RETRO FRIDAY--and more
- Thread starter bwoods
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Heres one from 2002
that includes clips from the 50s-60s.
BTW...Anyone know the song playing during the ad? It sounds familiar but I cant place it.
that includes clips from the 50s-60s.
BTW...Anyone know the song playing during the ad? It sounds familiar but I cant place it.
I wonder if that's where Stephen King got his muse for "IT"
ovrphil
Well-known member
GE brought good things
to life to consumers, but isn't the consumer market just a setting sun lately by the way GE has sold off its appliance division, and did other things to achieve its stunning "Profit at Any Cost"?
Anyways, here's a few snaps of the products. I own the GE Super Radio and it lives up to its name. It pulls in stations like few other am/fm radios I've owned, aside from higher end multi-bands.
I like the kids loading the dishwasher scene.
to life to consumers, but isn't the consumer market just a setting sun lately by the way GE has sold off its appliance division, and did other things to achieve its stunning "Profit at Any Cost"?
Anyways, here's a few snaps of the products. I own the GE Super Radio and it lives up to its name. It pulls in stations like few other am/fm radios I've owned, aside from higher end multi-bands.
I like the kids loading the dishwasher scene.
General Electric is a dimming star
Yes Phil, it's sad. GE sun is setting. As far as I can tell, the purchase of GE Appliances by Electrolux still has not received final approval. It was supposed to have in April. As far as I can tell, from GE's corporate website, they still own it.
The same thing happened in the eighties when GE bought Honeywell. Just as with Electrolux, the papers were signed but some type of International trade committee, or whatever, failed to give its approval as they considered GE/Honeywell to be a monopoly. I don't remember the specifics, I just remember late in the game the deal got nixed. Neutron Jack, GE's president was not happy.
I keep hoping that the same thing will happen here, and Electrolux will be prevented from finalizing the deal. Anyone heard anything?? I keep checking the press releases and there has been total silence on the issue.
General Electric has gotten smart and Immelt is selling off most of GE capital and getting out of the banking business that Neutron Jack started. If you recall, early in his presidency, Neutron Jack stated he wanted to get GE out of manufacturing and become a service company. The first thing he did was sell HVAC to Trane, and the small appliance division to Black and Decker. He then sold electronics (TV's, stereo, phones, etc.) to Thomson Consumer electronics in France. He bought RCA (good, as GE owned RCA originally in the early 1900's) and then divested it and sold its name rights and trademark to Thomson.
Jack Welsh also forbid the company to be called General Electric and only go by the name GE so people would not associate it with electrical products. Those of you old enough remember in 88/89 he took away the over 100 year old ge logo and replaced it with just the printed letters in italic, "GE" as now appears on their corporate building in New York. Appliances that year also had the logo gone. However, this was one time neutron Jack didn't get his way. There was so much outcry from the public they put the traditional logo back on everything (escept their building.)
If the Appliance deal goes through, then I think the only other consumer product GE has is lightbulbs. (GE Industrial does still make panel boxes and breaker panels for consumer building) Of course that doesn't matter much as most of their bulbs are made in China, ha.
Yes Phil, it's sad. GE sun is setting. As far as I can tell, the purchase of GE Appliances by Electrolux still has not received final approval. It was supposed to have in April. As far as I can tell, from GE's corporate website, they still own it.
The same thing happened in the eighties when GE bought Honeywell. Just as with Electrolux, the papers were signed but some type of International trade committee, or whatever, failed to give its approval as they considered GE/Honeywell to be a monopoly. I don't remember the specifics, I just remember late in the game the deal got nixed. Neutron Jack, GE's president was not happy.
I keep hoping that the same thing will happen here, and Electrolux will be prevented from finalizing the deal. Anyone heard anything?? I keep checking the press releases and there has been total silence on the issue.
General Electric has gotten smart and Immelt is selling off most of GE capital and getting out of the banking business that Neutron Jack started. If you recall, early in his presidency, Neutron Jack stated he wanted to get GE out of manufacturing and become a service company. The first thing he did was sell HVAC to Trane, and the small appliance division to Black and Decker. He then sold electronics (TV's, stereo, phones, etc.) to Thomson Consumer electronics in France. He bought RCA (good, as GE owned RCA originally in the early 1900's) and then divested it and sold its name rights and trademark to Thomson.
