 

[dalangdon]

Speaking of floating heads.....

Straight from their 50 year engagement in the back of FOOD IS FUN!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Dan, not only were they both home economists, but my teacher's husband worked for Georgia Power Company, which for years sold only Westinghouse appliances along with Sunbeam small electrics. The county school system had a contract with the power company to supply the appliances for the home economics classrooms so between the home ec connections and power company-Westinghouse functions, they had opportunities to visit.

 

[dalangdon]

When I was a kid, and we would go downtown to look at the Christmas windows, I always wanted to look at the ones for power company, with their dispay of stoves and washers, as well as the downtown steam factory which had big windows looking in on the machinery, which was all painted bright colors.

But for sheer, unadulterated glamour, there was nothing like Sears. From the doorbell to the tent to the Refrigerator department, I loved sears.

 

[deeptub]

One of my favorite parts of vintage manuals and utility cookbooks is the letter from the home service department. I SO wanted to be an electric company home economist and lead what certainly seemed to be a glamorous life of going over new-home plans with a housewife and telling her where the outlets should be and helping her pick out her appliances. Don't you think people would KILL for that assistance these days?

A friend's mother is a home economist. In the 60s she worked in the home service department of a gas utility somewhere in Michigan. My friend and I were digging through some of her stuff and we found a certificate from the American Gas Association showing that she'd completed training and could now successfully demonstrate Gas Range Controls, including Burner-With-A-Brain. She still remembers vividly how nothing broiled like a Caloric Ultra Ray broiler.

She finds it depressing (as do I) that Home Ec in the universities (now usually known as Family and Consumer Sciences or some such) has dwindled to little more than fashion merchandising and child welfare (not that those aren't important subjects). I wonder if any university has an old-fashioned Home Economics major anymore.

T.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Tom, Now there are also food chemists and nutritionists as well as textile chemists & engineers. I, too, love those pictures of the ladies in white uniforms, those "sensible" professional white lace-up shoes with that chuncky heel and, sometimes, hairnets. Often for extra effect, one would be holding some metering or timing device and another would have a clipboard and writing instrument.

 

[dalangdon]

Here's some glamour shots from Seattle City Light in the 50's and 60's

 

[dalangdon]

and at the home show...

 

[dalangdon]

...and a modern electric kitchen!

 

[dalangdon]

and a lovely lady home economist chopping nuts