Hi Fred,
As usual great catch. After you work your magic, you should have a great machine to play with and have for your collection. You're right these machines were not common then or now, and so finding one is definitly a coup. I don't know if you remember or not, but I had mine at convention last fall, and the only difference that I can see between yours you've found, and mine is that yours looks to have a molded black hood, and mine is a chrome finish; and your cord is orange, and mine is grey, BUT mine Is a replacement because I put the newer cord on a few years back. Mine of course was a wonderful special gift from Jeff Parker.
These machines are NOT that bad, unless your using one in a very rough enviornment, and have a quite distinct motor noise that you can hear from a mile away if your good at such things. The fans are a stamped steel and cut and bent as you will notice in a strange fashion. The belt I use on mine and have had no issues is a Singer Twin Fan belt, or one I've found that works even better is a Oreck belt. Yep an Oreck belt.....great tension, and is wide enough to not pop off the motor shaft, which is a strange cone shaped affair..
Tool suction is low at best yes BUT; so was any competitor in the 1972-1980 timeframe for a dirty air upright. In fact If you have a good hose, and the seals are good, it's enough to do dusting or whatever you needed it to do. The attachments at first 1972-1973 were a carbon copy of a standard GE canister or upright from before. After that (1974-1981), the hose end ferrule connector was still GE, and the attachments were cheap plastic replacement style fare, with a blow molded hose, but still got the job done (1975-1981).
As to the history of PEC, as far as I have found, these machines were produced totally in Cleveland Ohio by Premier Electric Company or (PEC). After General Electric disbanded their vacuum cleaner division in thier Bridgeport Conneticut facility in 1972, all dies and molds and so forth were transffered to Premier's facility in Cleveland Ohio. GE made a killing on the lexan base material which most all GE uprights of this format used until they were discontinued; yet lost millions onthe vacuum cleaner market. This line of uprights was introduced by General electric in either 1960 or 1961.
Premiers continued to be manufactured until 1980 or 81 when they were discontinued. Someplace I have a letter from Premier Electric dated 1988 or so when I was hounding the companies for information on their old models, and that is when they stated they stopped production. PEC I believe became more of a parts manufacturer than a manufacturer of the entire unit after that point. What I am unsure of is whether they went totally out of buisness, or if their assets were purchased by another manufacturer. That was not stated.
All early 1972-73 Premier advertising states that these machines were designed by G.E.
IIRC from years of gleaning bits here and there, Premier was a offshoot of Electric Vacuum Cleaner Company which made both GE and Premier cleaners before World War II. After the war, General Electric made a deal with EVCC to stop producing Premier brand machines, and focus totally on G.E.'s new bid to usurp Eureka and Hoover from thier lofty heights, even to retrofit a factory in Bridgeport to help with the manufacture of their floor care line. Eventually GE made most of their own stuff in Bridgeport, with Cleveland suppling parts and some models only.
G.E. After throwing millions into the vacuum cleaner pond (1950-1972) with no Premier Cleaners being built; decided to give up in 1972, and sold ( or gave back for a song ) the division to Premier Electric Company. And of course if you add that to the above, will kinda give a rough idea of Premier's actual history..
Here is a shot of my two Premier's at convention. The TOL home model, and the Commercial like Freds above...
( P.S. Most of this information was supplied by my copy of "The Housewares Story", which was printed in 1973. It gives a wonderful look into the early days of the AHAM "American Household Appliance Manufacturers", including a VERY indepth look into the early years of AHAM, who was in charge, the holding of the shows early on in Atlantic City, thru it's move to Chicago in 1960; and also gives a wonderful indepth look 1967 fire at Mc Cormick Place in Chicago, the day before the AHAM was to open for that year) Look for a copy if your a true appliance lover for sure)