Jack Welsh also forbid the company to be called General Electric and only go by the name GE so people would not associate it with electrical products. Those of you old enough remember in 88/89 he took away the over 100 year old ge logo and replaced it with just the printed letters in italic, "GE" as now appears on their corporate building in New York. Appliances that year also had the logo gone. However, this was one time neutron Jack didn't get his way. There was so much outcry from the public they put the traditional logo back on everything (escept their building.)
If the Appliance deal goes through, then I think the only other consumer product GE has is lightbulbs. (GE Industrial does still make panel boxes and breaker panels for consumer building) Of course that doesn't matter much as most of their bulbs are made in China, ha.
miele_ge
Well-known member
On the contrary, Barry... GE's star is not dimming...
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is just continually re-inventing itself to stay profitable and relevant. Disclosure that I am an employee of GE Capital which is in the process of a major sell off, but in no way speak for or represent the Company in ANY capacity. </span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Regardless of how you look at it, GE is doing what it needs to do to stay relevant and profitable in the coming century. Selling off the consumer businesses (and most of GE Capital) makes a lot of sense in today's world because they can make more money directing resources towards more profitable product lines. So many once great companies - Kodak comes to mind - failed because they had their heads in the sand refusing to or unable to evolve in this rapidly changing world.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have heard it said that there are not a lot of companies that survive over 100 years. General Electric Company has, and I expect will, survive another 100 years.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just my $0.02.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Alan</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">PS The GE Monogram ('meatball' as some affectionatly call it) is still alive and well on buildings and other materials. However, I do notice it missing from the latest GE Monogram appliances - which is a good thing because that keeps the Monogram appliance line relevant once the sale is complete.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is just continually re-inventing itself to stay profitable and relevant. Disclosure that I am an employee of GE Capital which is in the process of a major sell off, but in no way speak for or represent the Company in ANY capacity. </span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Regardless of how you look at it, GE is doing what it needs to do to stay relevant and profitable in the coming century. Selling off the consumer businesses (and most of GE Capital) makes a lot of sense in today's world because they can make more money directing resources towards more profitable product lines. So many once great companies - Kodak comes to mind - failed because they had their heads in the sand refusing to or unable to evolve in this rapidly changing world.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have heard it said that there are not a lot of companies that survive over 100 years. General Electric Company has, and I expect will, survive another 100 years.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just my $0.02.</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Alan</span>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">PS The GE Monogram ('meatball' as some affectionatly call it) is still alive and well on buildings and other materials. However, I do notice it missing from the latest GE Monogram appliances - which is a good thing because that keeps the Monogram appliance line relevant once the sale is complete.</span>
next 100 years
I hope that General Electric is here for the next 100 years, too, Alan! Being relevant doesn't mean you need to change the identity of a company.
It means you take what you do and make it better and more competitive than others in the marketplace.
GE was not formed to be a bank, nor an insurance company. Jack Welsh putting too much effort into trying to change the spots on a leopard. GE was never geared to be a service company, but was an appliance, electronic and electrical product producer from day one. They were a manufacturer.
Welsh wanted to totally get out of much (and if he had his way)all of the manufacturing business. This is what General Electric's expertise history and infrastructure was designed for from day one.
He made no attempt to be relevant in a marketplace based on GE's expertise but to totally redesign the company and put it into fields for which they had little to no experience. The result is what you see, stagnated stock, and GE lost a bundle with 9/11 as their insurance arm had insured many of the properties damaged during the attack. their stock has still yet to recover.
General Electric is, as the name implies, an electrical and related manufacturing company. Few companies in the U.S. or other areas of the world have GE's expertise and they chose to throw and sell it away on unrelated markets.
Jeff Immelt was hand picked by Welsh as his successor. For many years, it is said that he still called the shots as Immelt was his sycophant. Only recently has Immelt gotten the balls to get rid of some of Welsh blunders, like GE capital and GE insurance. He is finally investing some of these funds back into the industrial manufacturing segment. Their main thrusts right now is jet engines, wind power and medical imaging.
Welch is a little runt on a power trip and was using GE as his tool to build his ego. He wanted it to be one of the largest corporations in the world and everyone give him credit for doing it. Well, for a while it worked until reality stepped on his ego trip and Immelt is trying to cut off some of the limbs that Welsh tried to graft onto a tree of a different species.
