Thread Number: 20643
Tallulah Bankhead's Washer & Dryer
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Post# 327869   1/30/2009 at 23:22 (5,535 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

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From the Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour.





Post# 327879 , Reply# 1   1/31/2009 at 00:28 (5,535 days old) by pturo (Syracuse, New York)        

Very cool. Perhaps Westinghouse?

Post# 327880 , Reply# 2   1/31/2009 at 00:31 (5,535 days old) by danemodsandy (The Bramford, Apt. 7-E)        
Does Anyone Else Notice?

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I know people's ideas of energy efficiency were a little rudimentary in 1957, but uninsulated laundry-room walls in Westport, Connecticut?

All I can say is that I wouldn't want the repair bills for the plastic parts in the washer!


Post# 327884 , Reply# 3   1/31/2009 at 01:14 (5,535 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        
1958

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Hotpoint - Lucy had the same set in her laundry room right off the Hotpoint Customline equipped kitchen.

Post# 327886 , Reply# 4   1/31/2009 at 01:29 (5,535 days old) by programcomputer (Ann Arbor Michigan, USA)        
Tallulah's machines.....

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I'm sitting here thinking to myself...wow those look VERY Hotpoint'ish to me .So I cracked a nearby magazine. They kinda look like the 1957 Hotpoints in LIFE magazine from June 1957.

Now I know that nothing like that was being made by Westinghouse at that point. They were still on the Program Computer and like model slant front's during the Comedy Hour days. And hawkin the fact that thier "revolving agitator" washers were better than most top loaders.

Westinghouse's top loading automatic came out in late 1963 produced by Easy, and their flat front Laundromat machines debuted in 1964, the same year they released their own automatic design as well..

Deciding to do a little footwork, this pic on here is a crap scan from a flea-bay sale that offers the 1958 Wonderinse washer. In 1960 they went to the "Touch Command" series machines that had the floating control panel. So looks like 1958 Hotpoints it may well be...

Chad

Ann Arbor Michigan


Post# 327901 , Reply# 5   1/31/2009 at 06:16 (5,535 days old) by hilovane (Columbus OH)        

While the Hotpoint "Touch Command" washer with the "floating" backsplash/controls was introduced in 1960, it was actually a '61 model. I know this, 'cuz my mom's Hotpoint was also a "Touch Command" model, but it was a '60 model. The '61 had no rotary timer on its TOL model.

Post# 327903 , Reply# 6   1/31/2009 at 06:52 (5,534 days old) by laundromat (Hilo, Hawaii)        

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The Connecticut home had a Bendix washer dryer combo.The episode where Lucy got the matine' tickets to See a musical and they had to share seats with Fred and Ethel showed the unit clearly as Lucy and Rickey had breakfast in their new home.


Post# 327911 , Reply# 7   1/31/2009 at 09:27 (5,534 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        

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We watched the Tallulah Bankhead hour-long episode a couple of weeks ago in Chicago and Lucy's Hotpoints were clearly visible in the laundry room so they must have changed sponsors or swapped them out at different times.

Post# 327913 , Reply# 8   1/31/2009 at 09:42 (5,534 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)        
Fascinating

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Wonderful challenge. They didn't exactly look like Wonderinse Hotpoints to me at first(I forgot that Hotpoints had opposing Control Dials those years)but that rectangle on the lower dryer door rang a bell:

Post# 327931 , Reply# 9   1/31/2009 at 11:25 (5,534 days old) by paulg (My sweet home... Chicago)        
Don't put too much work into this...

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Our first washer was very similar to the above. The Hotpoint unit didn't have the goofy overhang light, nor the lefthand badge nor the corrugated front decorations. Did we have a 1956 Hotpoint?
Otherwise, our washer was identical. The white translucent top half of the plastic control panel was full-lighted fluorescent backlit.
It had a red coffee-can-like filter that fit over the black straight-vane agitator.
Do you recognize this?
Just baffled a bit. Never saw a picture of the washer we had on this forum. Perhaps Dad took home a prototype or a sample that was on test for a few years. I do know that as a test Hotpoint would rig the timers to never stop, fill the units with towels and run them until they broke. After fixing them the employees could obtain them somehow. Maybe we just had an old sample...


