Ricky seems to be enjoying doing the ironing on the Season 2, Job Switching episode of I Love Lucy. He uses a non-steam iron hence the need for a separate laundry water sprinkler bottle to dampen the clothes while ironing. It appears to be a CLOSPRAY—Plas-Tex-Corp Laundry Sprinkler bottle. In the pre-steam iron era laundry sprinkler bottles were available in all sorts of shapes and designs and are now collector items.
Continue reading Ricky does the Ironing
Lucy’s 1951 Westinghouse Frost Free refrigerator appears on several episodes from that year. The Westinghouse Frost Free Fridge was widely promoted in print publications and on TV during 1951 and with prominent positioning in the kitchen of I Love Lucy.
In a previous post we looked at the bedside clock radio on I Love Lucy. This week I see a similar one on eBay as pictured below:
Reference:
Seen on eBay this week a working Westinghouse T-4 Vacuum Cleaner called the “Handy Dandy” on the I Love Lucy episode. Click picture for details on the eBay listing.
Related post:
In the I Love Lucy episode “Lucy Wants New Furniture” Lucy tries to economize by making her own clothes. Lucy’s uses a Free-Westinghouse sewing machine like the one pictured below which is currently for sale on eBay, except the one on eBay is attached to its own table, whereas Lucy’s was portable. The price for the cheapest model in 1950 was $69.95 per the ad below.
Use the Inflation Calculator below to see what Lucy Ricardo would have to pay for her Westinghouse refrigerator, range and vacuum cleaners in today’s money. These are 1951 appliances on sale in 1952 – the regular pre-sale price may have been closer to the 1951 price.
Inflation calculator from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Continue reading 1952 Prices for Westinghouse Appliances
$89.95 Regularly $113.20
Its the famous Dyna-matic Tank Cleaner with a twelve-piece set of attachments to make all your home cleaning easy. And with all this you get the speedy floor polisher to keep your floors shiny and protected. All this at one remarkable price. ( Source 1952 Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 16,1952)
Prices in Today’s Money:
Using an inflation calculator the full price of $ 113.20 in 1952 has the same buying power as $1,002.66 in 2015 and the sale price at $89.95 comes out to $796.73 in 2015.
In the I Love Lucy episode Sales Resistance Lucy falls for a slick sales patter and ends up with her “Handy Dandy” vacuum cleaner which is really an early 50’s Westinghouse Dyna-Matic tank vacuum cleaner. The Westinghouse Dyna-Matic tank sweeper had a throw away inner bag and a set of attachments as seen on the show.
See another similar one on eBay HERE
Pictured above is a well preserved Westinghouse tank vacuum cleaner with attachments found at http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?3848 looking very similar to the one seen on the show – even the paper tag looks the same.
A 1950 newspaper ad gives the price as $49.95 which is equivalent to almost $500 in 2015 so Ricky’s reaction is not surprising. Incidentally Lucy is seen using the upright model vacuum cleaner in The Black Eye episode.
According to this NY Times article ” Hoover executives saw an episode of ”I Love Lucy” in which Lucille Ball peddled vacuum cleaners door to door. Hoover cut a deal with the show’s producers to have one of its products, and especially its brand name, displayed whenever a vacuum appeared in the plot, Mr. Kravitz said.”
The Hoover that appeared on the show was possibly a Hoover upright model 62.
In the I Love Lucy Season 4 episode The Business Manager the show opens with Lucy making waffles for breakfast on her Westinghouse “Grill-n-Waffler” Waffle Iron. Unfortunately these waffles don’t get cooked because Lucy has not been paying the electric bills on time. You may notice the studio audience laughing while Lucy is pouring the waffle batter, but at this point in the story line we don’t yet know the power has been cut – apparently the audience knew the plot, or perhaps this was not the first take . On eBay this week is a Westinghouse Waffle Iron model HW 40-1 pictures below or Click Here to view the listing . I also see a very similar model SGWB-521 with original booklet.
