Polly Clean Laundry Centers

[drewz]

Has anyone actually seen one of these landromats?

They featured all RCA Whirlpool equipment including self-service dry cleaning machines.

The Trademark RCA Whirlpool used for these centers was a lady dressed up like a maid.

Some one told me that there was one located in Richmond, Virginia?

 

[tomturbomatic]

We had one in Decatur, GA, but it was not in great shape. There was one in Bethesda, MD owned by an old man who had John work on the dry cleaning machines, but the owner died and the center is no more. When I lived in VA, there was one with bossy ladies who took your dry cleaning and did it. I asked if I could sit and watch my coat go through, but she told me that there was nothing to see; it just goes round and round... HA! After paying $10.00, I thought I was entitled to a floor show or some type of entertainment. One thing I was never able to check out because the only ones I knew about were always broken were the WP Wash-A-Lot machines that were built like the early WP combos and washed with the Filter Stream. I wanted to see if they extracted at a higher speed (they would have to) because they could be bolted down and maybe have heavier construction.

The Polyclean Centers were like the Norge Laundry Villages. I wonder how few people managed to pay off their investment and actually make money on those things.

 

[mcmodern]

Oh, yeah.

I had posted about Polly-Clean, Norge and Helpee-Selfee (appologies to my Asian friends)coin-op laundries a few months ago. In Amarillo, TX, we had a brand-new Polly-Clean near the house around 1961 or 2, and it was my favorite place. We could even see the neon arrow on the tall sign from the den! (Of course in Amarillo, 2-3 mile visibility is no issue...)

All WP washers, dryers, 'double-loaders', which I believe is what Tom refers to, and dry cleaners. We were able to do the dry-cleaning ourselves there, even though someone was always on duty. And I loved 'Polly' - she looked like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character. The last one I ever saw was probably early seventies, in Sprinfield, MO. Two double-loaders built into the wall in the lobby (driving by, that's what I saw) provided quite a memory jolt!

Kelly

 

[bongobro]

Polly Clean Laundry Centers

I remember a Polly Clean Laundry Center circa 1963-64 in Overland, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis), and apparently that was the name Whirlpool gave to a line of coin laundries;

I also remember a Helpee-Selfee in Edmundson, Missouri (another St. Louis Suburb), which was located across from my grade school. It opened about 1960 or 1961, and it had two rows of PINK Frigidaire washers, which were replaced by turquoise Frigidaires about two or three years later.

I don't remember the name Philco-Bendix gave to their laundries, but I do remember seeing onein my neighborhood in the '60's, as well as a Norge Laundry Village or two--and there was an honest-to-goodness Laundromat (with Westinghouse washers--probably front-loaders) in Overland sometime before 1965...

 

[mcmodern]

Helpee-Selfee and Frigidaire

Yes, I beleive those were Frigidaire sponsored franchises. Early jet-cones, I think put into commercial washers while the last version of the three-ring were still in home models. I've never seen one, but a friend's grandmother owned a Helpee-Selfee in southern Illinois.

The last Norge Laundry Village I remember was in Dallas at Preston Center. Now, people living in that neighborhood probably have fantastic modern TOL washers and dryers, and don't even do their own laundry!

 

[scott55405]

I only ever saw one self service dry cleaner-equipped laundromat, and both the washers and dry cleaners were Westinghouse. There were a chain of Frigidaire-equipped laundries in my area, but they had the drop-off style dry cleaners where you pick up your stuff days later, and that in fact continued in some of their locations even after the laundromat portion was removed.

I vaguely remember one mat with GE washers, and I saw a few of the famous Norge Village polka dot ball signs, but never was inside one. In fact, I saw such a sign just a few weeks ago in Tucson, but my friend Roger assured me there were no Norge washers to be had therein. :-(