But Immelt is still cutting off GE's natural limbs like Welsh was doing. One of the secrets to a company surviving in hard economic times is diversification. You want many limbs on your true, so if there are bad economic times, some of the limbs can temporarily wither but the tree still lives. You start cutting off living limbs and eventually the core tree will die.
So when you diversify you diversify within your areas of expertise and existing infrastructure. You make appliances, which was one of your first major limbs. You don't cut that limb off because you don't like it. You make it better. You do research and you make your appliances better than your competitors and you make new appliances and create new markets and you expand b buying up your competitors and taking on their markets.
Look at Westinghouse, they had the Welsh syndrome and had to make a decision to invest and modernize their appliance division or divest it. They chose to cut off one of the major limbs and divest it. Then they sold their light bulb division and then their nuclear division and then their electric control division, their elevator division. They cut off their limbs and the tree died. Like Welsh they tried to graft on some limbs that weren't compatible with the tree (like CBS) as a last ditch effort. As a result Westinghouse is dead. The name right is now owned by Toshiba and British Nuclear bought rights to the Westinghouse name for their nuclear division, as it was a name with a high recognition factor.
If you couldn't make money on appliances Electrolux wouldn't be buying (or trying to buy) GE Appliances. IF you look at GE's annual report you see the GE consumer and industrial division is quite profitable as is the appliance arm of that division. However, it is not as profitable as some of their others, like GE Aviation. So it's corporate greed an executive ego that wants them to sell of a division that is very profitable. Not every limb on a tree can be gigantic. But they all contribute to that trees ability to survive. Sometime large limbs die off and you have only the smaller ones left. These smaller ones can often sustain the tree and will often grow larger in doing so.
Ge wants, and has been cutting off every limb that they don't think is a giant as it should be. They may come in for a rude awakening, like Westinghouse, and find that one of their major limbs has died and there are no longer enough small limbs to float enable the tree to live.
I hope GE survives, but to me I see a repetition of corporate greed and mismanagement that has killed other giants. You build your company and do what you do best. You please the buyers of your product, your main goal is not to please your shareholders. Their main concern is personal greed. One day General Electric may be just another Westinghouse. A name that is licensed to other companies that stuck with their historical roots and grew and kept themselves competitive within the areas of the inherent strength and expertise.
Historically, General Electric has CEO's who were electrical engineers. Jack Welsh was not, he was chemical engineer *and not a good one, even by his won admission, forced to go into engineering by his parents--not a desire of his own. He had no love for engineering, especially electrical. He was made CEO because of his aggressiveness. So that was step in the wrong direction. Now like most other corporations, they have a CEO who is an MBA.
An MBA's bottom line is to make money. I am sure Immelt has no love for the products of GE and has no thrill of a wonderfully designed heat pump or has no pride for a dishwasher or washing machine with his companies name on it He would just assume make money selling stock options or even condoms if that's what it took made money for the shareholder. You can't be growing a company making wonderful and competitive products when your head is on the ground licking stockholders boots.
My prediction is GE will continue to cut off it's natural limbs, one after another then one day the tree will die and GE will just be another, once thought invincible giant, that traded corporate integrity for greed and bit the dust.
Your goal shouldn't be to be the largest company in the world, but to be the best company in the world doing what you do best.
I hope that General Electric is here for the next 100 years, too, Alan! Being relevant doesn't mean you need to change the identity of a company.
It means you take what you do and make it better and more competitive than others in the marketplace.
GE was not formed to be a bank, nor an insurance company. Jack Welsh putting too much effort into trying to change the spots on a leopard. GE was never geared to be a service company, but was an appliance, electronic and electrical product producer from day one. They were a manufacturer.
Welsh wanted to totally get out of much (and if he had his way)all of the manufacturing business. This is what General Electric's expertise history and infrastructure was designed for from day one.
He made no attempt to be relevant in a marketplace based on GE's expertise but to totally redesign the company and put it into fields for which they had little to no experience. The result is what you see, stagnated stock, and GE lost a bundle with 9/11 as their insurance arm had insured many of the properties damaged during the attack. their stock has still yet to recover.
General Electric is, as the name implies, an electrical and related manufacturing company. Few companies in the U.S. or other areas of the world have GE's expertise and they chose to throw and sell it away on unrelated markets.
