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Thread Number: 65273
/ Tag: Wringer Washers
When is the last time your local newspaper ran a feature like this? |
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Post# 878887 4/28/2016 at 09:14 (2,912 days old) by Launderess  (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Post# 878893 , Reply# 1 4/28/2016 at 10:08 (2,912 days old) by RevvinKevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land) |
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Boy you aren't kidding! | ||
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Post# 878898 , Reply# 3 4/28/2016 at 10:23 (2,912 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Post# 878911 , Reply# 4 4/28/2016 at 12:17 (2,912 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains) |
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Laundress, | ||
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Post# 878920 , Reply# 5 4/28/2016 at 13:35 (2,912 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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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. | ||
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Post# 878935 , Reply# 6 4/28/2016 at 17:03 (2,911 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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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. | ||
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Post# 878936 , Reply# 7 4/28/2016 at 17:04 (2,911 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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Post# 878937 , Reply# 8 4/28/2016 at 17:29 (2,911 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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Even a notice for Mahalia Jackson!! | ||
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Post# 878945 , Reply# 9 4/28/2016 at 18:21 (2,911 days old) by peteski50 (New York) |
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Newspaper! | ||
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Post# 878950 , Reply# 10 4/28/2016 at 19:02 (2,911 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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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. | ||
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Post# 878951 , Reply# 11 4/28/2016 at 19:05 (2,911 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Did you see the primordial Peanuts "deflate-gate"car | ||
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Post# 878952 , Reply# 12 4/28/2016 at 19:07 (2,911 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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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..
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Post# 878960 , Reply# 13 4/28/2016 at 20:09 (2,911 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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| Post# 878966 , Reply# 14 4/28/2016 at 20:45 (2,911 days old) by pierreandreply4 (St-Bruno de montarville (province of quebec) canada) | ||
lets also not forget that some models ad an option to reuse  | ||
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Post# 878968 , Reply# 15 4/28/2016 at 21:44 (2,911 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Contests were *Big* during the 1950's and 1960's | ||
| Post# 878994 , Reply# 16 4/29/2016 at 07:12 (2,911 days old) by Blackstone (Springfield, Massachusetts) | ||
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Post# 879115 , Reply# 18 4/30/2016 at 09:57 (2,910 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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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. | ||
| Post# 879118 , Reply# 19 4/30/2016 at 10:39 (2,910 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan) | ||
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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. | ||
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Post# 879153 , Reply# 20 4/30/2016 at 18:01 (2,909 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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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. | ||
| Post# 879157 , Reply# 21 4/30/2016 at 19:18 (2,909 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
>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. | ||
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Post# 879163 , Reply# 22 4/30/2016 at 21:32 (2,909 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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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.
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Post# 879165 , Reply# 23 4/30/2016 at 21:53 (2,909 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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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] | ||
| Post# 879175 , Reply# 24 5/1/2016 at 00:09 (2,909 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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Post# 879176 , Reply# 25 5/1/2016 at 01:02 (2,909 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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YW | ||
| Post# 879181 , Reply# 26 5/1/2016 at 06:30 (2,909 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan) | ||
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Ther sure was a consumer push going on. Also every nine months from most households in a hospital maternity ward. | ||
| Post# 879252 , Reply# 27 5/1/2016 at 17:22 (2,908 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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> 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.) | ||
| Post# 879257 , Reply# 29 5/1/2016 at 18:07 (2,908 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
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>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. | ||
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Post# 879268 , Reply# 30 5/1/2016 at 19:42 (2,908 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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There are two ways of doing laundry
Shifting of clothes or shifting of water.
Semi-automatics and conventional (wringer) washers are the former, and automatics the latter. When nothing else existed and or you didn't know better then doing washing by hand (with or without mangles) and or using a conventional washing machine was fine. The latter probably was considered a step-up from the former. However once fully automatic washers come upon the scene the case for using wringers became slimmer and slimmer as the years went on. Looking at the features of washers in the linked OP housewives and others must have thought they'd died and gone to heaven.... Read a comment on another site where a woman had announced her husband had just purchased and given to her as a gift a wringer. One of the other ladies quipped back that if her husband had given her a mangle he'd be one of the first things she would put through it. *LOL* We know from across the pond how bad laundry day was well through the 1950's as women were stuck with either hand washing or using wringer washers. | ||
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Post# 879421 , Reply# 31 5/3/2016 at 02:11 (2,907 days old) by vacbear58 (Sutton In Ashfield, East Midlands, UK) |
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Across the pond
Don't disagree with you Laundress on your point about the UK, but we did have a war to pay for. In the immediate postwar period the majority of UK production was assigned to exports and, even in the mid 1950s when equipment was more easily available there was a purchase tax (its actually a sales tax) of 40% and upwards - from memory it was not until 1958 that this was reduced, alongside an easing of hire purchase controls.
Picking up your point about second hand items these were sold without the tax. the washing machine market pre WW2 was pretty small (although there were some machines available), the vacuum cleaner market was much more mature so people were encourage to trade in their old cleaners which could then be re-sold without the tax | ||
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Post# 879423 , Reply# 32 5/3/2016 at 02:22 (2,907 days old) by vacbear58 (Sutton In Ashfield, East Midlands, UK) |
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This post has been removed by the member who posted it. | ||
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Post# 879516 , Reply# 33 5/3/2016 at 20:04 (2,906 days old) by chetlaham (United States) |
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Great find! | ||
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