A feature from General Electric advertising the modern all-electric kitchen. Displays several examples of kitchen design and remodeling. Planning for efficiency and convenience.
My company, Cinecraft Productions, made this little gem in 1941, our 3rd year in business. I marvel that it was shot in color and that it is a 40 minute film with actors and dialogue, but no synch sound. The actors all have their backs to the camera during the conversations. And once in a while we see their faces talking and the lip synch is carefully dubbed in. Very clever how this film was made...for its time.
@Al Fabeech Al, I am only 67. Our founder made this film. I have been at Cinecraft since 1976. And yes we are still going strong. And so are the Vikings at VASJ...but our football team is not beating too many teams these days.
I am such an old fashion housewife.. I love this lifestyle. I take after my mom and grandmothers.. always cooked dinner and we eat at the table together. I love to bake on the weekends usually with one of my sons. I don’t want these traditions to end!
I wish that I could live this lifestyle. But I feel it is all but impossible. Besides, I can't even have my own children, so I feel my chances are very slim. My ramblings aside, my heart is warmed to hear that you are keeping these traditions alive.
its so sad women are expected to have a full time job, children, and be perfect house keepers nowadays. the economy has gone to shit so bad a hard-working man can no longer support his family with his income alone
The way the modern kitchen is being pitched as easy and fun, it must have taken the mystique of cooking and made it less daunting and more accessible for men. Cooking back then was such a chore - when you're out working all day, you don't have the time or energy left to pick up all the nuance and subtlety of cooking in a wood burning range with no refrigerator or running water. Dawn of the electric kitchen must have opened a door for a lot of men who wanted to learn but were daunted by the task. It probably paved the way for the great chefs of the mid-century, which is kind of exciting to me.
How the kitchen at 3:09 brought back memories with the pine cabinets, sunbeam mixer, Revere ware, and the little ledge above the sink. Those cabinets will look even better as time passes. Thanks for the video.
What I love about this is that it stresses the importance of change but in a subtle way. Some people would think this is hinting that back then all women cared about was their kitchen space and it's sexist or men believed that's all women cared about, etc. But it's not, and it stresses more the importance and changed spaces. Refreshing your space that you work in, whether it's a kitchen, bedroom, livingroom, or even your workplace outside of the home if you can, keeps you motivated. It's almost like some people today totally threw the importance of things looking fresh and good out the window. Believe me, organization, being clean, and refreshing the look of something helps your energy/vibe a lot in your work space.
And for a time where that was just how the family unit was structured, it was kinda necessary. Sexist, maybe. But the time and energy saved certainly helped women make the time to get out more often, take on new hobbies, go back to school, and enter the workforce. These changes were pivotal for a lot of reasons.
Oh absolutely. Like I’m a bachelor and I do spend so much time in the kitchen myself so these videos get me thinking about the little changes that have occurred over time to make the kitchen work easier.
That Hoosier cabinet in the old kitchen and that drainboard sink! I'd love to have a Hoosier cabinet and I would have put a drainboard sink in my kitchen if one had been the right size.
This era was simply clean elegant where family values and home meant home not a house of luxury and no time for wife and kids. I like the home feelings and love care bw wife and husband depicted in this kind of videos.🙂
When they said about the refrigerator being 8 cu. ft., I was bowled over because my refrigerator's a 25 cu. ft. one and THAT seems like plenty of space to me. I don't even think I've seen one with less than 15 cu. ft. before in my lifetime! What a difference a few decades makes!
This is hilarious! The couple shown in this were a bit between my grandparents and great grandparents and I can’t imagine any of them behaving like these people! My great grandmother and great grandfather were poor southern farmers of American Indian descent and my grandfather was a stern businessman who had a typewriter shop. While my grandmother worked in a kitchen at the hospital I was born. None of them behaved like this and they never showed affection towards each other publicly lol. All the same I loved them and miss them greatly. God bless them.
My apartment has a small kitchen. I have virtually no counter space. One small drawer, no real cabinet space. So I've been improving it. I bought a baking table for the microwave and extra storage. I don't use my range so i plan to buy a cover for the top to add extra counter space. Also looking in to a small table for the corner for meals and more counter space. Soon its gonna be awesome.
It’s a year later… how’s your kitchen? Lots of neat ideas! I’m 67 and finally have a wonderful kitchen, which is a blessing since I have a lot of pain now. It’s such a pleasure to be in there working to feed our family…. I’ll take the happy, excited faces of my family when I place fresh baked scones and sandwiches before them over climbing the corporate ladder, any day!😍
They actually had most things delivered milk, bread, newspaper, medications, groceries, even gifts and clothing there were salesman who came door to door selling all manner of household items because many households had no car.
@@TheCherryHomemaker My grandmother used to tell me about the Fuller brush salesman the would stop buy. He must have come by often because she had so many of those bakelite Fuller letter openers they would give out.
You have to remember that, at the time this was produced, the "Great Depression" of a decade before- that affected millions of people- had just about passed into history.....and more people were finding employment- and the hope of a better life was in the air once more. "The future" looked bright again; the 1939-'40 New York World's Fair was evidence of that optimism. And so, organizations like the "Modern Kitchen Bureau" (who had nothing to do with General Electric) promoted the idea of a "modern electric kitchen" as one way families could face the future with confidence and optimism.
