DIY tip: Don’t do the twist jerk while using scissors, please
Popular accent colors for kitchens in 1968
First, for the purpose of readers looking for advice on what was popular in 1968 kitchens, let’s capture the colors that Westinghouse was promoting. The decorator panels were available in:
- Supreme Walnut
- Rattan
- Catawba Cherry — Note, Early American, still popular in 1968!
- Astro-Glo Bronze
- Surftex Black
Oh, and there was lots and lots of blonde hair color going on, too, it seems.
Kathy shows us how to make your own custom dishwasher panel. Click photo to get to story.
In addition, homemakers could make their own panels. The parts of the film meant to generate ideas are the best. Hey: Remember our recent story about Kathy, who made her own dishwasher panel from an enlargement of her grandmother’s Betty Crocker cookbook? Such a great way to add vintage pizzazz — inexpensively and creatively. Tip: Don’t do the twist while using scissors.
Back to the film — 1968 a very bad year
I used to work in the car business, and these kinds of films were commonly created to set the scene for the new product lines being introduced to the dealers. The purpose was to get them all psyched up to sell.
But, oh my: 1968. In contrast to the let’s party mood (although there is a seamy darkness) of this film, the year 1968 was one of the most tragic and divisive (help, I am not a historian, not even sure what words to use) in America’s political history. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated. The Vietnam War was under way, with the Mai Lai massacre, Tet offensive, draft dodging and more dividing the country. Richard Nixon was elected president. Hmmm, unemployment was 3.3 percent. Yikes. I am not an expert on film history, but I took a class in college and this Westinghouse video makes me recall the 1966 film Blowup by Michaelangelo Antonioni. Films like this — which are considered “ephemera” and were not really meant to endure — are so interesting. Thank you, Jackie and Todd, for this discovery.
1. That was AWESOME!
2. I want a decorator panel on my fridge.
3. That intro was very Dark Shadows.
4. I should have more parties next to my refrigerator.
5. I wonder if Americans would be more creative in their home decor if we were all hepped up on something. Maybe one good collective acid trip would be all that it would take to bring the fun back into design!
Wow! That woman was dancing the ENTIRE time she was making her own panel! I love this idea (the panels, not the Dancing-whilst-DIYing)! Interestingly, this idea continued (and still may, I’m not sure), at least into the early 90s, albeit scaled down immensely. Our circa 1992 GE dishwasher has a removable panel in white or beige!
Not nearly as exciting, but interesting nonetheless…
Haha! Oh how I wish so badly that everything was as customizable as back in the day!! Love all the groovy inspiration ideas! Must throw groovy party in kitchen immediately!!!
I don’t know what these gals are takin’ but I want some!
If it’s any consolation all those beautiful preppy people are in their mid sixties or early seventies today.
I LOVE this video. I need a fridge like this… but where will I find all the groovy friends? Go-Go boots, alcohol, dancing, and decorating with sharp objects. Now that is a party!
I don’t think I’ve ever looked so happy doing a DIY craft. Maybe I’m just not listening to the right music. But I have a feeling it would take a lot longer since I would have to restart several times because of crooked lines caused by dancing. That video was great!
I can only imagine my grandfather, who was pretty conservative and a small-town Westinghouse dealer, shaking his head at this.
By the way, I didn’t know there were three-door fridges back in the day! Informed!
Westinghouse Baby!
Looks like it was produced by “Jam Handy Pictures”…
I did a quick search and found a documentary on him and ordered a copy. Should be interesting… Thanks for sharing it… made my day..
Please share with us about the documentary!
will do…
It was on Amazon..
After reading reviews… it’s mostly an interview with “Jam”… not many/any clips of his work… still sounded interesting..
Looks like there are portions of the interview on YouTube… just search on Jam Handy…. dang, I could have saved my 19.89 with shipping…
Have a good one.
