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July 24, 2006

The Kitchen of the Future!

Many, many moons ago when we lived in Washington, D.C., The Spouse and I would crawl out of bed on Sunday mornings and stagger to the couch to watch NewsReels of the Future! on either Turner Classic Movies or American Movie Classics, or another channel altogether.

As I said, it's been many, many moons.

Anyway, these were the newsreels produced by various companies touting their commitment to America's bright, shiny, technologically-enhanced future. (Click here for brief summaries of a few representative reels.) No innovation was too large or outlandish to be depicted, no advance too small. Robots wash your dishes in the Kitchen of Tomorrow, and the Housewife of the Future uses an ice crusher shaped like a ray gun from a Flash Gordon serial to instantly pulverize bulky blocks of ice into tiny perfectly-shaped cubes, perfect for cocktails.

What's not to love?

Here's a screen shot from the 1956 classic, Design for Dreaming. (You can download it from the Prelinger Archive here.)

As the Woman of the Future in the film sings:
"No need for the bride to feel tragic,
The rest is push-button magic.
So whether you bake or broil or stew,
The Frigidaire Kitchen does it all for you!"

Priceless.

Pop Culture critic Thomas Hine calls the period between 1954 and 1964 the Populuxe Era, and it certainly was. As he writes:

Populuxe has readily identifiable roots, and it reaches toward an ineffable emotion. It derives, of course, from populism and popularity, with just a fleeting allusion to pop art, which took Populuxe imagery and attitudes as subject matter. And it has luxury, popular luxury, luxury for all. This may be a contradiction in terms, but it is an expression of the spirit of the time and the rationale for many of the products that were produced. And, finally, Populuxe contains a thoroughly unnecessary "e," to give it class. That final embellishment of a practical and straightforward invention is what makes the word Populuxe, well, Populuxe.

My interest in the NewsReels of Tomorrow, of course, is deeply connected with my profound disappointment in the World of Tomorrow, which is, of course, today. Where are the flying cars? Where are the personal jet-packs? Where are the orbiting resorts? The year 2000 was supposed to be the dawn of a new era of techno-utopianism.

Piffle.

Of course, my own anxiety over the failure of the World of Tomorrow to manifest does presuppose that some sort of human world does still exist, which is, I suppose, a good thing. But anxiety over the present mixed with what may now be seen as monumental self-delusion about the promise of the future was an integral part of the Populuxe Era, too. Thomas Hine points out that:

In 1959, a poll of teenagers discovered that most young people believed that their lives would get steadily better--and that there would be a nuclear war in their lifetimes. Progress brought stress. The Populuxe era--between 1954 and 1964--was the peak of popularity for psychoanalysis, and also for martinis.

Mmmmmmm.... martinis.

Well, those crazy mega-corporations are at it again. This time General Electric is promising to deliver to us the Kitchen of the Future!

In GE's Kitchen of the Future, we don't get to see the KotF making martinis for the attractive couple, but we do get to see the Fridge of the Future's amazing Chardonnay-chilling capabilities!

It should go without saying that I want one...

A final thought from Hines:

The essence of Populuxe is not merely having things. It is having things in a way that they have never been had before, and it is an expression of outright, thoroughly vulgar joy in being able to live so well. "You will have a greater chance to be yourself than any people in the history of civilization" House Beautiful told it readers in 1953.

(Via: TechEBlog.)

Posted by reparent at July 24, 2006 12:19 PM

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Comments

Posted by: suzanne at July 26, 2006 12:24 PM

Posted by: Eric at September 4, 2006 2:06 AM