"A Woman is mood... a teardrop... a happy laugh. Her badge is an apron. Her purpose in life is to give others pleasure. Her kitchen is what her dreams are made of!" Oh, Man! You really wanna go there GE??? Well maybe I'll poison your food! This product information film was made by General Electric to educate their "Sales Men" about the selling features that will appeal to Women in the 1960 line of electric ranges, and how Women can be made happy if only given the right appliances to allow them to best please their men by filling their manly faces with broiled meat. And oh, how they lay it on thick! "YOU are the Dream Merchant!" The message is clear - the Atomic Age ideal of happiness through producing, selling, and acquiring newer better products.
This 16mm film which is very much of it's time is preserved in absolutely gorgeous IB Technicolor, and transferred from my own 16mm archive print using my Eiki Telecine. The Eiki projects a 24fps print at 30 frames per second for a flickerless NTSC transfer. A special diffusion plate eliminates the 'hot spot' of the projector, and the sound is pulled right from the optical track.
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- Intro Music by Fran Blanche -
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By Fran

12 thoughts on “Dream merchants 1960”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Marcelo Gd says:

    You know, at that time feminism was a thing of commies… It's an explicit statement of how society must organize from elite's point of view.
    In those years, here in Argentina oligarchy ruled via military dictatorship or puppet administrations like Arturo Frondizi or José Guido.
    That period where democracy was interrupted was called "desarrollismo", they tried to look themselves at the mirror of american dream and replicate the model.
    As we have a very different ethnic/cultural/religious background, with a strong spanish catholic influence, the results of that hybrid imitation was brutal.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ian Sheppard says:

    I grew up in this era. Ahh a simpler time. I may purchase a new range for my wife as a Christmas gift to go with her refrigerator birthday gift. I already have my cemetery plot purchased so there should be absolutely no problem.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Green Lint says:

    I love these old films. Thank you for showing us these lost bits of history. A definite reminder that 1960 may be 60 some years in the past, but light years away in terms of moires and attitudes. But they did build quality appliances back in those days. I saw a very similar range in an old house a few weeks ago, still going strong.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Haweater says:

    I have a bunch of "Country Gentleman" magazines from 1946-49, read by farmers at the time. The ads in the "women's section" were striking. Many ads for modern appliances and linoleum flooring ( a low maintenance alternative to the drudgery of scrubbing wood floors). Most especially ads for kitchen stoves — ads that were intended for the farm housewife to pressure their husband into buying as an upgrade to the very labor intensive, hot wood-burning cook stove that had to kept fired year-round. Since many farmhouses at the time still did not have electricity available, that was no problem – propane, kerosene, or fuel oil fired kitchen ranges were also advertised.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars pmailkeey says:

    A decade or 2 ago, I walked into a cooker showroom/shop and asked if they had any induction hobbed cookers in. The young lad replied 'gas or electric' ?

    And before that, went into a 'financial institution' and asked if they offered a 'Switch' card with any of their accounts. Blank looks entirely. 2 Years later they did !

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Heinz Kessler says:

    I wonder why, even with the most sophisticated ranges, the controls with these American models are always on the back? Here in Europe, our ovens have them at the front. With controls at the back, you could easily burn your hands when you have to reach over a pot or pan to operate a control. This is as if the On/Off switch of a bench saw would be at the opposite end of the bench.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars asdfasdf1331 says:

    "Flip the chops, and then set the temperature to 190 degrees! Those will be the driest, leatheriest, hard to choke down chops her family will ever eat! Ruined perfectly, by the General Electric J408!"

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars zefallafez says:

    Look at the insane appliances today(nancy polesi’s 20 thousand dollar refrigerator, anyone) a lot of women still desire these things today. This is dated at all. Just as many people then would have lampooned this as of today and just as many women desire these today. Hopefully, Fran has one of these sales promotional films on barbecue grills so you see the men were also portrayed a certain way.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Scott Thomas says:

    We had the 303 model when I was a child…I think. I remember all the timers and the clock. The removable door sometimes fell off if you opened it too far.
    Made a house without air conditioning hotter than Hell in summer. Kinda nice in fall and winter, though.
    This was in '74, so the stove had some age on it.
    These old films are just a hoot to watch.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars VWestlife says:

    Make that "very much of its time", Fran — no apostrophe. And unless those curtains are made of asbestos, it's not a good idea to have them draped around a range!

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars KWatson1984 says:

    I still use a 1971 GE electric range. The only things broken on it are the clock and self clean, which I never would use anyway. I have no desire to "upgrade" to anything made today.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gavin Downes says:

    what happened to all these features ? My stove doesnt even have a clock.

    I love these videos.. I know that a lot of what is said is very much on the wrong side of history but i love the products.

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