-Joe
The beginning reminds me of the beginning of “Night of the Living Dead” (made in 1968) which made the “They’re coming to get you, Barbara” line famous. I think that’s Barbara in the beginning of that film.
I totally want to groove with my refrigerator, now. And it’s from the 60s, so I’m good.
I thought the exact same thing about the beginning! I was waiting for the zombie to pop out and start chasing her.
(We are big Romero fans in my house.)
Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking during the whole in-the-woods scene! Well, that, and trying to think of the model’s name.
Yeah, I was a little creeped out for the first minute or so… then we got all groovy, and everything was okay again.
So I saw the “Jam Handy” credit at the end and absolutely had to google it. There is an embarrassment of riches, with this as an example. It’s mainly about car design, but there’s some architecture and daily home life scenes too.
http://bit.ly/PJq3Y3
I also learned that Jam Handy was quite a character, one of the progenitors of marketing as we know it, developing training films and similar stuff, and making lots of the car demo films you mention, may even have started the trend. And he may even have invented the automatic-changing filmstrips we saw in junior high school, as well as producing many of them
http://bit.ly/NxJOgK
Thanks as always for a mind-broadening nugget!
Now see? If this was an option today all those women on HGTV shows whining about the perfectly nice white fridge not being “stainless steeeeeel!” could just re-do the front panel and voila! Personally I love this idea and wish we could still redecorate our appliances to match our moods. Simple, inexpensive and fun – though how that woman made straight lines while frugging the whole time is beyond me.
We’ve been soaking up loads of great industrial films via Pub D Hub on Roku. Glad to know someone else is as nerdy about this as us!
There are a couple of other wild Westinghouse films. The one for air conditioners in 1966 is pretty splashtactular, but there aren’t any custom panels. But lots more twirling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umXDDeP2hDU
Maybe only Westinghouse appliances make you twirl?
I don’t think they ever made ol Betty Furness twirl, but I could be wrong.
Think I’ll light some incense, wash some “bennies” down with a martini, and wallpaper my refrigerator.
Hmm, I agree: Strange is right. Strange times, indeed.
That weird flute music has always affected me–not in a good way, either! I was in kindergarden in ’68, not aware of much, but definitely wanted my hair in a flip.
Jazz Flute!
Wow. Just wow. Fascinating and yes, kind of dark too (especially the beginning). Thanks (I think!) for sharing.
Sometimes these things are as simple as, “Who do I (the producer) want to work with?” and the answer, often is, “Pretty girls in short skirts.”
I used to work at a movie studio.
great point – yes, sometimes we read more into something than is really there!
The music is so appropriate to the times. As soon as I heard the music I automatically thought of The Avengers. Clothes, scene, boots, it was straight out the Avengers (which ended in 1968). I did a fast google, one person’s list had 243 1960s spy movies listed.
Ok, so is my reading of this film as “dark” because I was in high school at the time, and am just keying in to my own subconscious reactions to the music? Is that darkness really there?
Do any of the younger readers find this a strangely dark film? Or merely weirdly period?
I need a reality check! My age is showing!
Just weirdly period. At the time few people would have thought it was particularly dark.
Wow! I was kinda expecting Patrick McGoohan from The Prisoner to show up somewhere in this. Right up the same alley.
I must say that I do love the idea that you can match the fridge to the decor, holiday, your new shoes…
The music in that super amazing film sounds identical to some of the music in the original Spiderman cartoon t.v. show from around the same time period, especially the swinging organ, that was used for party or nightclub scenes. The way-out approach to dolling up a boring old refrigerator was quite refreshing — though I kept expecting some Spiderman web-shooting sounds and some villainous mayhem to happen at any moment.
Uhmmm….wow. Kind of like lost footage from “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”. I remember that feature, no surprise it really never caught on though.
OH MY GOSH THAT WAS SO WEIRD! I am 45, born in 1966.
Yes, it came across as dark to me too — bizarre! Late 60s and early 70s stuff is just a little too…. what word am I looking for? I get a very creepy feeling up my back watching stuff like this.
