When is the last time your local newspaper ran a feature like this?

[launderess]

Would love to get my hands on a few of the items mentioned:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/...ite-one-line-it-can-win-you-a-washer-or-dryer

 

[revvinkevin]

Boy you aren't kidding!

 

 

23 FULL pages on laundry equipment???  

 

WOWZERS!

 

 

[vacerator]

What newspaper?

Most are only online now.
Still, a great blast from the past. Some local shoppers publications still.
Each store has it's own separate insert.
Hunts, Ford, and I think the Foutainbleau in Miami Beach are still around.
There were so many different companies, were contests how they tried to draw customers?
You might enter to win, then visit the local appliance dealer to see it for real, and the sales man may hook you into buying?

 

[turquoisedude]

OMG!  Now there's why people bought newspapers once upon a time.  What an amazing feature section - advertorial, but cool nonetheless.  

 

So, who else beside me never saw a 'Carson House' branded washer and dryer before?  Wonder who made them... Coronado? Beam perhaps??

 

[panthera]

Laundress,

This is so cool! Thanks!

Er, what's a 'newspaper'?

 

[ea56]

I guess my husband and I are throwbacks to another time, we have been having our local newspaper delivered for almost 35 years now. I really like starting my day by reading the newspaper, particularlly the local news, since I have lived in this community for over 53 years. Sadly the newspaper is WAY smaller than it used to be and WAY more expensive. When we first subscribed in 1981 daily delivery was $3.00 a month which the carrier collected. It is now $79.54 for 12 weeks.

That being said I really enjoyed this post. I recall seeing most of the featured washing machines at one time or another during my childhood.

 

[launderess]

Unless Mistaken

You'll notice not a wringer washer in sight! *LOL*

For that matter no ironers either. Lots of talk about tumble dryers though.

Post-war years seems like the heyday for appliance manufacturers. Everyone was out to get some of that GI Bill money. Hahaha....

Who would have known in 1955 that we'd be down to really only one main American owned appliance maker today (Whirlpool), and what were once fierce competitor brands now are all under the same corporate roof.

 

[goatfarmer]

I always loved floating heads in advertising.....

 

[bajaespuma]

Even a notice for Mahalia Jackson!!

What a wonderful slice of history.

 

Did you see the primordial Peanuts "deflate-gate"cartoon underneath all of those washing machines and debutantes from Lily-White Winnetka?

 

[peteski50]

Newspaper!

I wish every newspaper was like this with all these great goodies!
Peter

 

[launderess]

Those prices

A gal would have to be married to a very well off man and or they used credit..

That 1956 Norge washer selling for $329.95 was big money in those days. Adjusted for inflation we are talking about $2,888.66 in 2016 money. While some high end or commercial front loaders cost that much, you can pick up a top loader for very little money.

You would need those "easy terms" to afford that Whirlpool washer selling for 239.95 ($2,100.73 in 2016). In both this and the above case this does not even include interest.

In fact there doesn't seem to be a washer advertised that cost under $200 clams. No wonder so many 1950's housewives were happy for used or otherwise second hand equipment. Am guessing many a 1950's husband didn't want to loosen up the mouse trap for that kind of money.

 

[launderess]

Did you see the primordial Peanuts "deflate-gate"car

Yes, but was more interested in the sale on those pumps with killer stiletto heels. Just the sort of thing a bad girl like Gloria Grahame would have worn. *LOL*

Now if you will excuse me have an appointment with "Mr. William" for a wash, set and comb out. Hahaha..

 

[wayupnorth]

That is a great article and a huge feature money maker for a paper back then and those ads brought in quite a bit of $. Alot of times it was if you take a good size ad, we will do editorial in your favor, naturally and that filled the page. I worked in newspaper advertising and if your paper had a REAL good national guy, and could pull it together, salesman of the year. Big deal, nobody cares with tomorrows edition..

 

[launderess]

Wonder if the dealers mentioned got hit up for advertising money?

 

[pierreandreply4]

lets also not forget that some models ad an option to reuse

lets also not forget that for some models there was also sud saver tecnologie depending on the model

 

[launderess]

Contests were *Big* during the 1950's and 1960's

As a form of advertising and promotion.

http://news.eyeka.net/2013/04/7-facts-about-advertising-contests-in-the-mad-men-era/

 

[blackstone]

I have saved a lot of newspaper advertising from our family business. These laundry sections were special events (maybe once a year), in which every dealer advertised, in conjunction with the national brands. What I need is a large, flatbed scanner, large enough to scan a full page.

 

[cornutt]

Prices

That's why, among the middle classes, there weren't that many households that had a matched set. Typical was to buy a washer first, and then a dryer after the washer was paid for. Of course, those machines were (mostly) sturdily built and servicable, so once you had a machine, you were good for ten years or so. Of course, with new features being introduced all the time, at some point the misses was going to want the latest and greatest model!

Seriously, that was a remarkable period in Western Hemisphere history. New things were being introduced all the time that were improving the average person's standard of living. These newspaper pages are a celebration of modern life.

