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Jane Wyman was indeed married to Ronald Regan in the '40s; this is likely the reason John Waters chose the name "Wyman Way" for the mythical street in Baltimore where the Fishpaw family has their not-so-happy home in the 1981 movie classic Polyester. They also had a fab refrigerator, a turquoise '66 or '67 Frigidaire Imperial bottom freezer. I had the exact same model for years, my favorite refrigerator ever, and still miss those foot pedals. 

 

Ford was probably only too happy to build two identical Continental Mk III cars for North By Northwest. The '58-'60 Lincoln line was interesting for a number of reasons but Ford's grand plan to morph into a more GM like company featuring Ford, Edsel, Mercury, Lincoln and Continental in ascending order of cost came crashing down when Edsel, Lincoln and Continental all sold terribly. The enormous size of the Lincolns and Continentals was the reason for the downsized '61 Lincoln Continental. Had that sold poorly the president of Ford, Robert McNamara, would likely have made good on his threat to send the Lincoln Division the way of the Edsel.


[this post was last edited: 12/15/2013-11:31]
 
To automotive and other product placements...

I am most familiar with Mopar placements... among the best of which is 'Bachelor in Paradise', which also includes what I understand is an O'Keefe and Merritt combo prominently featured as Janis Paige and Bob Hope battle the suds! The car placements, which I think I had mentioned in another thread, are 61 Mopar convertibles, Fury, Polara, and 300G.
 
Ovrphil . . .

It's close but not quite the same. Mine didn't have visible door handles, you grabbed the chrome reveal at either side of the door. It was left-hinged so you had to pull on the right side but I'm sure they would have had right-hinged versions as well. It also had twin foot pedals, one for the refrigerator and one for the freezer. Overall, a very elegant design with the contoured doors. Somewhere I have a pic but can't find it.
 
The Rest of Jane's Kitchen:

You don't see a whole lot of it, because the director of All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, kept the focus on his characters instead of the sets, but a little more of Jane's kitchen was on view. This is the other end of the kitchen, away from the stove and fridge seen previously; the kitchen was a long, narrow galley.

You can see Jane's impeccably ironed tea towels on their own special rack, and her beautifully arranged glassware. The next post will show more of the cabinets.

And oh, yes - that is Agnes Moorehead. Like you needed to ask, Robert! :P

danemodsandy++12-15-2013-17-07-46.jpg
 
Cabinets:

Here you can see Jane's insanely chic kitchen cabinets - light ebony-limed rift oak. You couldn't get more stylish in 1954-55.

I cannot make up my mind whether the countertops are self-edged Formica (a bit early for that, but not impossible), or solid maple. The latter would be right up Jane's alley - she's a rich widow, living alone, with not much to do besides listen to her spoiled grown children bitch and take immaculate care of her house. Solid maple counters would have given her many a golden hour oiling and waxing, especially around that undermount double-bowl sink.

danemodsandy++12-15-2013-17-15-25.jpg
 
hydralique - your description sounds like a sleeker-looking unit, but the engineering got better, it seems...

PhilR - thanks for that info and ad. 1962 vs. 1966...looks like space cowgirl wins: it has a divider, one of three moving parts, that is made from some satellite material(I guess they used the discarded metal...just kidding)that is 4 times greater resistance to wear than the highest grade steel. All you need to add ...is food.

LOVE those ads.
 
My mom and Dad had that same 66 Frigidaire for a long time, up into the late 80's. My dad was a  Frigidaire authorized  serviceman, and he got it from Frigidaire as a  factory scrap out. It got stuck in defrost, and melted most of the plastic in the freezer. So he got the fridge, for basically free, and then bought all the parts to fix it.
 
Greg...RE Servel..

Yes it WAS connected as well as a nice 1930s gas range, I would have bought them both if I could have gotten them home, the people said the fridge worked, it was a big one, almost as tall as me and had a full width freezer.
 
goatfarmer . . .

Interesting story about the '66 Frigidaire. Ours came from a used appliance store in Burbank about '92, we were specifically looking for a turquoise bottom freezer model. That ruled out any new boxes, plus I absolutely hate the imitation faux leather texture most manufacturers were putting on all their refrigerators back then; I'd much rather see fingerprints than shiny paint on the texture.

 

The Frigidaire was about the oldest refrigerator the store had but it was guaranteed to work. It did work mostly OK but once the store's warranty ran out the coils under the freezer floor started icing up and forcing the plastic floor upwards. It would take a few months to do this but I then had to disassemble the whole freezer to defrost it. I eventually realized that the defrost heater was a generic replacement that seemed to work but its placement on the coils had to be spot on. By a lot of trial and error I found the sweet spot and then it defrosted fine for years. Presumably Frigidaire had some problems with the defrost system on these units; ironically mine proudly said "FROSTPROOF" on the front.
 

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