Jeff Immelt was hand picked by Welsh as his successor. For many years, it is said that he still called the shots as Immelt was his sycophant. Only recently has Immelt gotten the balls to get rid of some of Welsh blunders, like GE capital and GE insurance. He is finally investing some of these funds back into the industrial manufacturing segment. Their main thrusts right now is jet engines, wind power and medical imaging.
Welch is a little runt on a power trip and was using GE as his tool to build his ego. He wanted it to be one of the largest corporations in the world and everyone give him credit for doing it. Well, for a while it worked until reality stepped on his ego trip and Immelt is trying to cut off some of the limbs that Welsh tried to graft onto a tree of a different species.
But Immelt is still cutting off GE's natural limbs like Welsh was doing. One of the secrets to a company surviving in hard economic times is diversification. You want many limbs on your true, so if there are bad economic times, some of the limbs can temporarily wither but the tree still lives. You start cutting off living limbs and eventually the core tree will die.
So when you diversify you diversify within your areas of expertise and existing infrastructure. You make appliances, which was one of your first major limbs. You don't cut that limb off because you don't like it. You make it better. You do research and you make your appliances better than your competitors and you make new appliances and create new markets and you expand b buying up your competitors and taking on their markets.
Look at Westinghouse, they had the Welsh syndrome and had to make a decision to invest and modernize their appliance division or divest it. They chose to cut off one of the major limbs and divest it. Then they sold their light bulb division and then their nuclear division and then their electric control division, their elevator division. They cut off their limbs and the tree died. Like Welsh they tried to graft on some limbs that weren't compatible with the tree (like CBS) as a last ditch effort. As a result Westinghouse is dead. The name right is now owned by Toshiba and British Nuclear bought rights to the Westinghouse name for their nuclear division, as it was a name with a high recognition factor.
If you couldn't make money on appliances Electrolux wouldn't be buying (or trying to buy) GE Appliances. IF you look at GE's annual report you see the GE consumer and industrial division is quite profitable as is the appliance arm of that division. However, it is not as profitable as some of their others, like GE Aviation. So it's corporate greed an executive ego that wants them to sell of a division that is very profitable. Not every limb on a tree can be gigantic. But they all contribute to that trees ability to survive. Sometime large limbs die off and you have only the smaller ones left. These smaller ones can often sustain the tree and will often grow larger in doing so.
Ge wants, and has been cutting off every limb that they don't think is a giant as it should be. They may come in for a rude awakening, like Westinghouse, and find that one of their major limbs has died and there are no longer enough small limbs to float enable the tree to live.
I hope GE survives, but to me I see a repetition of corporate greed and mismanagement that has killed other giants. You build your company and do what you do best. You please the buyers of your product, your main goal is not to please your shareholders. Their main concern is personal greed. One day General Electric may be just another Westinghouse. A name that is licensed to other companies that stuck with their historical roots and grew and kept themselves competitive within the areas of the inherent strength and expertise.
Historically, General Electric has CEO's who were electrical engineers. Jack Welsh was not, he was chemical engineer *and not a good one, even by his won admission, forced to go into engineering by his parents--not a desire of his own. He had no love for engineering, especially electrical. He was made CEO because of his aggressiveness. So that was step in the wrong direction. Now like most other corporations, they have a CEO who is an MBA.
An MBA's bottom line is to make money. I am sure Immelt has no love for the products of GE and has no thrill of a wonderfully designed heat pump or has no pride for a dishwasher or washing machine with his companies name on it He would just assume make money selling stock options or even condoms if that's what it took made money for the shareholder. You can't be growing a company making wonderful and competitive products when your head is on the ground licking stockholders boots.
My prediction is GE will continue to cut off it's natural limbs, one after another then one day the tree will die and GE will just be another, once thought invincible giant, that traded corporate integrity for greed and bit the dust.
Your goal shouldn't be to be the largest company in the world, but to be the best company in the world doing what you do best.
neptunebob
Well-known member
So what's going on with the weird commercials GE has now
First you have an Ideas character that looks like a cookie monster or Oscar the Grouch that was bathed in Clorox and now there's some guy with a beard who talks backwards about problems. What are they trying to sell, now that people really cannot buy anything from GE anymore?
First you have an Ideas character that looks like a cookie monster or Oscar the Grouch that was bathed in Clorox and now there's some guy with a beard who talks backwards about problems. What are they trying to sell, now that people really cannot buy anything from GE anymore?
ovrphil
Well-known member
Right.
