JC Penney 1979

[buffalo-joe]

Scans of the vacuum section of the 1979 Spring and Summer JC Penney catalog. Check out that commercial vac (item 6). It looks like a Premier. The uprights were mostly Hoovers and the canisters were mostly Eureka.

Item 7 looks almost like a Kenmore Duo Power.

Joe

 

[buffalo-joe]

More

Here are the canisters.

 

[buffalo-joe]

More.....

The oddball stuff. What's that canister at the bottom? Singer? I do have the first vac shown, the one with the storage.

 

[myvacsrock]

OMG! great thanks so much Joe!

 

[timborow]

Economy Model

Item 7 in the first picture is actually a GE vacuum. My great grandmother had one. I have looked for one for years. I'm glad to know that they actually did exist. Hers was the only one I have ever seen. It was very similar to a Panasonic upright. I remember she donated it to her church when she bought a new orange Dial-a-matic. Thanks for the picture.
Tim

 

[ge1969]

Hi Joe! That bottom canister looks more like a Douglas or a Shetland to me. Remember the Shetland that you could supposedly snap out the old components and replace them with new if it needed repair. Later, Trg

 

[hygiene903]

Catalog Pages

Love those old catalogs, bet all those vacs had the Penncrest name on them. And I think you're right, that #6 does look like a G.E. Premier. Back in those days Penney's was a good place for the average guy to shop, with quality merchandise at reasonable prices. Now they've gone to designer merchandise at designer prices!!!
I especially love the old Spiegel and Alden's catalogs, as they always had several different brands of vacs and other appliances. And did you ever notice, that the vacuums are always on the pages right before or right after the sewing machines?
Jeff

 

[buffalo-joe]

Shetland Vacs

TRG,
This Shetland you could snap out the parts to fix. It lists them all in the paper work I got with it. The vac in the picture could very well be a Douglas as the hand vac above it on that page is a Douglas. I've just never seen a full sized Douglas Canister.

Tim,
That upright could very well be a GE as the commercial vac on that page is. JC Penney stick vacs were GE also. Penney's put their name on alot of things.

Jeff,
Yes, Penney's had alot of stuff. You could even buy engine blocks thru them. I was looking at rebuilt 283 Chevy short blocks they had in there. Its sad, we got the Penney's catalog all the time, but the local store was just a clothing store, no hardware. So anything like that had to be ordered.

Anyways, here is a pic of my Shetland that could be rebuilt by replacing components.

Joe

 

[compactc9]

The bottom canister is a Douglas, I have one I can take a few pictures of if anyone is interested.

 

[normvac]

Vacuums/ JCP

Joe
I just have to walk memory lane. I 1975/76 I was in Manage-
ment training, hardlines, here in Columbus at the Westland
Mall. I loved it as I trained under the manager of home furn-
ishing which encluded Furniture and accessories ( which I had
just left a commison job in a furniture store), appliances and
floor care. I helped train the help and sell customers in the
vacuum,appliance and sewing machines. It was a great job, with a great future in a gentlemens business. Unlike the direction retail took in the 80's with the new corp attitudes!
Norm

 

[petek]

Those take apart Shetlands must have come about when Proctor-Silex bought bought Shetland Lewyt. They came out with a full line of take apart component small appliances like irons, toasters, coffee percs etc. They were called LifeLong but never lasted very long and the idea was dumped.

 

[tolivac]

Remember Penneys had a real nice sporting goods section-even sold guns!Loved it!Now the stores are too "dumbed Down"!

 

[rugmaster37]

That is definitly a....

Premier Electric Commercial, as I; as you've probably seen, have one of these machines thanks to Jeff P.

I also had MANY MANY MANY years ago..given to me by my great aunt Clarabelle one of those JCPenney rebadged Douglas TwinVac's. It's colors were burnt orange and sort of a frosting white. It did have the Powernozzle, with plastic wands in white, and a cheap blow molded hose.

The first strike against me was the fact that she of course sent it along without the cord that ran from the machine along the hose. Probably one of the reason's that she gave it to me. This great aunt never did ANYTHING for anybody unless there was a trap of some sort attached..which I will tell you about now.

I rememeber getting it, thru my aunt Sue who had some connection with this "great" aunt of mine who use to scare me anyway, looked like Mrs. Doubtfire; and honestly smelled of bugspray, cheap pefume and cigarettes. She also had passed along a Royal Prince handvac that was missing it's nozzle cap.

After pestering my mom for days about going to get these "gifted" machines..I finally got to firing up that Douglas. I also remember that it had a white bag in it with blue Penney's lettering on it. And the bag was brand new. I had no clue of what was going to happen next.

So I plug in this cool looking retrofunk Douglas, hit the switch and it rand loudly for exactly seven seconds, at which time the motor shot sparks and smoke out the back and singed my aunts green sculptured carpet in her dining room.

Seems that that old Mrs.Doubtfire of a great aunt forgot to pass on a note that she had previously sucked up water with it and when I turned it on promptly caused the motor to short out, and immediatly and swiftly self destruct and blow a fuse and singe new carpet.

Ahhhh the memories of 1987.

Chad

 

[swingette]

odd that they would offer the lone Premier as a heavy duty model. i would not expect that machine to outlast/outclean a Convertible. i wonder did the Heavy Duty Premier have a different/better brushroll than the standard models? in any case its a very good looking vacuum.

love that all white Convertible! too bad it would look dirty so quick.

 

[myvacsrock]

haha Chad!

Funny! I did love that premier commerical that was here!

 

[ge1969]

Hi All! Joe, did you ever find any more of the tools for the Shetland you have? Tim, that number 7 upright is a GE, I have the same machine in my collection under the Premier name, and Compact, I for one would like to see pictures of that Douglas canister. Later, Trg

 

[timborow]

Vacuum # 7

That green GE is for sale on e-bay now by that guy that got all the vacs from his grandfathers store. Funny, I have never seen another one in all these years, and have seen two this week.
Tim

 

[hoover1060]

Premier Commercial...

Chad that was one that came from the trash, I no longer remember when exactly I found it, sometime in the late 80's, but I do still remember where I found it, sitting on the curb in Utah Circle, in the Winston Grove section of Elk Grove Village, about a 5 minute drive from where I live now.

I remember Penneys cleaners from that vintage, I always thought the box top bag model was cool, and have had a couple of those come and go over the years. My favorite was the blue one, it reminds me of the U4005! I don't remember the Premier model in Penneys stores, that was probably a catalog only model. One other place(around here anyway) the Premier would have been available was Polk Brothers, I do remember seeing it there.

Please also note they refer to the white model as a "Convertible"
No hiding they were Hoovers!

 

[myhooverco]

Here is my "Convertible" box top from the catalog. Thanks Joe for the photos. I forget how much stuff Penneys sold. They even had their own garage like Sears. I agree the stores today are too generic and dumbed down.

The Penneys model is the second one from the right. It has the dark brown box top bag. I got it from my local vac shop. One just never knows what he will get in on trade. The others are Western Auto and MW.

Thanks again Joe for posting scans of the catalog.

--Tom