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Ralph,

thanks for the clarification about Sheila Kuehl. I should have taken the time to Google her, and I went by her professional actors name in the credits. I knew as I was writting it that she the name didn’t sound right, sorry, my bad. And i was wrong about her being a Congresswomen, you are correct, she was State Assmebly Member, and an excellent one at that. Sometimes I need to slow down in my enthusiasm, LOL, but I wasn’t all wrong.

Eddie
 
That house in Mrs. Swenson video

Reminds one of similar seen in countless 1950's through 1970's films or television shows.

Those old Victorian or Edwardian barns usually occupied by one or more elderly persons (spinster sisters, spinsters, old widows, etc....) who moved into the place not long after it was built and or perhaps their parents had the place built.

Either way the layouts always bothered me; all those doors, walls and such gave a closed in feeling. That and in no small number of cases who knows what was in the cellars. Vampires, ghosts, the grave of a (now long) missing spouse, maybe a few others such as traveling salesmen.... *LOL* You know like that Cary Grant film "Arsenic and Old Lace".
 
". . . but I wasn’t all wrong."

LOL Eddie!  You remembered the important stuff!

 

Both of the misstatements you pointed out flew right by me.   I thought I was just adding to what you had posted, and didn't realize what I had written about her was different from what you had.

 

Steve, I'm all over six outlets in every bedroom!  The living room at our new house has a grand total of three outlets, and that really limits what furnishings can go where.
 
One reason you hear of so many fires in NYC apartments

Is many, many, *many* buildings are old (anything from 1960's to before WWI) and unless upgraded have limited electrical supply. Things like barely 100 amps and even then often glass fuses.

Even when switched over to circuit breakers apartments often have few electrical outlets. Maybe one or two for kitchen area (with per recent post war (IIRC) code at least one 20amp circuit for fridge or whatever), and another near window for AC.

Of course many of these apartment buildings were built a fridge and maybe radio were the largest drawing electrical appliance most had. Some didn't even have the former and still were using ice boxes.

In any event this lack of outlets often means extension cords and power strips galore in order to accommodate the vast amount of electric appliances and gadgets most of us have today.

Sadly people also do not heed warnings about overloading such things and or running extension/power cords under carpeting/rugs or whatever.
 
Meanwhile About Twenty Years Eariler

GE showing off an electrical house of 1915!



Notice subtle difference of just two decades.

The middle class (or better off if you will) housewife/household of 1915 even with electricity and mod cons still relies upon servants. Meanwhile by 1935 Madame is firmly in control of her own home with not a domestic in sight.
 
The kitchen in the 1935 film is pretty nice - it reminds me a lot of my dad's uncle & aunts that was built in 1936. They didn't have the dishwasher, though.

My sister and her husband used to have an old GE refrigerator in their garage, that had belonged to his grandparents. It probably was the JB-8 model. They needed more space, so got rid of it about 5 years ago.
 
People always ask why freezers were so small

Back then, which one always flips around to "what would you have put in a larger one"?

Frozen foods had been around since 1924 or so, but mostly limited to commercial use. People didn't like the taste of the stuff (things were frozen too slowly resuting in formation of ice crystals), so there wasn't a huge market.

It wouldn't be until WWII when a shortage of canned goods (tin was needed for war effort), and so many women working and the miitary that frozen foods started taking off.

Real changes came post WWII such as the arrival of Swanson's frozen "TV" dinners.
 
I just love in the Westinghouse movie how they claim "with the new Miracle Electronic Oven your appetizers cook in six seconds" lol. I'm sure they're just delicious after six seconds of microwaving.
 
@supersuds

Yeah that's standard Irish accent. You'd commonly hear versions of that in broadcasting and just generally. Irish accents vary enormously from person to person and regionally.

The presentation style is a bit starchy because it was about 1960, but that's exactly the kind of accent you'd hear from say a newscaster or a fairly serious VO

Just as an example: this is the Emergency Broadcasting System issuing warnings on all commercial radio stations during Ex Hurricane Ophelia last year:

This is very classic RTE (Irish public radio/TV) voice, as RTE Radio 1 switched off for its Medium Wave (AM) transmitter, ending a signal that had been on air since 1926 as Radio Éireann.

... Bit of nostalgia.

But you'll probably find Irish accents like that aren't a million miles away from old east coast US.
 
RE General Electric HVAC

Ge built from 1934 thru 1958 the most complicated, advanced and by far the most efficient oil furnace on the market, The burner sat on TOP of the boiler/furnace and fired downward, cleanest quietest unit anyone ever thought up , they were getting 80 plus percent efficiency in the 30s! A few are still running but parts are scarce, My hometown is full of them, about everyone who was a banker, lawyer doctor or business man had one
 

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