That commercial is a dialogue between GE and GE. And what of this: " New solutions turn big companies into fast companies. Imagination at work…" ?
Talking lights and jet engines to run countries. Imagination….at work? That's it? Well, I hope GE prospers, it has been around a long time.
That commercial is a dialogue between GE and GE. And what of this: " New solutions turn big companies into fast companies. Imagination at work…" ?
Talking lights and jet engines to run countries. Imagination….at work? That's it? Well, I hope GE prospers, it has been around a long time.
mathewhebailey0
Well-known member
Westinghouse Elevator
I don't know when,but Westinghouse's elevator division was sold to Schindler.
I don't know when,but Westinghouse's elevator division was sold to Schindler.
That 1982 commercial was GE at it's zenith of consumer-facing products..right after that they started selling off several of the lines which were featured in the ad....television (to Thomson), climate control (to Trane), small appliances (to Black and Decker). When I worked there in 1987, there was no evidence of any of those product lines (but GE Capital was revving up).
arbilab
Well-known member
Ahh yes, Schindler. Whose firmware bugs decapitated several persons by opening the car door while it was moving. AFTER they said they had fixed that.
We're looking at an ethical de-evolution. From 'make stuff right' to 'nevermind what it does just sell it'.
Sell the whole damn business if it doesn't do what you want under the post-Reagan MBA mantra.
WTF? RCA has become a bad joke in knowledgeable consumer circles? License the name to someone in Taiwan who can sell to the uninformed. Sell Electrosux designs licensed to WCI under Frigidaire, Kenmore, GE badges and wait for the warranty to expire. Got a bad rep under Whirlpool? Buy a better one under Maytag and drag it down to your level.
Y'all know this michigas.
We're looking at an ethical de-evolution. From 'make stuff right' to 'nevermind what it does just sell it'.
Sell the whole damn business if it doesn't do what you want under the post-Reagan MBA mantra.
WTF? RCA has become a bad joke in knowledgeable consumer circles? License the name to someone in Taiwan who can sell to the uninformed. Sell Electrosux designs licensed to WCI under Frigidaire, Kenmore, GE badges and wait for the warranty to expire. Got a bad rep under Whirlpool? Buy a better one under Maytag and drag it down to your level.
Y'all know this michigas.
corporate greed
As much as we like to, we can't blame a politician for corporate greed. Unfortunately, corporate and personal greed has been around almost as long a "the oldest profession" and we all know what that it.
Although General Electric is (or at least was) my favorite company, I have to admit they are famous for cutting corners and downgrading pre-existing products in the name of profit.
Some examples: Any of you remember the original "Trimline" stereo. It was one of the first of the vertical suitcase type of portable stereos (record player). Most if not all, were horizontal with a lid, at the time. In 1961 GE came out with the vertical suitcase type with the drop down changer. And it was to the world of portable teenage stereos what the Mustang was to the car world. It created a stir and other manufactures, of course, had to copycat it and get on the bandwagon. Just like other auto manufacturer's started making clones on Ford's new "Pony Car." With the long hood and short deck and styling to attract the teenage market and those young of heart.
So eventually Magnavox, Motorola, RCA and even Zenith now miraculously had these stereos that "coincidentally" looked like GE's Trimlines.
The first Trimlines were really well built, with separate heavy woofers and tweeters, top mounted controls, and amps with their own transformer.
Once GE got success in the market place they gradually cheapened the units. First tubes went to transistors (of course every did this) Then many of their models dropped the separate tweeter, woofers got smaller magnets, the lower line units went from 8" woofers to 6", no tweeter and a teeny magnet that was laughable.
Then they moved the controls from the top of the unit and put them on the changer deck, which look horrendously cheap. Sales dropped and then they put them back the next year. where they were originally.
Unbelievably, they took out the transformer for the audio amp and ran a wire down to the changer motor, added another separate coil to the motor and used the motor windings as a transformer for the now low-fi amp. You can imagine the sound.
