Fridge I.D.? (Pic)

[danemodsandy]

Okay, here's another appliance mystery, this time from Rosemary's Baby. The fridge is right beside a range I think is a Dixie, also in yellow.

What's odd is that the movie was shot in '67 for '68 release, and yellow was already being phased out fast.

Anyone know the brand of this unit?

 

[appnut]

Looks like a Deluxe or Custom Deluxe Frigidaire to me.

 

[appnut]

Well, the studio could have gotten that fridge from the prop facilities when it wa used for movies and shows form the eaerly 1960s. besides it went very well with those dishes in the foreground, which were very much the "in" thing when the movie was shot.

 

[danemodsandy]

Appnut:

I'm thinking Frigidaire too, because of the sculptured door, but the nameplate on the freezer door is pretty honkin' big for Frigidaire. I dunno. Here's another pic:

 

[appnut]

Sandy, in that first photo, it looks like tha nameplate is covered by some piece of paper with some sort of picture on it and that piece of paper is much larger than the actual nameplate. I would imagine even though it's a bad angle in the 2nd shot, it's stilll that piece of paper

 

[danemodsandy]

Appnut:

There could be something to what you say. While the movie was made in late '67, the story takes place almost two years earlier, in late '65 and early '66. They could have looked around to find something that was about the right age.

OTOH, if you'll look closely at the right side of the second pic, there's a Lincoln Beautyware breadbox in shaded Avocado, which was more correct for '66 or '67 than it was for 1965.

 

[appnut]

Yes, I noticed that avocado bread box pretty quickly in that shot.

 

[danemodsandy]

Nameplate:

App: No, you can see that it's a nameplate in another scene, but the camera's moving too fast to get a clear still of it.

I don't think it would have been a fake nameplate to conceal the brand identity, because plenty of other brand names are shown in the movie, very clearly. Pall Mall cigarettes, Pepperidge Farm canned soup, a Westinghouse stereo, and plenty more.

 

[jeffg]

Lots of different things can go on in films with brand names, anything from replacing them (not the case here, I believe), to a director who might find a large brand name distracting in a shot or scene (likely the case here).

The badge really does look covered.

 

[everythingold]

One rarely sees a harvest gold GMFR. and poppy, they never made anything poppy did they?

 

[danemodsandy]

Matt:

You're looking at yellow there, not Harvest. The lighting in that shot makes the stove and reefer look more gold than they appeared to be in other shots.

In the movie, when the young couple, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, first see the apartment, it's still full of a recently deceased woman's belongings that have been there forever. Where the stove and reefer are in the shot I showed you, there was a huge old Garland-type range; a very old reefer was on the other side of the room. The young couple redecorate, and one of the things they do is to put in their new stove and reefer in the space formerly occupied by the old lady's mammoth range. Everyone here knows that putting a range right against a reefer isn't a good idea, but it looked nice in the movie.

I seem to remember that that range is a Dixie; you used to see them a lot in furniture stores like Sterchi's. I specifically remember the same range in turquoise in Sterchi's window in downtown Atlanta in the '60s.

And yes, the location in my profile is the Woodhouses' old apartment. Things have been pretty calm here since Minnie and Roman left. ;-)

 

[kenmore81]

I like the stove too!
My 4amps lol

 

[norgeway]

Fridge date

That is a 62 Frigidaire,You can tell by the square badge nameplate, and look close and you can see the words Refrigerator....Freezer..In the chrome trim where the 2 doors meet on the hinge side.

 

[danemodsandy]

Hans:

Looks like you are probably right. I went to eBay and searched on Frigidaire ads, and found a pic that looks like the reefer in the movie. The bottom intake grille is the same, etc. However, the ad shows the unit with the door open and the model putting stuff in the fridge. If anyone has a 1962 ad showing this model with the door closed and the nameplate showing, I'd be extremely grateful to see it.

 

[danemodsandy]

Better Shot of Nameplate:

After some looking, I found this shot that shows the nameplate with reasonable clarity. You can see that it's a nameplate and not a piece of paper, but whether it's a Frigidaire nameplate or not can't be seen. This is also better colour rendition than in the previous shots, showing that the appliances are yellow.

 

[swestoyz]

The badge and handles do look similar to the one on Cory's 1962 SS bottom freezer Frigidaire.

 

[goatfarmer]

Definately early 60's Frigidaire.

 

[toggleswitch2]

She's got the devil in her.

It tea. Plain-old Lipton tea!

Fascinating to me is if one removes the yellows and the greens that kitchen is pretty timeless and still sought-after today.

Event the yellow chair/stool is period-correct!

 

[danemodsandy]

Toggles:

Actually, I think that kitchen had - and still has - a tremendous infkuence. You would not believe the influence movies and TV can have on people's consumer desires. I think that Rosemary's Baby began a trend of freshening up old houses and apartments that continues to this day. This Hollywood influence on real life is part of what I write about for a living, and it amazes me how little it's understood. Most people can understand how Farrah Fawcett influenced hair styles, or how much Diane Keaton's wardrobe in Annie Hall influenced fashion for a while, but not many understand furnishing influences like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mary sold an awful lot of baker's racks and brass coat stands.

In 1968, when Rosemary's Baby was such a huge hit, it introduced a lot of people to the idea that old houses could be great places to live, not just a way to "get by." New Yorkers had known that for a long time, but the rest of America was still into the idea that a new house was the most desirable.

By the way, the apartment in the movie was not real; it was a set designed by Richard Sylbert. He was famous for making sets look real through ageing and distressing. The Woodhouse apartment has beat-up woodwork, cracked subway tiles, and gouged floors - all of it done by studio craftsmen.