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1954. "Harley Earl, General Motors Vice President of Design, in Frigidaire's 'Kitchen of Tomorrow' exhibit for the GM Motorama at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York." Flanking the Range of Tomorrow we have, on the right, the Rotisserie Oven of Next Wednesday; on the left, stowed in the down position, is an "Electronic Oven," which is what they called microwaves back in the day. Color transparency by Arthur Rothstein for Look magazine. View full size.
Harley Earl was fixated on the future, at least in his own areas of operations.
I believe he is scrutinising the carrots, trying to visualize the carrot of 1957 if GM should make the logical move from stoves to vegetables.
Should it be straightened, or should we just make the curve more controlled? Fins?? and those leaves desperately need some organization!
Courtesy of Google Books, here's an article on the Motorama kitchen, from the April 1954 issue of Popular Science.
Mr. Earl looks ... uncomfortable.
"What do you expect me to do with these carrots? I'm a car designer."
Always wondered what motivated GM to get into appliances.
[Zillions of dollars in profits? - Dave]
God bless him, but who decided Harley Earl should be in this shot? Dude looks like he tied on a few the night before. Your modeling days are behind you, buddy.
When I bought my house 22 years ago I thought that bizarre oven/stove combo would be the first thing to go, but I'm still using it! Previous owners were kind enough to leave both pics of the house from a Better Homes article from 1941 and the original brochure for the stove, among other things. The lady on the cover of the brochure is wearing a dress, high heels, and a CROWN while using the fancy new appliance! One major downside is the interiors of those ovens are chrome and therefore nearly impossible to clean.
In the early 1960s my parents renovated their 1920s Colonial home outside of Detroit. The kitchen especially received much attention with a fresh coat of orange paint (so much orange) and a space-age Frigidaire Flair double oven with pull-out cooktop.
Tomorrow is like today only in stainless steel.
We desperately need "The Chef of the Future" to complete this scene.
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