By the demise of the Trimline stereo (I think it was around 1972--give or take a year) in favor of the more popular component style stereo, the Trimline shared little in common with its 1961 model other than its looks. Gone were the tubed amps, heavy transformers, decent speakers and the changers went from VM to GE's brand changer (GE bought Glasser-Steers) which look very pretty and impressive but could not track lightly. Which was OK since GE changed over to heavy tracking cheap crystal and ceramic cartridges to avoid a pre-amp section on their amplifier)
Then they even cheapened the Glasser-Steers units until they looked like a kids toy from the dime stone and were almost as flimsy.
And talk about throwing things away that didn't work the first time. If you can recall the GE Elec-Trak electric lawn tractors. They were produced from 1969 through early 1973. This was a product so far ahead of its time (no gas, no pollution, quiet-as compared to a gas tractor) it unbelievable. I owned one for about 6 years and LOVED it. You could mow up to three acres on a charge and it had more torque then a gas tractor for the same given horsepower. GE has units from 8 to 20 hp. Mine was 15 hp unit. Several counties banned the Elec-
Trak from the tractor weight pull event at the county fair because they said it was unfair competition as the Elect-Traks always won.
But it didn't go over as they expected and even before the days of Neutron Jack they just wiped it out and quite. It takes time to develop a new market, and they had absolutely no competition in this area. So as they are selling their appliance division to Electrolux, they sold their Elec-Trak division to Toro. Who gave it a shot for awhile. From what I heard, GE was making a profit on the Elec-Traks, but not enough. So corporate greed struck and as Arbilab says, you just get rid of it.
They really cleaned house in 70 and 71 and dropped their vacuum cleaner line (which then became "Premier" brand for a short time, and they dropped their blender line in 1971. They had the unique, and ahead of its time, blender that didn't have its motor under the blender container but to the back of the unit. Their blenders where shorter than other units of the day and could fit under peoples kitchen wall cabinets. They were among the first of the companies to employ solid state circuity to keep motor torque up even when using low speeds.
But the profit margin was great enough and whoosh....no more blenders.
Many of you don't know that GE made tools. Approximately 1966 to 69. They were the first that I know of that had modular tools. You bought the hand power unit and to it you could attach a drill head, a sabre saw head or a sander head. So you saved money by only having one power unity to buy. And they were among, if not the first, to use full wave rectifiers on their power tools speed control for more torque. Most everyone else was using half-wave.
But whoosh, down the toilet it went. I remember in the late seventies or eighties Sears came out with a module tool unit and they promoted it like it was the most fantastic thing in the universe. They gave you the impression that they had made invented it. When over a decade before GE had. Sears was ugly. GE was polished steel color coded cords and was beautiful I have a couple of sets of them. They also made a circular saw, which was not modular but was made to match. But area now only a
rare and vintage find in thrift store.
Hats off to GE for corporate greed and throwing things in the dumpster once they don't meet their expectations. Sometimes you have to be patient and let unique things create their own niche in the marketplace. Then you can reap the financial reward and the consumer can reap the benefit of their products.
Enough of disappointments with GE, and they certainly aren't alone, in corporate greed and corporate rubbish. As the song in the movie 'Cabaret" says, "money makes the world go 'round."
As much as we like to, we can't blame a politician for corporate greed. Unfortunately, corporate and personal greed has been around almost as long a "the oldest profession" and we all know what that it.
Although General Electric is (or at least was) my favorite company, I have to admit they are famous for cutting corners and downgrading pre-existing products in the name of profit.
Some examples: Any of you remember the original "Trimline" stereo. It was one of the first of the vertical suitcase type of portable stereos (record player). Most if not all, were horizontal with a lid, at the time. In 1961 GE came out with the vertical suitcase type with the drop down changer. And it was to the world of portable teenage stereos what the Mustang was to the car world. It created a stir and other manufactures, of course, had to copycat it and get on the bandwagon. Just like other auto manufacturer's started making clones on Ford's new "Pony Car." With the long hood and short deck and styling to attract the teenage market and those young of heart.
So eventually Magnavox, Motorola, RCA and even Zenith now miraculously had these stereos that "coincidentally" looked like GE's Trimlines.
The first Trimlines were really well built, with separate heavy woofers and tweeters, top mounted controls, and amps with their own transformer.
Once GE got success in the market place they gradually cheapened the units. First tubes went to transistors (of course every did this) Then many of their models dropped the separate tweeter, woofers got smaller magnets, the lower line units went from 8" woofers to 6", no tweeter and a teeny magnet that was laughable.
