WSJ article on 1920s / 1930s refrigerators (still in use).
September 20, 2002
Built to Last: Why Retro Fridges Are Hot Among Appliance Buffs
By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
When John Morgan is thirsty for a soda, he reaches into a gadget that looks
like a bowlegged cupboard with a salad spinner perched on top.
Mr. Morgan, a 40-year-old bakery-goods sales representative from Fargo,
N.D., owns two of the squat white steel appliances. To him and a growing
number of collectors nationwide, these GE Monitor Top fridges, from the
1920s and 1930s, are the epitome of cool.
"I think they are artwork. They're beautiful,"
says Mr. Morgan, who prowls junk shops,
estate sales and auctions for vintage
refrigerators, and repairs and sells them on the
side.
Looks are just part of the appeal. With their
thickly insulated steel doors, instead of plastic
ones, vintage fridges typically are quieter and
more durable than their modern successors.
And, because they're often smaller and lack
energy-guzzling features, such as automatic
defrosters and ice makers, they can be
cheaper to run.
Ray Folsom, 73, says the old appliances
transport him back to his childhood, when
electric refrigeration was a glamorous new
technology. Mr. Folsom, a retired movie
stuntman who grew up in the Los Angeles
area, remembers when his family had an
icebox. Later, when they got a refrigerator, he
says, "I thought it was the neatest thing." Today, Mr. Folsom, a part-time
dealer, owns about 20 vintage fridges, which he restores.
Others are looking to add a touch of authenticity to the kitchens of their
period houses. In February, Valerie Lowich, 47, started posting ads on the
Web and distributing fliers locally in her search for a two- or three-door
Monitor Top for her 1935 home in Milaca, Minn. "No one would sell," she
says. "I was getting a little depressed."
Ms. Lowich finally found a two-door model for about $1,400, including
shipping, in Tulsa, Okla. It should arrive this week. "It is the refrigerator of
my dreams," she says.
Many of those who can't resist old Monitor Tops, colorful 1950s
Frigidaires or even the boxy harvest gold or avocado refrigerators popular
in the '60s and '70s have found each other through the Old Appliance Club
(www.theoldapplianceclub.com). The club, founded in 1994 in Ventura,
Calif., brings together vintage-appliance users, restoration experts and parts suppliers. The club says its ranks
have increased 25% in the past year to about 5,500 members, many of them also interested in such gadgets as
old Magic Chef or Chambers stoves.
Dealer showrooms and repair shops have sprung up to cater to
those who long to return to a simpler, predefroster era. John
Jowers, owner of AntiqueAppliances.com, in Clayton, Ga., says
he is booked 20 months in advance for vintage-appliance
refurbishment jobs. This time last year, he says, he was booked
only five months in advance.
Many dealers say the Monitor Tops, manufactured by General Electric Co. from 1927 to 1937, are the most
sought-after old refrigerators. They estimate that demand for the machines, one of the appliance industry's
earliest and biggest mass-produced hits, has more than doubled over the past few years, and prices have
increased accordingly.
Five years ago, a fully refurbished single-door Monitor Top, with its distinctive top-mounted cylindrical motor,
could go for about $1,250, says Mike Arnold, owner of Twentieth Century Appliance Restorations, in Troy
N.Y. Now, it can fetch about $2,500. Rare three-door models, fully restored, can command $10,000 or more.
During the decade they were made, GE sold well over a million Monitor Tops, aided by an advertising
campaign that extolled their reliability in preserving food. The Monitor Top, GE's ads said, "Makes It Safe to
Be Hungry."
Old-appliance buffs estimate that thousands of the machines are still in use. That's because they were built to
last. Each part, from the tiniest screw to its thick steel casing, was designed to work for at least 25 years,
according to an internal GE engineering document. The average modern refrigerator has a lifespan of between
five and 19 years, depending on the model, according to a recent survey provided by the Association of Home
Appliance Manufacturers, a Washington-based trade group.
"We get calls and notes from consumers all the time, from customers who still have the refrigerators their
parents had, and they just want us to know it is still around and kicking," says Kim Freeman, a spokeswoman
for GE's Consumer Products unit. GE no longer services or makes parts for the Monitor Top.
Anne and Gary Graves, both 40 and commercial photographers, have eight Monitor Tops, which they keep in
their 18th-century stone house in Raubsville, Pa. But their parents are "aghast that we have these old
refrigerators," says Mr. Graves.
"I can't imagine defrosting a refrigerator again. I can't imagine not having a marvelous freezer section with an
icemaker. I like all the modern conveniences," says Ms. Graves' mother, Betsy Callahan.
Many vintage-appliance aficionados also snap up fridge-related ads, signs or promotional merchandise. Peter
Mintun, a 52-year-old cabaret singer who lives in New York, treasures an old GE songbook, which he thinks
was published around 1928. The book's refrigerator-themed tunes were set to popular songs of the day, like
this one, to the tune of "Baby Face."
"New GE
She's simply wild about her new GE
It just relieves her mind of every care,
Keeps her fair
Nothing spoils within it;
Ice cream just every minute."
Mr. Mintun also owns vintage refrigerator cookbooks, published to teach households how to use their new
kitchen tool to make such novel chilled dishes as "jellied mushroom soup" and "graham cracker refrigerator
pie."
Mr. Mintun's home, a four-floor Manhattan brownstone is full of old appliances, mainly from the 1920s and
1930s, including toasters, radios, phonographs and a huge three-door Monitor Top, about 5-feet tall by 5-feet
wide, which he bought two years ago on eBay for $500.
"I've never owned a new refrigerator," says Mr. Mintun. "Why bother -- when there are so many old ones that
work?"
Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com
Updated September 20, 2002
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