Birth of the Cool
It wasn't until 1930, when Frigidaire began cooling with chlorofluorocarbons, that people began upgrading to refrigerators. Small, with big fans on top, the appliance changed the way America ate. Manufacturers provided books with menus for a lifestyle that included ice tongs, bridge parties, and recipes showing off all that a refrigerator could do for a single meal. (In 1929, Kelvinator suggested a raspberry cup, molded lamb, celery curls, and Kelvinator fruitcake with whipped cream.) Pre-fridge, "frozen desserts and frozen salads were nonexistent or just for wealthy people," says Sylvia Lovegren, author of Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads. "All of a sudden, the middle class could have things that seemed high class a few years before." And what could be more high class than frozen cheese salad or an icy frappe made of condensed tomato soup?
By 1937, more than 2 million Americans owned refrigerators. By the mid-'50s, over 80 percent of the country had made the switch. Today, while the mechanics have remained much the same, the refrigerator has gotten ever fancier. Freon, the chlorofluorocarbon that changed the future, has been replaced with coolants that don't eat through the ozone layer. Hydrators, automatic defrost systems, and icemakers have lured customers, but it is hard to imagine any upgrade that could dazzle as much as the early promise of no ice--and no mice.
advertisement
