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Bloated Nothingness

I was a kid in the fifties and totally appliance addicted.

I watched the introduction of the Streamlined Sheer look roll out and instantly hated all the fat, shapeless appliances holding out in kitchens everywhere.

I was spellbound as Frigidaire introduced amazing and beautiful design innovations year after year.

I love and live to cook. It has been my hobby, avocation and source of income my entire life.

I used nothing but Frigidaire, in my own home and reveled in the magnifinence of design, dependibility and consistent performance.

As I moved more into presenting finished baked goods for critical testing and photo work, NOTHING has ever compared to ease, grace and dependablilty of a Frigidaire range made by GM.

I walked into an appliance store in December of 1979 to buy appliances for a new house. I looked in horror and disbelief to see what had happened to my trusted and beloved Frigidaire brand. I was shell shocked. If there had been a naming of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in 1979, I am convinced I would have fit the diagnosis.

I am sickened by the "new" rounded design of appliances so reminiscent of those from the forties, being pushed today by all the American manufacturers.

Big, fat, hollow, bloated nothingness. It is a horrible thing to witness the death of an era. It is even more horrifying to watch the public lap it up with round glazed eyes and be so very, very pleased with the newest and best.

I guess, for me, this is what Memorial day is about. Grieving the trivialization of the works of Master's and the death of quality.

Kelly
 
I think design is also strongly influenced by the availability of new matrials and methods.

For example, it took advances in sheet metal stamping technology to allow the complex curves of new car designs of the late 50's.

The "straight-line" look of '59 and later seems to replace cast seamless frames with built-up frames comprised of cast corner pieces and straight pieces of extruded chromed aluminum. I am theorizing that the availability in the late 50's of customized extruded aluminum fostered this styling development. Prior to that, I figure the factories were still struggling to keep up with demand for non-customized extrusions.

Of course the cast frames are stronger, easier to clean, and look better (to me at least). But you can't argue with cost efficiency.
 
What Mixfinder said!!

I so agree with you.

As I've told so many friends who were trying to decide between Gas and Electric for cooking options, NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING was as well designed as a GM Frigidaire electric stove. I would still take one of them over ANY home gas stove on the market today. Those fat coil burners could bring a pot of water to boil faster than any other non-commercial burner.

What a waste!!!

5-31-2006-06-49-43--bajaespuma.jpg
 
And their later control design (with the 180 degree turn) had to be the best electric control out there (at a glance see how hot the burner was).

My aunt (who taught cooking classes in her house and wrote cookbooks) had an interesting setup (in her 30' by 15' kitchen--it was beautiful)built in 1970 and in avocado (!)

KA dishwasher
3 sinks (3-bowl with disposer in middle, single bowl with disposer, bar sink)
30" Frigidaire cooktop
2 30" Frigidaire wall ovens
2 warming drawers
1 two-burner gas cooktop
SxS Frigidaire refrigerator (with door mounted ice bin)

In the pantry/laundry room (right behind the kitchen)

the previous Norge bottom-freezer refrigerator (probably mid-60s)
a gorgeous 6' long Frigidaire chest freezer with two lids that had to have come from the early 1950s...it had very little space and the walls were about 6" thick
Maytag converted coin-op washer and dryer (my uncle had access to commercial laundry stuff b/c he owned some motels)

Had Brie cheese for the first time visiting her. Every visit was an experience.
 
A Sheer-look moment...

I should have known.
Stupid story...
I was in high-school approx 1978. Went to visit a friend's house. The moment I walked in the door I said to myself "Wow, they have a Sheer-Look refrigerator!" I kept my Sheer-Look desires to myself as my commoner friends wouldn't understand good design...
I was really p**ssed off several years later when they replaced it with a bland new Frigidaire (which still works to this day incidentally).
I should have known the appliance industry had sucked me into their world. No regrets though...
 
Dancing With Refrigerators: "Frigidaire Finale" 1957

An old thread here that sent me looking at some of the 1957 Frigidaire Ads and stumbled upon "Dancing With Refrigerators: "Frigidaire Finale" 1957 Frigidaire Division, General Motors Corporation " on YouTube. If this video ad from 1957 was posted here at aw.org before, I didn't catch it. So, it's a fun video that reflects another world. Imagine this being done today for appliances? The choreography is ...well you decide!

Interesting, at 1:14 you'll see a black Frigidaire Imperial refrigerator that the female dancer perches from. Was black an extra cost option, I wonder?

 
Phil, if Frigidaire didn't charge for decorator colors back then, the charcoal would be no different.  And if they did charge extra, then yes for all color. 
 
Personally, I loved the freezer door opening by foot pedal and the one lever ice ejection from the freezing tray into the storage bin. I remember those trays. They could send ice cubes 20 feet across a room if you didn't do it right, lol.

Yes, def another world. I think we need to remember that in '57 there were still A LOT of people who'd grown up with the ice man making regular deliveries so there was still a bit of a 'WOW!' factor involved.

Cool vid. Thanks.

Jim
 

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