 

[launderess]

Watching The Honeymooners On Television

Could never understand why the Cramdens lived in that sparse cold water Brooklyn tenement flat. Ralph's salary was only $62/wk. which meant a washing machine for Alice was O-W-T unless they saved and or purchased on credit. OTOH the Norton's did live well even though Ed made the same money as Ralph. The latter pointed out that was because of credit/payment plans.

Learned something via research; contrary to the popular belief not all women/wives were shoved back into domestic life post WWII. Many married women did work and their husband's approved. It was the only way for a good number of couples to make it into a solid middle class lifestyle. A one income household unless the husband was doing very well probably would be hard pressed to get any of the new mod cons, again without using credit.

Remember it wasn't until really recent memory where appliance prices have come down so low, that there wasn't a brisk business in second hand appliances. All those adverts above mentioning "trade ins welcomed" probably meant the old appliance would be moved on.

 

[vacerator]

Yes,

come to think of it, my folks first automatic set was a '63 turquoise Kenmore "70"
floor sample, and the dryer a white new '64 model.

 

[launderess]

You notice again in the OP linked article

There wasn't a conventional (wringer) washer to be seen.

My guess was the advert's purpose was to get people either to buy a new automatic or upgrade from "last year's" model. *LOL*

It was back then IIRC a big deal if someone gave your family a "used" washer and or dryer. Second hand appliance stores/departments did a brisk business just like automobiles.

 

[lordkenmore]

>my folks first automatic set was a '63 turquoise Kenmore "70" floor sample

If I remember right, my parents washer, a Lady Kenmore, was also a clearance special. Last year's model or some such thing. I don't think they needed clearance pricing--they almost certainly could have afforded a basic washer at list price--but I have to imagine that a good deal on a TOL washer was not be passed up.

The dryer came later, but the only effort in matching was color and brand. The model was probably considerably lower in the line. But it got the job done.

 

[wayupnorth]

The person handling the National Advertising at that paper was basically told you will write about automatics by us big guys if you want our money. And our ad agency has to proof read it and no wringers to be mentioned, I am sure what he heard. If he wanted to pull something that big off, he had to bow to them. This was long before a woman could be an ad manager or even better.

 

[launderess]

Perhaps

However going by Consumer Reports back issues in my collection by the mid-1950's it was all about automatic or at least semi-automatic washing machines.

CR had their own beef with conventional washers, but for the money am sure appliance makers then as with today (with HE washers) made more money on the newer automatics than the mature wringer washer market.

Don't get me wrong, Maytag and others were still cranking out wringer washers well into the 1960's through 1980's, but it was a small slice of the market. IIRC GE was one of the first to get out of the conventional washer market concentrating solely upon automatics.

The profit margins were probably much more favorable on automatics than wringers. More so if you could make a double sale (washer and dryer) or even triple (adding an ironer).

By 1956 both WWII and Korean wars were over and many Americans were looking forward to new and modern future. For a young housewife and mother in that period a wringer washer must have seemed antediluvian. For the "active" housewife automatics turned laundry from a chore that went on for a few days to something she could knock off in a few hours, especially if she had a dryer.

Then you would have had promotional films like this: post was last edited: 5/1/2016-00:57]

 

[lordkenmore]

Thanks, Launderess, for posting that video! It's interesting seeing some of the details behind the engineering, and then part of the actual assembly of the washers.

 

[launderess]

YW

It is amazing the amount of promotional materials appliance makers put out back then. When you couple that with advertising campaigns like the one in my OP it was clear there was a consumerism push going on.

 

[vacerator]

Ther sure was

a consumer push going on. Also every nine months from most households in a hospital maternity ward.

 

[lordkenmore]

> Also every nine months from most households in a hospital maternity ward.

Probably not quite that often. I think it was a spacing of about 2 years for both sets of my grandparents. But this aside, I do have to imagine that automatic washers were very appealing for the mothers of the 1950s larger families. One can even imagine one saying: "We will buy this new washer, or else we won't [be having any more babies]!" (The part in the brackets would have been different words, but they probably wouldn't be suitable for this forum.)

 

[vacerator]

So true

but during the depression, my grandmother raised 8, and had no electric washing machine until after WW2 ended.
Arranged marriage, and he must have raped her repeatedly, because she told me he was mean, drank, and she never loved him.
So much for happy wife happy life. She did divorce him. When my dad wanted us to finally meet him, he told us he had been in WW1, and been gassed by the Germans with mustard nerve gas.
So sounded like ptsd, and pain from nerve damage, so they drank.
My dad was the complete opposite. Compassionate yet stearn and tactfull. My mom was treated like gold. Dad was her prince charming. Together till death, 54 years.

 

[lordkenmore]

>he must have raped her repeatedly

The sad thing is that while that probably was the case in reality, my best guess is that it would not have been considered rape by law in many places. At least, she was able to escape in the end--and that alone is sort of a miracle, given how hard it was getting divorced once.

As much as I like some things from past eras--like old washers--I cringe at other things, such as the way that past eras were only really good to live in if you were white (and with ancestry from the right place, such as England), Christian, straight, and a male.