It’s not hard to see why people had such optimism for a fabulous future then.
CrunchTrapSupreme on
This was really cool until it wasn’t. Visceral reaction to the paper towel dispenser, have never seen that included in this style before.
Snufflarious on
Our 50s kitchen had a separate cooktop and oven w French doors, and a drawer w built-in blender
Mulusy on
Not the Mami holder 😭😭😭
SVNDEVISTVN on
How much for the ’51 Mamiholder 3000?
wheresthehetap on
That pelican ashtray is siiiiccckkkk.
krampaus on
”Look! No hands!”
wankerpedia on
Nothing says NINETEEN-FIFTIES kitchen of the future like a ashtray next to the sink and a paper towel holder that looks like a golliwog.
my_dancing_pants on
That pop up broiler is sick, I need one
BredYourWoman on
Howard Stark’s wife
thedawesome on
Racism jump scare
fecal_brunch on
> Here’s a dainty dingbat!
glakhtchpth on
All of those high-tech utensils are dotted with nicotine yellow fingerprints.
jano_memms on
I don’t know whats futuristic about a Pelican eating your cigarrettes or a black woman holding your kitchen roll and at that point I’m too afraid to ask
earthforce_1 on
Wow, way off in the first 5 seconds.
leif777 on
Gearless eggbeater with revolving balls
LawTider on
Well this looks nice and wholeso…HOLY RACISM BATMAN.
sunflowerx on
“It’s a living.” -the pelican
kipwrecked on
ALSO the madness of the doughnut dough dispenser – which is then flipped in hot oil with a *fork*.
CaspareGaia on
Ah yes…. dream of a world where you are forgetful, weak, impatient, uncoordinated and desperate to forget your cultural culinary secrets passed down through the ages.
Findesiluer on
Look at the size of those chops!
darthabraham on
the dry ice in the food-dome/ bell-jar thing is awesome.
Republiconline on
And no micoroplastics to be seen
fusionaddict on
I’d love to know if there was somewhere centralized where I could find all these old Popular Mechanics & Popular Science reels.
ConceptJunkie on
That pelican needs to do a take to the camera, shrug and say, “It’s a living…”
Etrigone on
Interesting side note – compared to current standards, that chicken is small. There’s been a lot of selective breeding to make chickens (almost?) comically sized, especially with respect to proportions, so it’s interesting to see what they looked like before that came into being.
banksy_h8r on
> With the protective water jacket burning food is nearly impossible, as hard as the little woman may try!
First half wins for casual racism, second half wins for casual misogyny.
Some cool gadgets, though.
scubawankenobi on
>Here’s a dainty dingbat
theartfulcodger on
“Cooketeria”.
UrbanMasque on
The Mami holder probably sold the best
LUSBHAX on
That chicken is so tiny
giulianosse on
The kitchen sink must be a nightmarish mountain after every meal considering how much stuff would need cleaning.
According_Fold_7580 on
So all of these conveniences, most likely developed by men at this time, meant to be various forms of time-savers for the lady of the house…but if they are saving so much time with these effects in the kitchen why are ladies still being told to stay in the kitchen? What do they do with their free time in the kitchen?
I just had an aneurysm thinking about this logical fallacy of “traditional” marriages.
Heterodynist on
Crazy, racist towel holders aside, this alternative future from the 1950s seems a lot better than the actual one we got…A lot healthier too. In *Back to the Future* they were always terrified that they could go back in time and alter the future, but no one seems to ever consider that the future could be altered in positive ways -not just negative ones, in those same movies. I would like to see an alternative reality where this version of the future of the 1950s actually happened. Admittedly it might look a little like the Truman Show, but the fact is I think a lot of people (of all races, creeds, religions, genders, etc.) would actually be happier than they are right now. We have created a society where we celebrate transience in all things, and we love to talk about how the Earth is coming to an end in nearly every interaction we have. I think actually just about everyone would like a lifestyle that had a bit more of the feeling of this domestic bliss with a heaping side of prosperity and optimism, opened to everyone…like I say, minus the towel holder.
I have seen a lot of houses (and cleaned them out) from the 1950s and while some of these things came to pass, most never did…regardless of how much of a convenience they would have been. It seems like the “domesticism” of the 1950s and even early 1960s ended with the last of the houses that were built at around that period of time (like the one I live in now). Later those ideas were never really improved on, and instead as women joined men in the working population, no one ever returned to actual “homemaking” or improving on home life. Breakable electronic garbage plastic appliances replaced everything in this film and virtually none of them survived to the present day. As a result we got microwaved garbage like Hot Pockets and more and more processed foods, instead of clever mechanical devices for separating egg whites from egg yolks…We got “processed cheese food” on Triskets instead of a cabinet just for a dedicated household mixer (probably weighing 12 pounds and made from a solid hunk of Bessemer Steel from Pennsylvania). The percentage of people who even have any idea how to make baked goods at home is probably under 30% of the population now, and it seems like my parents and grandparents’ era everyone almost universally had some concept of how to make a meal for an entire family that didn’t involve microwaving or opening a box full of powdered potatoes or something.