The beginning, especially, was ominous. Any social historians out there who would care to analyze? I’d love to read about it, if so!
OH — afterthought…… remember the Batman TV series? Very similar feeling, in my opinion!
They were doing the Jerk not the twist. That was way earlier. I loved my GoGo boots. That model looked familiar to me too.
Wow.
You just can’t make this sh#! up! The first minute is insane! And then it just gets better from there.
What a time-capsule treasure this is!
Absolutely enjoyed it to pieces. What’s going to bug me is not being able to find out who did the musical score. Been searching….
I found the beginning very ominous, expected a zombie or other creature of the night to pounce on her at some point till the Westinghouse logo showed up. It was straight out of a B movie from that period.
John
Groovy! The gal walking through the woods, once in a while – she looked like Joanie on MadMen.
I agree, wish we could do this….heck, why can’t we? Million dollar idea people – let’s get with it!
I graduated high school in 1969 and went on to college and NO-ONE dressed like that in 1968 and I was in stodgy New England. By then we were wearing low cut bell bottoms and grungy clothes and no self respecting hippie would be seen dressed anywhere near like that. What cracked me up the most was the headband and the flip hairstyle – very 1965 and my sister’s class. By my senior year in HS, we all had center parts and very very long straight hair (even alot of the guys), if we had to IRON it to get it that way. The show was really more 1966 in my opinion. I can’t attest to the music being like TV shows since I grew up without one, but I agree – B movie music all the way. The beginning totally creeped me out to be honest. There were three door fridges around 1963 or 1964 by Frigidaire. My college roommate’s parents bought a furnished and fancy home on Lake Winnepesaukee and there was a chocolate brown one there. I loved it and always wondered why it didn’t catch on; I was so happy to see “French” door fridges come back. I really cannot imagine dressing up your fridge for a party, but I do recall in the mid-sixties, it was all about showing off your possessions, a totally dismissed premise when the hippies showed up and it was a complete reversal to living on and with nothing and just spacing out all day long!
Yes, the first impression I had was the fashions seemed a bit earlier than 1968. And the open was very creepy.
Remember, this had to pass a bunch of old stodgy corporate suit types, who, by 1967-9, were thinking this outfit looked great compared to the hippie chick stuff appearing.
So this was pretty dated by the time it came out. I did know some young people who did wear clothes like this in suburban Houston up to the early 1970′s… but they were suck-ups to adults anyway. LOL
HA! PAM! This is the same video I linked to the birthday wishes I sent to you months ago on your facebook page!!!
Oh! How did I miss that! I must have been in a birthday cake induced trance. Thank you, K!
Wow! The pantsuit. And I think the dance they were doing was the Watusi.
Now I’m imagining what I can cover my fridge with.
My father worked for Westinghouse for nearly 40 years, an electrical engineer who designed appliance motors, like the kind that powered these refrigerators. I had no idea Westinghouse was such a groovy enterprise! I recognize our family’s fridge model from that era, the one with the french doors on top with the bottom freezer drawer. Alas, no psychedelic panels in our early american kitchen…
I think it deserves a RetroRenovation Emmy for oddest decorating film of the year. Of that year. Whatever.
I like it in a strange way — it reminds me of the movies I see on late-night digital tv (I’m too cheap for cable). Like a lot of things from the 60s that weren’t really hip, the film’s music throws in every musical cliche from the period: Beatles, Doors, Beach Boys, Chubby Checker, and a little bit of the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Do you hear references to these guys in the music?
Re Janet’s comment: I remember distinctly styles beiing a few years behind in films such as this. Probably was made by someone over 30; you can’t trust them, you know.
I don’t remember anyone every matching their mood, wallpaper or hobbies to their fridges. Did anyone ever really do that back then?
OMG – they matched EVERYTHING back then. EVERYTHING.
I remember my Mom insisting I wear this outfit she made me; along with a homemade PURSE and bow like hat out of the SAME MATERIAL….
