Remember the Red 1961 GE Range

[pulltostart]

The red 30" range was a one-year-only offering by General Electric.  I've never found an official name for this color and I've never found any documentation about the range beyond this advertisement.  I did own one for a while.

 

Recently I came across this advertisement from 1962 for a similarly-colored 1962 General Electric refrigerator.  The color looks slightly different, but that could be due to lighting and/or photography; but again - no reference to this weird color or its name.  

 

Does anyone know anything else about this color?  Was GE experimenting with maybe something to replace Pink?  Like the tabloid would say "enquiring minds want to know".

 

lawrence

 

[repairguy]

This doesn’t answer your question and you’ve probably seen this but here’s a General Electric color timeline. In 2008 they called the red on their laundry units vermillion.

http://cms.ipressroom.com.s3.amazonaws.com/112/files/201311/GE+Appliances+Color+Timeline.pdf

 

[pulltostart]

Thanks Melvin.  Again, interesting how there's no mention anywhere of these two items.

 

lawrence

 

[circlew]

GE doesn't even seem to know when they introduced Shaded Coppertone. They claim 1964, but I've seen ads from 1961 & 1962 listing it. Evidently the first version was short lived, and the new Dark Coppertone appeared in 1963. The Red was so limited in production that even PaintRef.com doesn't have it listed. Whoever compiled the color listing for the GE document didn't put much research into it.

Also, while they mentioned Hotpoint ranges, no mention was made of Hotpoint's 1950's color selection, which was totally different than that of GE's line. The parts lists for the cabinet items would probably give the most accurate info.

 

[goatfarmer]

Had that range in white. Should have kept it.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I still think it was a promotional color for dealers to use to call attention to all of the features of their ranges. Put that in a window or on an end cap in a store display and it would attract shoppers.

 

[pulltostart]

Tom,

You could be right.  But it does seem odd that there wasn't any mention of this particular model other than this one advertisement - and even it doesn't mention the color.  Good ol' GE.  Go figure.

 

lawrence

 

[tomturbomatic]

It seems like a real attention getter that would draw a customer far faster than a range of a regular color in a sea of white goods. The customer could then have all of the exciting features explained by a salesman. At the end of the promotional period, it was probably offered at a good price to someone looking for a bargain who did not mind the color or who wanted an exotic range.

 

[firedome]

We still have ours...

at our camp in Vermont (pic taken at original owners house). It needs some AutoCalrod tweaking but we'd never replace it.

We were looking for a Poppy FD 30" but this one popped up (sorry!) only 15 miles away.

 

[pulltostart]

Roger,

It's looking good and just as I remember mine.  I might have kept mine longer had it not had a big-time short.  Something in the left rear burner/switch wasn't happy and it tripped the breaker for the entire house, not just the breaker for the stove.  I sold it with disclaimers - NEVER try to use the left rear burner without a serious repair.

 

lawrence

 

[combo52]

Left Rear Burner Switch Short

Hi Lawrence while a dramatic failure it would have been an easy fix, it would have probably needed another switch and maybe an element at most.

 

John L.