ReTRo HouSeWiFe

By ELIZABETH TOOMEY

NEW YORK (U. P.) People are much too serious about the business of telling time, George Nelson says. He isn't talking about the clockwatchers who leave their desk at the stroke of 5:30 p.m. "We get ulcers from clocks," says Nelson, who heads a small group of product designers and architects.

He designed a new line of clocks more than a year ago, with whimsical designs, Plexiglas bubble fronts, and things like wooden balls at the end of brass spokes to mark the hours, instead of numbers. He wanted to get a little humor into time telling.

"To my surprise," he said, "the most popular clock in the line is the one hardest to tell time by." That is the wall clock with the metal spokes and wooden ball markers.  (1947 Ball Clock by George Nelson)

Now he's convinced that the American public is ready for light-hearted timepieces, quite different from the grandfather clock that relentlessly ticked away the minutes.

SEEM TO FLOAT

His version of a mantel clock has a plate glass rectangular front, with round brass buttons fastened on the back of the glass, "so they seem to float in front of the hands," which are set against a round brass disk at the center of the clock.

Two table model clocks and one wall clock have a Plexiglas bubble fastened over the face. Another table clock Nelson describes as "an embroidery hoop and round headed pins stuck into a piece of masonite."

Only one thing about America's clock habits seems difficult to change. That's the alarm that jars people out of bed in the morning.

Nelson admitted he was revising his table clocks in the Chronopak line to include more alarms. Americans apparently are possessed with a fear of oversleeping.

This alarm problem has been romantically handled in the newest clocks of another company, the Semca.

LOW IN PRICE

You can wake up to the cheering strains of "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," alternated with the more romantic "I Love You Truly." Musical alarm clocks in themselves aren't new, but these are, since the tunes are different, and the price is unusually low - under $20.

Seny Kaufman, secretary-treasurer of the Semca Co., says that no deep psychological thinking is behind the selection of lightly romantic tunes for the new alarm clocks.

"They're just so soothing and pleasant," he explained.

If all goes well, the year's most romantic number will be waking Americans by winter. Kaufman is negotiating for permission to use a song in his musical alarms which he feels will give an especially inspiring start to the day of the average housewife.

It's "Some Enchanting Evening."

Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram, July 24, 1950 - Page 17 Section: Woman's World.