What ended the Depression was selling goods while we were neutral in WWII. Even the dullest witted person wouldn't have considered that a bright future.
I use refrigerator dishes all the time. I gave up on plastic containers along time ago. You have to replace them all the time since they discolor or crack so easily. Refrigerator dishes can go from frig to oven. I love them. I highly recommend them if you have never owned them.
I totally agree! I started scouring the thrift stores for these refrigerator dishes so that I can get rid of my glassware that has the stupid plastic lids.....hate them! The hard ones that I can't seem to find are the long rectangular ones, so I am unfortunately stuck with making my lasagna in two separate ones.
I love the way the old wood stoves bake. Electric or gas just don’t do the same job. The big old wooden kitchens were so comfortable to sit and chat, play games, do art work or schoolwork at the big table. The modern kitchens of metal and sterile chrome are cold, not a place to relax or spend family time.
I have one of those kitchen hutch's just inside the kitchen door. I think it was sold by Sears Roebuck & Co.back in the 30s. And now they are talking them into pitching it for a newer kitchen. If they only knew how much they would be worth now. And that big of a roast would bankrupt you today. Once upon a time in America should be the title of this video.
A fairy tale! :) Who could afford this? And soon these things will be rationed and turned toward the war effort and you couldn't buy them at any price.
K Kr - They would only be rationed as far as the units already produced and in warehouses being stocked for sale, plus stores stock inside their facilities being temporarily unavailable for sale to the general public, being made available to public institutions such as hospitals, medical laboratories, official day care centers and the like; military posts, camps and bases for recruit and advanced training; AND as replacements for those same type items which had been destroyed by house fires, floods, tornadoes, etc., in private homes, providing the home wasn't a total loss and could be repaired and made livable again . Those had to be approved by the local ration board, and a priority certificate issued for their purchase, once it could be shown that the home had been restored. OR if not, and another residence became available which would have required the new tenant to provide their own appliances, which the destroyed units would have been, had they still been usable, then that was a considered circumstance as well. The ones that had already been bought and paid for were of course to remain where they were, and owners were frequently encouraged through advertising and propaganda messages to take very good care of what they had, performing minor maintenance and upkeep chores as required, since replacements, and even replacement parts, were going to be very difficult, if not impossible to come by, "for the duration." If you can get hold of any of the major retail catalogs of the day, such as Sears or Montgomery Ward (I have several) you will find that almost all metal was eliminated from items for sale, and in some cases replaced with other materials such as wood, or even some kinds of glass! Large and most small appliances; metal cookware of all kinds, much of which were replaced with glass such as Pyrex; steel kitchen cabinets, plus kitchen tables and chairs, popular since the 30's, were replaced in limited quantities and sizes made of wood; even the kitchen sinks were replaced in single bowl units made of a certain kind of glass; all metal musical instruments, radios, phonographs and even small pianos, disappeared completely. Bicycles were suspended from sales, warehoused and rationed for use by people who could prove they could transport themselves back and forth to their War jobs on one. Tires of course, and most metal and rubber based parts would disappear from pages as well, except for rationed tires, for which you needed a priority certificate to purchase. Children's toys made of metal, especially around Christmas time, were replaced if possible by wood substitutes. Tricycles, wagons, etc., were impossible to come by in most cases, except perhaps on the second hand market, but those were made primarily of critical metals such as steel, and more likely to find their way into the scrap drives than being sold to someone else, once outgrown by all the children in the house.
These kitchens are not what everyone had, only the wealthy at the time. Most ppl in the 40's had rough looking kitchens. It was still charming, but did not look like these.
They has oscillating fans in the 40s? Crazy. Those wood shelves are gorgeous. People look so healthy, must be all those fresh veggies, meats, and fruits.
I'm just wincing at the fact she touched raw meat then touched the oven door handle, the timer, the temperature dial, the counter top, her apron, the chair, the table, and the cookbook. Now all of it is contaminated with raw meat. Guess cross contamination wasn't a thing in the 1940s?
This is the early 50’s at very earliest 1949. The sunbeam mixer seen at 3:10 is a post 1948 model. Even the precursor to that model that looks very similar was only available towards the end of WWII.
Mr. Jones looks straight up homicidal when the magazine clippings come out. I’ve seen mugshots of serial killers that look friendlier and less psychopathic than he does after he moves his sad little sandwich and milk for the Mrs. to break out the kitchen scrapbook. 😹😹😹
I went to culinary school a few years ago and all we used were tea towels to take things in and out of the oven! I find them much more manageable than oven gloves! But I also didn’t realise that oven mitts were only invented fairly recently. Interesting.
