Like my pink sugar walls - so Lewyt

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dysonman1

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I felt the need to clean with something vintage this Thanksgiving season. After my in-laws left, I got out my 1956 Lewyt Model 81. The last Lewyt canister (round) they made. And it's so PANK. Now to find the appropriate pumps to wear while cleaning. I already have the apron. And so, for the 1950's housewife, here is the Lewyt 81.

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The Swivel Base, mounted directly to the bottom of the dirt container, was a nod to General Electric and Eureka, Lewyt's two biggest competitors.

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As pretty as anything under the tree. Thanks to Alex Braun for the Lewyt. My husband thinks it's a hoot. Thanks also to Hans Craig for a box of the original Speed Saks. It's good to have friends.

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GE vs Lewyt: I'm not sure since I fell off the pair of pumps a couple of times (Thanksgiving Vodka and all). Ha Ha.

Of the two, I definitely would have chosen the GE with its overbuilt motor and flip-over rug/floor tool.
 
My Grandma Molly had the (almost) identical model! Except instead of pink, it was mostly light brown with light brown tools - maybe from 1955 or 1954. One of her siblings who had moved to New York must have brought it up to Montreal for her from Brooklyn - an 8 hour drive.

Whenever I visited Grandma Molly in her apartment in the 1960’s, she allowed me to play with all the cool attachments. I never took the canister+hose out of the closet...just took out the wands and the nifty tool box. She had the identical picture on the front of the instruction manual - the lady in the picture taught me the correct way to hold a canister’s hose when cleaning carpets and floors! That little button on the front of the carpet nozzle always mystified me. I think it pushed down a metal rod - maybe for cleaning shag rugs?

Thanks for the childhood memories!
 
Wow! That machine brings back some memories! We had one almost just like that when I was little; in fact, it's the first vacuum cleaner I have a memory of. Ours had a pink motor on a charcoal gray canister base and pink tools as well. I remember it being very easy to handle. The canister, with its swivel caster base, followed me around very naturally as I vacuumed a room. I was pretty much a master of this machine by the time I was four or five.
 

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