You notice I’m still traumatized by this event?????
Really though. Check out Samsonite luggage ads – EVERYTHING MATCHES…. ok, I need to go take something for my flashbacks…….
Rarely if ever, but everybody thought everybody else was doing it. That’s because the idea was so hyped in the media, as if an ad campaign couldn’t be sold unless it contained the word “mood” somewhere.
Hi Pam, thanks for posting this super groovy video!
I noticed in the credits that it was a “Jam Handy” production……we’re very familiar with Jam Handy in the Detroit area, since this Detroit production house did many of the product information films for the auto industry, and most chamber of commerce videos of the 1950′s and 60′s.
They were the go-to shop for promotional, product, and propaganda films of the times.
I have seen this 1968 mode Westinghousel fridge in estate sales, recently, in fact, with various different panels, obviously home made. Don’t see as many Westinghouse fridges around anymore in general, so I think the last year or so of estate sale-ing was a fluke, most old fridges here are Frigidaire or GE…… Great fun!
Ok, so 1968 WAS a bit sucky, but this great film and I both came out of that year, so it wasn’t all bad.
I loved the clothes, but you’ve got to be hopped up on something to want to/be able to dance that frenetically while cruising around your refrigerator.
Hey Pam/everyone, Have you explored the Prelinger Archives? Great for vintage public domain. They have several vintage appliance movies mixed in (try searching the different manuracters). I personally recomend the ones about ‘futurism’ like the GM Frigidaire Kitchen’s of the future from 1956/1961… I also enjoyed ‘homes of today and tomorrow’ house plans, Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant and more. Just thought I’d share the resource for the blog.
Nevermind, I see that’s where you pulled the video from. Great videos there!
This instantly reminded me of a print ad for Kelvinator Originals that I found in an issue of “The American Home” from 1965. Found a version of it here… http://www.goantiques.com/kelvinator-meets-the-681972
It’s too bad they didn’t do a video to go with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye-XZ4Ukl08
Everyone was doing huge broadway-ish productions for corporate meetings and the dealer network back then. The owner of the Solo Drink Cup Company sponsored and produced a television special starring – his wife! Though in her 60s, Dora Hall had several albums out of pop covers. Her TV special starred Rosie Grier, Phil Harris, Frank Sinatra Jr, Oliver and Rich Little! Despite all the applause there was no audience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KGL6gbhlD0
I suppose none of this is any different than the Coke logo all over American Idol or a big Geritol sign behind Ted Mack.
holey moley fabulous album! i neeeeed it.
Yowza, Dale. I think I had heard of that album before, but I never really took note til now. I found it on etsy: Now mine. Can’t wait. Many thanks!
Wow – instant gratification! You may want to get this one for your cocktail parties as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz-3A9R8irY
I love Prelinger Archives! And Jam Handy, also Jerry Fairbanks industrial films are great. He always weaves some kind of story in.
Loads of these for free on the Pub D Hub channel.
I’ve been meaning to plan a visit to Prelinger for hands on fun, but Wednesdays are hard to block out. Gotta get there. I love this stuff!
First, I’m really glad I didn’t watch that last night when I saw the link…I think it would have led to some pretty strange dreams!
Second, having watched it in the light of day, it was really entertaining. I can see how that product could be appealing.
Third, having missed the ’60′s by just a couple of years, this is how I would like to think it was then…one continuous party, where even diy projects were fabulously exciting. My mom insists on ruining this fantasy by reminding me about all the things you listed in beginning of your post. I guess it’s like kids now liking everything ’80′s because they didn’t live through it the first time.
Very Timothy Learish.
What an great find. I have an overwhleming urge to go decorate my refrigerator right this minute.
If you find yourself hankering for more of the same, look for “67 The Start of Something BIG” film for the 1967 Oldsmobiles, also produced by Jam Handy. That one will also have you up on your feet and dancing too.