Post# 327937 , Reply# 10   1/31/2009 at 11:58 (5,534 days old) by appliguy (Oakton Va.)        
Gansky1 the Bankhead Episode was shot in 1957

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This is also the epidsode that was being filmed when Desi made the deal to buy RKO studios (which is where he and Lucy met when they were filming Too May Girls which Desi had be in on Broadway). The first episode shot in 1958 is when Lucy had her short poodle doo (sic) ...PAT COFFEY

Post# 327957 , Reply# 11   1/31/2009 at 13:22 (5,534 days old) by tlee618 ()        

Just wonder what the Wonderinse was?

Post# 327958 , Reply# 12   1/31/2009 at 13:40 (5,534 days old) by hilovane (Columbus OH)        

With regard to "swapping out" appliances (per se), Hotpoint never sponsored any Desilu shows. However, during the 1957-58 season of "Make Room For Daddy" (aka the Danny Thomas Show), the Williams' New York apartment house had a Hotpoint kitchen, complete with built-in oven and cooktop. They, too were replaced with Westinghouse appliances when that company began its sponsorship association with Desilu. As a matter of fact, when Jack Benny's old TV show switched its production association from MCA (Universal) to Desilu around 1960, he, too, had Westinghouse appliances.

For the record, Hotpoint sponsored "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet."

Even Bendix sposnored a TV show for a time: it was a Goodson-Todman game show called "The Name's the Same."


Post# 327972 , Reply# 13   1/31/2009 at 18:20 (5,534 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)        
Just wonder what the Wonderinse was?

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Wonderinse was Hotpoint's first version of a rinse dispenser. Back then, the rinse additive was as likely to be Calgon Water Softener as Fabric Softener that we're familiar with today. In fact, I don't remember fabric softener being used in our household until the mid-60's and then your only choices were blue: NuSoft and pink: StaPuf. Others followed very quickly.

Post# 327973 , Reply# 14   1/31/2009 at 18:27 (5,534 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)        
...and Paul

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Anything like this?

Post# 327988 , Reply# 15   1/31/2009 at 19:45 (5,534 days old) by alr2903 (TN)        

So over the years "Lucy" sponsors changed? I remember the vacuum folks discussing both Westinghouse vacuums (When Lucy was the saleslady) and a episode with a Hoover, where Lucy spent a lot of screen time using attachments, almost to the point of giving a demonstration. Many remember it as an early example of "product placement". alr2903

Post# 327992 , Reply# 16   1/31/2009 at 20:11 (5,534 days old) by mikes ()        
The History Of Lucy Sponsorship

Philip Morris was "I Love Lucy's" sponsor from the very first episode on October 15th, 1951. (A series of announcers did the PM cigarette spots, as did Lucy and Desi themselves.) By late 1954, it was clear Philip Morris was losing ground in the cigarette race to the up and coming filters, and fast-growing Pall Mall from American Tobacco, and the company decided to phase out its sponsorship of the series.
In January 1955, Proctor & Gamble became "Lucy's" alternate sponsor, pitching Cheer and Lilt home permanents every other week. Philip Morris became a co-sponsor for the remainder of the 1954-55 season, until its contract expired.
Starting with the 1955-56 season, General Foods joined P&G as alternating sponsors (Lucy and Desi would do commercials at the end of the show for the remainder of the half-hour series' run.) The only exception was for a few weeks in early 1957, when Ford Motor Company purchased time on "Lucy" to promote the Ford division lineup, including its new Skyliner retractable hardtop (with a commercial featuring Lucy & Desi).
For the fall of 1957, when the "I Love Lucy" format switched to occasional hour-long programs, Ford agreed to sponsor five "Lucy" specials during the 1957-58 season. Westinghouse, of course, became the "Desilu Playhouse" sponsor from 1958 to 1960.
When CBS began airing "Lucy" reruns on weekends in 1955, Lehn & Fink (Lysol, Hines hand cream, Dorothy Gray cosmetics and other products) sponsored those shows. CBS also aired "Lucy" reruns in prime time from 1957 to 1959; General Foods and Clairol were the sponsors there. And in 1960, CBS aired the final "Lucy" half-hour shows as "Lucy In Connecticut," sponsored by General Mills (Cheerios and Gold Medal Flour).
To the best of my research and viewing (including my own vintage TV collection), that pretty much sums up the "I Love Lucy" sponsorship history.