I am not glorifying the era, as I have an unusual amount of knowledge about this time period, due to my personal family history, but I am just pointing out some stark differences between then and now in the feeling of our homes. Homes then were a destination where everything ultimately felt like it was the center of a person’s existence. Home now feels like some bus stop on the way to whatever comes next -and I don’t think most of us really have a clue what is coming next, but there sure isn’t a lot of optimism about it. It is like some random hotel room when you know that tomorrow will just be a different configuration of the same thing, with only the most mundane variance from the last one -maybe a painting of a weeping clown instead of a print of a carnation. Whether in a tract home or an apartment or a camper, the feeling of home is seemingly just as shallow and fleeting in our times. I am the kind of person who loves to camp out under the stars and I really don’t have to have a house to feel like I have a home, but I wonder about what we lost when we left this feeling of domestic life behind. After all, it was more a mindset than any kind of physical reality.
********
(I am also aware that if anyone actually reads this, a series of people will willfully disregard literally every reason I have made these points just to accuse me of not knowing what I am talking about for some reason, or being racist, or saying I am unaware of the status of some underrepresented group during the 1950s, because this is Reddit after all…but I am not unaware of any of these facts though. I simply am asking the question what it might have been like if the overly ambitious focus on home life in these famous 1950s optimistic outlooks on the future, might have actually achieved their goals. I think it would be a very different kind of world, if we still had a feeling of really settling in our homes, and letting THAT be the center of our existence again. I am not so sure that is a bad thing. I will never be a person who will “own nothing and be happy,” like Bill Gates is aiming for. I would be content to enjoy some semblance of the kind of domestic life that my grandparents and parents clearly loved, and which has been sorrowfully missed in my own generation.)
fiizok on
Every time this video is posted I get to pipe up and say: definitely not the 1950s. It’s late 1930s.
Food-at-Last on
So many solutions for non-existent problems
teambob on
Imagine cleaning all that stuff
JohannesGenberg on
And suddenly I became uncomfortable…
Onigumo-Shishio on
Idk why the “house of the future” stuff is always really cool.
I especially loved the old Tex Avery cartoons funny over the top stuff
41 Comments
It’s not hard to see why people had such optimism for a fabulous future then.
This was really cool until it wasn’t. Visceral reaction to the paper towel dispenser, have never seen that included in this style before.
Our 50s kitchen had a separate cooktop and oven w French doors, and a drawer w built-in blender
Not the Mami holder 😭😭😭
How much for the ’51 Mamiholder 3000?
That pelican ashtray is siiiiccckkkk.
”Look! No hands!”
Nothing says NINETEEN-FIFTIES kitchen of the future like a ashtray next to the sink and a paper towel holder that looks like a golliwog.
That pop up broiler is sick, I need one
Howard Stark’s wife
Racism jump scare
> Here’s a dainty dingbat!
All of those high-tech utensils are dotted with nicotine yellow fingerprints.
I don’t know whats futuristic about a Pelican eating your cigarrettes or a black woman holding your kitchen roll and at that point I’m too afraid to ask
Wow, way off in the first 5 seconds.
Gearless eggbeater with revolving balls
Well this looks nice and wholeso…HOLY RACISM BATMAN.
“It’s a living.” -the pelican
ALSO the madness of the doughnut dough dispenser – which is then flipped in hot oil with a *fork*.
Ah yes…. dream of a world where you are forgetful, weak, impatient, uncoordinated and desperate to forget your cultural culinary secrets passed down through the ages.
Look at the size of those chops!
the dry ice in the food-dome/ bell-jar thing is awesome.
And no micoroplastics to be seen
I’d love to know if there was somewhere centralized where I could find all these old Popular Mechanics & Popular Science reels.
That pelican needs to do a take to the camera, shrug and say, “It’s a living…”
Interesting side note – compared to current standards, that chicken is small. There’s been a lot of selective breeding to make chickens (almost?) comically sized, especially with respect to proportions, so it’s interesting to see what they looked like before that came into being.
> With the protective water jacket burning food is nearly impossible, as hard as the little woman may try!