Davie Jones - This movie was done in 1941, obviously prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, *"a date which will live in infamy!"* according to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Things would change drastically with that event, as we would be dragged into the War we had previously and fully intended to avoid until the real danger became fully evident. This would also serve as a temporary stopgap to further civilian R&D on the subject of television, until the war ended on both fronts in August of 1945. TV had been under study and slow development since the 1920's, but TEN years of the Great Depression would render research at that time expensive and pointless, since too few people would be able to afford to take advantage of it to make it pay off. Plus, it would require the development of broadcast stations, which nobody could afford to invest in at the time. So, ten years of Depression, which wasn't completely ended until after we became fully involved in the production of all forms of war materiel, effectively ending unemployment for all who sought work, but with numerous restrictions on many raw materials for War use ONLY, put a severe dent in the development of television for the masses until the late 1940's to early 1950's. And THEN, the source of television programming? Corporate and privately owned studios, who would develop TV programs, ALL LIVE, and only during evening hours at first, when the majority of family members were at home to watch. But only available to those who lived close enough to the source to get the signals carried through the air and captured by various antennas, which were attached to the apartment buildings or homes in which they lived. And the high cost financially supported, as in radio, by advertising, also live! Then the production of TV sets, or receivers, that were affordable for the average family. This all took until the early 1950's, before the idea for the effective R & D of TV dinners came about. It was influenced, however, by a visit made by a member of the Swanson family in 1950, (who had been heavily involved in producing processed eggs, and butter from cream purchased from local farmers, then selling these products to distributors; as well as producing and selling turkey, chicken and other meats) to a company then producing meals for airlines. These meals were prepared, frozen, and later reheated by convection ovens on board airplanes, in divided aluminum trays. The TV dinner appeared on store freezer shelves in 1953, and sold about 5,000 units that year. But by 1956, they were selling over 13,000,000 units. All because the TV had become affordable to the general public, and programing had begun reaching more and more people, along with the advertising for them!
I believe if we followed the rules from this time of good food made by hand and not pre-packaged items filled with chemicals, our society would not be as obese and needing as many pharmaceuticals to cope with medical issues plaguing Americas today. A kitchen is a place for teaching of our children how learn an important skill without the TV filling their minds with 24-7 BS. Great sales presentation. Choosing the female to cook back then was acceptable, however, I have many friends today where the male partner stay at home, care for the kids and is in the kitchen. Someone has to cook naturally for good health. BTW, all these housewives look beautiful in their outfits giving their husbands more than a smile when they arrive home after along day at the office.
i think homemaking/raising a family is the hardest job to do well.i think more women would choose it if they got the appreciation and admiration it deserves.didnt like when she offered her husband some milk and he responded uh huh.no thank you or anything.
It is a very hard thankless job but so worth it if it’s possible which it’s not . Nowadays it takes two to work and take care of a family. Not everyone can afford for someone to stay hole while the other works . It’s too expensive.
Most people can scale back their lifestyles and budget every penny and have a stay at home mom.a second car , gas, insurance, daycare etc are expensive and can help enable a stay at home mom.many milinials start out their marraiges with new cars and dream homes which past generations didnt do.there are many bloggers out there who can help most families budget enough to make it work.im not talking about very low income families who have no choice but to have both parents work but even then they should work towards that goal.our children are the future of our country this is a worth it goal.
People used to go to market every few days and have fresh food delivered daily, so they only needed space for 1-2 days worth of food. Now people buy huge amounts of food, shop weekly or a few times a month, and overeat so much we have huge fridges.
Happy international woman's day! How far we've come! So far that I feel completely comfortable "going back to the kitchen". Knowing that it's because it brings me joy and not because it's expected! Even better knowing...that if I feel like hanging up my apron and pearls, I could still be a bricklayer, ceo or whatever I choose! What a time to be alive
I agree that men need to take more responsibility today. They aren't pulling their weight. The problem is they have been told that masculinity and assertion are "toxic" and that they need to be passive in order to make people feel comfortable in their presence.
That cabinet behind them at 8:56 is called a Hoosier cabinet. Notice the built in flour sifter/dispensers. They had fitted glass containers and cabinets made for different items. An early cabinet version of later designed and built in kitchens.
I love those kind of kitchens. We're kitchens today don't look like kitchens. Also. Love the magazine's back then. I collect them and can look at them all day. The magazine's today have nothing to do about the house or hone. So generic and boring. If I buy one without first flipping through it that I have wasted my money on the magazine. Today's magazine's like them are not worth the money
Amazing how times have changed..Dad's would hurry anxiously to go home from work. They would even be upset if something kept them from going home to their family. Men are not like they used to be.
Interesting that the description indicates the film was "a feature from General Electric advertising the modern all-electric kitchen." In at least one scene, the electric refrigerator clearly carries the Norge nameplate.
The music sounds tired but happy and peppy...🤔 and not because the video is aged. She's so cute though🤭 and when she went to get the scrap book all🤩. Precious😍
It's been 70 years, and the only thing that's different from the "old,dreary" kitchen shown has been the microwave oven. Her fuel source for her range may have gone from wood to electricity (a BAD choice if you are in Pittsburgh,where you'd choose natual gas...) Other than that, My kitchen in 2018 has the same shit as the "old" kitchen in this film. (A fridge,a range, and a sink.)
Its actually a great way to come at it, from a design standpoint. Red Lobster builds it kitchens to a very similar standard and believe me - if you're going to do food service, its the best kitchen you could ever work in.
