Hoover--What were they thinking?

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veg-o-matic

veg-o-matic

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Sep 15, 2004
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Baltimore, Hon!
I was looking at my Floor-A-Matic last night and it hit me. What on EARTH were they thinking when they chose colors?

Almost all Golden Age Of Hoover machines have a base color of Babyshit Brown. Mmmm, there's a good choice. Now lets choose the accent color. No wait--let's give people a choice! We can add Hideous Lime Green or Throat Gripping Orange to the palette.

So did Hoover ever use any attractive colors? I think I remember seeing a Connie in a light blue. Or maybe it was read--CRS. What sticks in my mind, though, are the green and orange.

Who's got something that ain't ugly as homemade sin?

veg
 
Can you post a closer up of your Floor Mate? I know they did pump out some awful brown/crap items for awhile, probably in the earthtone 70's but most of their stuff prior and afterwards I think they had a great palette of colors for vacuums. You saw the pic of that Hoover Quik-Broom I got a couple of weeks back didn't you... brown/dirty yellow.. not pretty I know but the PortaPower I got isn't bad.
 
Oh Veg, Hoover had some gorgeous colors! That's part of the reason why I've collected them. My Floor a Matic is that ugly orange, but I bought it to use so I don't really mind, and it's a wonderful machine.

My friend Richie has the lime green scrubber, I believe (LOL).

BUT...in the late 50s and through the 60s, they had some wonderful shades of pink, blue and green, etc. There is also one model of Convertible that is a very pretty shade of orange. Mind you all these colors have very special names, kind of like the clothes in an International Male catalog. Hoover1060 would be a good candidate to fill you in on what some of those names are. Among them are "Seal Griege" and "Neptune Green", for starters. :)

True, many of the bases and such are cream or a variation of beige or brown, but the bags and hoods, etc were very pretty, IMO.
 
Jeff Hooverland Come to the Rescue!!

Jeff Parker knows the history of Hoover colors. They must have realized that the browns were boring and hired Faber Birren (sp?) I believe to specifically design the color schemes of the Hoovers from the 65 convertible (pink) and later. Here is a picture of Jeff's collection- check out those colors!!
 
Oh I love the aqua....

Why are things not made in aqua anymore. Remember aqua cars, and models/hot wheels? We had an aqua LeSabre with an aqua interior.

The Hoover blues are rich too.
 
I stand corrected!

It must be just the Hoovers I've been acquainted with. We had one of the convertible vacs in the '70s that was HLG. Then I got the Babyshit Brown Swingette, and the HLG Floor-A-Matic.

I had no idea there were aquas and pinks and royal blues. Very nice! And oh, those Constellations... No no, I don't need to start collecting something ELSE!

veg
 
Hoover colors...

The first Hoovers of color were models 29 and 62. The first really brightly colored one was model 634, and they went pastel with model 64 in sandalwood and mulberry with lipstick red accent.
Pre-Convertible Hoovers were bland colors because of the plastic compound hadn't been perfected yet, and bakelite either came in brown or black.
Faber Birren was Hoover's color consultant. He did the colors thru the 1960's, colors such as Heather Rose(65) Porcelain Blue(68) dusky lavender(33) and neptune green(69)
Many colors were used throughout the line. So cleaners would match...
The poop brown that was mentioned earlier is actually called seal griege, and it was used extensively in light/medium/dark shades from 1965 to 1971.
I'm a Hoover nut. When I was having my house painted last year, I toddled off to the Benjamin Moore paint store with a model 69 Convertible bag and had them match the color. My kitchen is painted Neptune Green.
At the Hoover Historical center in North Canton, in the basement archives is a piece of paper with color chips on it from the 69-71 line. Seal griege, spring green, marine blue...all could come back to life on walls somewhere witha little trip to Home Depot...
 
What else did Hoover make?

This place has got to be about the funniest place on the Internet, I swear. Anyway, I was walking through a flea market once, and I'm no stranger to flea markets, and I tend to gravitate toward small appliance. I was really shocked one day to find a Hoover can opener. I need another can opener like I need a hole in my vacuum cleaner bag, but I couldn't resist. It just seemed so novel. I had always just associated Hoover with vacuum cleaners. So, the question is, what else did Hoover make? I don't know, I just though maybe someone around this place might know.
 
Hoover made:

Steam irons, percolators, fry pans, can openers, blenders, electric knives, the twin tub washer, and even a full sized washer and dryer...
Plus the usual vacuums and commercial floor equipment.
 
My own coloful Hoovers

Left to right top to bottom:

Hoover #68, Aqua Blue/Pearl White, 1961-1962
Hoover #64, the, "Citation", neutral tan, off white, 1956-57
Hoover #61 basic bakelike colors, fabulous performer, 1946-50

Dial-A-Matic # 1140 Spring Green/Seal Griege?, 1969-71
Hoover #31 Special Mint Green with matching pale green base, 1958-61
Hoover #28 basic bakelite colors, really mass produced after WWII, (#27 had small production run '45-'46), "budget vacuum" to the #61, 1946-50
 
I have an old service manual that suggests even more small appliances. I'll list some more of them when it's unearthed after the move. I know waffle irons was one example.

It should be noted that many if not all of these non-floorcare type items I believe were manufactured by others and badged as Hoover. Some items, such as the hand mixer and percolator, had at least two different incarnations at various times made by different manufacturers.
 
Color 2005

Check out this wonderful performer, the current model of the Air-Way Signature Series in the historic model 55 purple which was introduced in the 1950's, I believe.
 

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