First half wins for casual racism, second half wins for casual misogyny.
Some cool gadgets, though.
>Here’s a dainty dingbat
“Cooketeria”.
The Mami holder probably sold the best
That chicken is so tiny
The kitchen sink must be a nightmarish mountain after every meal considering how much stuff would need cleaning.
So all of these conveniences, most likely developed by men at this time, meant to be various forms of time-savers for the lady of the house…but if they are saving so much time with these effects in the kitchen why are ladies still being told to stay in the kitchen? What do they do with their free time in the kitchen?
I just had an aneurysm thinking about this logical fallacy of “traditional” marriages.
Crazy, racist towel holders aside, this alternative future from the 1950s seems a lot better than the actual one we got…A lot healthier too. In *Back to the Future* they were always terrified that they could go back in time and alter the future, but no one seems to ever consider that the future could be altered in positive ways -not just negative ones, in those same movies. I would like to see an alternative reality where this version of the future of the 1950s actually happened. Admittedly it might look a little like the Truman Show, but the fact is I think a lot of people (of all races, creeds, religions, genders, etc.) would actually be happier than they are right now. We have created a society where we celebrate transience in all things, and we love to talk about how the Earth is coming to an end in nearly every interaction we have. I think actually just about everyone would like a lifestyle that had a bit more of the feeling of this domestic bliss with a heaping side of prosperity and optimism, opened to everyone…like I say, minus the towel holder.
I have seen a lot of houses (and cleaned them out) from the 1950s and while some of these things came to pass, most never did…regardless of how much of a convenience they would have been. It seems like the “domesticism” of the 1950s and even early 1960s ended with the last of the houses that were built at around that period of time (like the one I live in now). Later those ideas were never really improved on, and instead as women joined men in the working population, no one ever returned to actual “homemaking” or improving on home life. Breakable electronic garbage plastic appliances replaced everything in this film and virtually none of them survived to the present day. As a result we got microwaved garbage like Hot Pockets and more and more processed foods, instead of clever mechanical devices for separating egg whites from egg yolks…We got “processed cheese food” on Triskets instead of a cabinet just for a dedicated household mixer (probably weighing 12 pounds and made from a solid hunk of Bessemer Steel from Pennsylvania). The percentage of people who even have any idea how to make baked goods at home is probably under 30% of the population now, and it seems like my parents and grandparents’ era everyone almost universally had some concept of how to make a meal for an entire family that didn’t involve microwaving or opening a box full of powdered potatoes or something.
I am not glorifying the era, as I have an unusual amount of knowledge about this time period, due to my personal family history, but I am just pointing out some stark differences between then and now in the feeling of our homes. Homes then were a destination where everything ultimately felt like it was the center of a person’s existence. Home now feels like some bus stop on the way to whatever comes next -and I don’t think most of us really have a clue what is coming next, but there sure isn’t a lot of optimism about it. It is like some random hotel room when you know that tomorrow will just be a different configuration of the same thing, with only the most mundane variance from the last one -maybe a painting of a weeping clown instead of a print of a carnation. Whether in a tract home or an apartment or a camper, the feeling of home is seemingly just as shallow and fleeting in our times. I am the kind of person who loves to camp out under the stars and I really don’t have to have a house to feel like I have a home, but I wonder about what we lost when we left this feeling of domestic life behind. After all, it was more a mindset than any kind of physical reality.
********
(I am also aware that if anyone actually reads this, a series of people will willfully disregard literally every reason I have made these points just to accuse me of not knowing what I am talking about for some reason, or being racist, or saying I am unaware of the status of some underrepresented group during the 1950s, because this is Reddit after all…but I am not unaware of any of these facts though. I simply am asking the question what it might have been like if the overly ambitious focus on home life in these famous 1950s optimistic outlooks on the future, might have actually achieved their goals. I think it would be a very different kind of world, if we still had a feeling of really settling in our homes, and letting THAT be the center of our existence again. I am not so sure that is a bad thing. I will never be a person who will “own nothing and be happy,” like Bill Gates is aiming for. I would be content to enjoy some semblance of the kind of domestic life that my grandparents and parents clearly loved, and which has been sorrowfully missed in my own generation.)
Every time this video is posted I get to pipe up and say: definitely not the 1950s. It’s late 1930s.
So many solutions for non-existent problems
Imagine cleaning all that stuff
And suddenly I became uncomfortable…
Idk why the “house of the future” stuff is always really cool.
I especially loved the old Tex Avery cartoons funny over the top stuff
I want that pelican ash tray. That’s adorable
This was the shittiest ride at Disneyworld.