We see videos like this and realize quickly how far we’ve come in terms of technology. But, it hasn’t been exactly like many envisioned the future 60 years ago.
There was a distinct aura surrounding the future in the 1950s. America had prevailed during WWII, and the sense of unstoppability rode rampant in the minds of many Americans with a roaring economy. That mindset translated to dreams, as we see in this General Motors film highlighting the Frigidaire “Kitchen of Tomorrow.”
If you weren’t aware, General Motors used to manufacture Frigidaire appliances of yore. Therefore, this film sat as a promotional video for what was possible.
Viewers we’re most likely dazzled at the thought of screens in cabinets, detailing recipes before their eyes, and rotating fridges on spindles for easy food access. The 1950s future optimism is alive and well in this video.
That idea also translated to automobiles, too. Exterior and interior design were influenced with a present-retro look, and we can’t forget about tail fins, the manifest destiny of the automotive world.
The video runs three minutes long, but it’s worth every second to see how the future was supposed to turn out. Have a look right down below.
Comments
Great find! I’ve seen the last 20 seconds of that film many times. But never the whole thing before.
This is good …
And this may not be news to some readers, but if you haven’t seen Jam Handy’s work for GM and Dodge and Westinghouse, and some bizarre animated stuff, you should check him out on YouTube.
Here’s his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_Handy
He was doing content before content was called “content”: short format films for Chevy, some sort of groovy video for the pre-millenial hipsters circa 1968 for Westinghouse refrigerators, a Dodge “Revolution” campaign that you have to see (it’s all on YouTube). And more.
Weird, too, that he was born in 1886 (?!), won a couple of Olympic medals, got thrown out of the U of M for writing an article for the Chicago Tribune about how his professor gave his class a lesson in “effective lovemaking”. Lived until he was 97, died in Detroit.
Here’s a sales-training for for Chevy, but Jam Handy kept plugging away through the 60s and 70s.
It was filmed at the 1956 General Motors Motorama show that featured 63 exhibits and 26 production cars and occupied 26,000 square feet of New York City’s Waldorf Astoria ballroom space, plus adjoining rooms. That year, the Motorama also traveled to Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.