Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Disney Meets Westinghouse Pt.1

On May 28 of 1945, Disney delivered a 16-minute long animated short entitled The Dawn of Better Living to Westinghouse Electric. The short illustrated the improvements of electrical innovations from the log cabin era up through modern times. 

To accompany the short, Disney produced a booklet, Electrical Living,  featuring, what I can only assume (because I haven’t seen the short), images from the animation, or something close to it anyway. It’s a really nice booklet and I’m sure the Westinghouse - or Westinghouse if you saw The Lucy-Desi Westinghouse Special ("Now, look Lucy. It just so happens that I studied English grammar in Cuba.  Lemme 'splain something. When the G is followed by an H-O, like in G-H-O-S-T. Ghost. G-H-O you say, ‘Go’ there is no H.") – people were proud to hand it out to their potential customers. For me, a huge enthusiast of all things 1930s-50s, I can’t choose which kitchen I like best, so Westinghouse would have had a fantastic customer in me!

The illustrations in the book are just fantastic, a couple having a certain feeling of the Ave Maria sequence in Fantasia and concept paintings of Bambi, in my opinion. The other illustrations are informative and at times whimsical. But why tell you when you can just look for yourself, right? Have a gander and enjoy!

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Remember to check back for part 2! Have a great day, everyone!

5 comments:

sb-illustrations said...

You post items like this, & I realize it's time to get back to adding to the "printed material" collection. The best part of the booklet,"It was illustrated by hand."

Tinker Bell said...

What printed material do you have? If you'd ever like to scan and share, I'd be very happy to put them on the blog! :)

sb-illustrations said...

I have always been interested in concept art, advertizing art, brochures, catalogues, etc.. As with most of your minions, I have all the typical Disney stuff. I do have something, out of the norm', that may interest you. Watch your e-mail in a couple of days.

Major Pepperidge said...

This is fascinating, I've never heard of either the film OR this great booklet. Love the artwork, and even the kitchen ads on the last pages.

Tinker Bell said...

I'm so glad you dig it! :)
I've come to the conclusion that I need a house with at least 3 kitchens and more bathrooms than can be utilized, just so I can fulfill all of my vintage kitchen/bathroom dreams!