Post# 327999 , Reply# 17   1/31/2009 at 20:42 (5,534 days old) by alr2903 (TN)        

Thanks Mike, that redhead instictively knew how to make a buck. thats a good thing :-)

Post# 328009 , Reply# 18   1/31/2009 at 22:20 (5,534 days old) by tlee618 ()        

Ken thanks so much for the information on the Wonderinse. I just wonder if you had to get the product from your Hotpoint dealer? Terry

Post# 328043 , Reply# 19   2/1/2009 at 06:36 (5,534 days old) by hilovane (Columbus OH)        

That '59 Hotpoint is the last of the "Harriet Nelson specials."
When the Amercian Gas Association became Ozzie & Harriet's sponsor atound 1963, or '64, all the Hotpoint appliances were gone; among the replacements was a Norge 14 washer and matching dryer (gas, of course.) When the short-lived "Ozzie's Girls" grace the airwaves in 1973, the Nelson's laundry area sported a Maytag pair.


Post# 328071 , Reply# 20   2/1/2009 at 09:44 (5,533 days old) by paulg (My sweet home... Chicago)        
That's the washer!

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That's the washer I had as a kid. But it didn't have the "Wonderinse" option.

Post# 328102 , Reply# 21   2/1/2009 at 14:14 (5,533 days old) by gyromatic (St. Paul MN.)        
Bendix?

In one of the later episodes,in the new house there is a scene where Lucy is ironing in the kitchen and when Ricky gets up from the table and walks out the door you can clearly see a Bendix washer or dryer.This is the same Bendix dryer I have a 1957.This is the episode where the four of them go into NY to see a show that they missed half of because of Lucy."THE HAPPIEST FELLA" Check it out.

Post# 328157 , Reply# 22   2/1/2009 at 17:08 (5,533 days old) by pturo (Syracuse, New York)        

Tallulah was a female female impersonator, or a female drag queen.
She was once asked what her favorite sexual position was, to which she replied, "72. That's 69 with two people watching."

When asked if Tennesse Williams was in fact a homosexulal, she replied " Well, I don't know since he never tried to suck my d***."

Just a really cool lady with an attitude for days, and an appetitie for gays.



Post# 328302 , Reply# 23   2/2/2009 at 09:18 (5,532 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)        

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We have to remember that in 1958, television was still a toddler and I'm sure producers and sponsors didn't have their arrangements as tight as they have them today. And with what I know about Desi Arnaz, if they needed a washing machine in the background for a scene, he didn't wait around for any given sponsor to provide one.

Remember, Bewitched started out with Maytags in the background and then switched to Frigidaires when Chevrolet became their biggest sponsor, not just one of many. I still remember the late, great Agnes Moorehead being reduced into changing herself into a poodle so they could promote Ken L Ration. Although, right now, if they offered to pay me what they must have paid her back then, I'd do it in a cocaine heartbeat.


Post# 328327 , Reply# 24   2/2/2009 at 11:21 (5,532 days old) by hilovane (Columbus OH)        

In those "early days" (especially at Screen Gems-then the TV division of Columbia Pictures, and even before that at the old Hal Roach Studios, when they were getting into TV production with sitcoms like "Beulah," "My Little Margie," and "The Trouble With Father," and cop dramas like "Racket Squad") it wasn't uncommon for shows to share soundstages, and sets. Screen Gems, in particular. To those with eagle-eye powers of observation, you'd notice the identical (RCA) Whirlpool washing machine and refreigerator; and O'Keefe & Merrit stove being seen on both "Dennis the Menace," and "The Donna Reed Show," as they shared the same sets (with some "tweaks"), but even the exteriors were identical. For that matter, On DTM, Mr. Wilson's house was identical on the outside (and strangely familiar on the "inside") as the Anderson house on "Father Knows Best."
Now, in the case of "Bewitched," the early episodes shared the same sets (again, with some "tweaks") as another Screen Gems sitcom, "The Farmer's Daughter."
For the Hal Roach shows, while I don't know if they had a sponsorship, but the aforementioned sitcoms did prominently display Westinghouse appliances of the early '50s in their respective kitchens (except MLM didn't showcase the "Laundry Twins," as the central characters lived in an upscale New York City apartmnent house).


Post# 328399 , Reply# 25   2/2/2009 at 17:17 (5,532 days old) by appliguy (Oakton Va.)        
Dennis the Menace and Donna Reed not only shared the same se

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but they shared the same town......The Mitchells, Wilsons, and the Stones all lived in the same town...if memeory serves it was called Hilldale. I know this because there is an Episode of Donna Reed where Dennis Mitchell shows up when Donna is trying to paint the living room or they dining room...I can't remember which one and of course he crates havoc for Donna.....PAT COFFEY


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