Update: I have added this clip to the blog even though it doesn’t fit. I cannot get it on any smaller…. Thanks to Bo Sullivan, who works with Rejuvenation Lighting, for the tip on this 1949 film created to help postwar homeowner owners create the efficient kitchen of their dreams. It’s interesting to understand the context for films like this. After World War II, housewives did need educating on how to design a modern kitchen. But I think the bigger purpose of this propaganda — and it IS propaganda — was to incite homeowners to part with their hard-earned war-time savings.
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After the grueling lessons of the Great Depression, folks were still very very conservative about tapping into their bank accounts — or just as likely, raiding the stash of cash under their mattresses or buried next to the barn. They DID have money. During the war, there were a lot of jobs — but little to spend your money on, because of rationing and all the materials going toward the construction of wartime armaments. After the war, there was tremendous new capacity available for consumer goods. But, Americans didn’t want to spend on discretionary consumer goods. They did buy houses But, they were Savers. And, the Government was Scared. They did not want the economic wheels grind to a halt and cause another depression. Hence films like this. It wasn’t until 1953 that Americans really started to cut loose their dollars. Another story for another day…
Video source: The excellent archives.org.