Then they moved the controls from the top of the unit and put them on the changer deck, which look horrendously cheap. Sales dropped and then they put them back the next year. where they were originally.
Unbelievably, they took out the transformer for the audio amp and ran a wire down to the changer motor, added another separate coil to the motor and used the motor windings as a transformer for the now low-fi amp. You can imagine the sound.
By the demise of the Trimline stereo (I think it was around 1972--give or take a year) in favor of the more popular component style stereo, the Trimline shared little in common with its 1961 model other than its looks. Gone were the tubed amps, heavy transformers, decent speakers and the changers went from VM to GE's brand changer (GE bought Glasser-Steers) which look very pretty and impressive but could not track lightly. Which was OK since GE changed over to heavy tracking cheap crystal and ceramic cartridges to avoid a pre-amp section on their amplifier)
Then they even cheapened the Glasser-Steers units until they looked like a kids toy from the dime stone and were almost as flimsy.
And talk about throwing things away that didn't work the first time. If you can recall the GE Elec-Trak electric lawn tractors. They were produced from 1969 through early 1973. This was a product so far ahead of its time (no gas, no pollution, quiet-as compared to a gas tractor) it unbelievable. I owned one for about 6 years and LOVED it. You could mow up to three acres on a charge and it had more torque then a gas tractor for the same given horsepower. GE has units from 8 to 20 hp. Mine was 15 hp unit. Several counties banned the Elec-
Trak from the tractor weight pull event at the county fair because they said it was unfair competition as the Elect-Traks always won.
But it didn't go over as they expected and even before the days of Neutron Jack they just wiped it out and quite. It takes time to develop a new market, and they had absolutely no competition in this area. So as they are selling their appliance division to Electrolux, they sold their Elec-Trak division to Toro. Who gave it a shot for awhile. From what I heard, GE was making a profit on the Elec-Traks, but not enough. So corporate greed struck and as Arbilab says, you just get rid of it.
They really cleaned house in 70 and 71 and dropped their vacuum cleaner line (which then became "Premier" brand for a short time, and they dropped their blender line in 1971. They had the unique, and ahead of its time, blender that didn't have its motor under the blender container but to the back of the unit. Their blenders where shorter than other units of the day and could fit under peoples kitchen wall cabinets. They were among the first of the companies to employ solid state circuity to keep motor torque up even when using low speeds.
But the profit margin was great enough and whoosh....no more blenders.
Many of you don't know that GE made tools. Approximately 1966 to 69. They were the first that I know of that had modular tools. You bought the hand power unit and to it you could attach a drill head, a sabre saw head or a sander head. So you saved money by only having one power unity to buy. And they were among, if not the first, to use full wave rectifiers on their power tools speed control for more torque. Most everyone else was using half-wave.
But whoosh, down the toilet it went. I remember in the late seventies or eighties Sears came out with a module tool unit and they promoted it like it was the most fantastic thing in the universe. They gave you the impression that they had made invented it. When over a decade before GE had. Sears was ugly. GE was polished steel color coded cords and was beautiful I have a couple of sets of them. They also made a circular saw, which was not modular but was made to match. But area now only a
rare and vintage find in thrift store.
Hats off to GE for corporate greed and throwing things in the dumpster once they don't meet their expectations. Sometimes you have to be patient and let unique things create their own niche in the marketplace. Then you can reap the financial reward and the consumer can reap the benefit of their products.
Enough of disappointments with GE, and they certainly aren't alone, in corporate greed and corporate rubbish. As the song in the movie 'Cabaret" says, "money makes the world go 'round."
Another part of GE--their broadcast division-that got sold to Harris Intertype --can't remember the date-beleive it was the early 70's.Harris sold the last "GE" TV transmitter with the GE name on it-was built in the GE factory before Harris took over.If your station had a GE transmitter you called Harris for parts or service.At the SW transmitter site I work for we have 3 GE 250Kw SW transmitters custom built for the gov't.They were built in 1961 using a 1950's design.They are still in use!!!Looking at one playing right now !They were built in Schenecty,NY for the plant I am in and others for a former plant in Liberia.That site got taken over and destroyed.Their GE transmitters were stripped for the copper,aluminum,and steel.And 3 died at the former Greenville A plant.Molding and corroded.Parts robbed from them to keep the present units running at the operating "B" plant in Greenvlle NC.
