Sometimes Arlee really surprises me...

[electrolux137]

~
~


 


Well, you'll never believe what Arlee came home with today... A Model 444 Hoover Vacuum Cleaner from 1965! It was a Goodwill Store "Such a deal" find -- only $7.99.


 


It's in lovely condition, albeit incomplete. All it will require is a light spa treatment and then a hunt for the attachments.


 


I have two Constellations -- one is turquoise and one is canary yellow. He's always liked them because of the way they hover and effortlessly follow you around the room without having to tug or yank on them.


 


 


He was quite pleased to find it!

 

[vacuumlad1650]

That one is really in nice shape! You might want to acquire some Green paper bags for it, as you may have noticed, those original gray bags leaked dust like a sieve. Nice find!
Andy

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Charles!!

Beautiful machines! I have them both, too. That "Ultrafelx" hose is genuine, but it was put on that cleaner later, as, you can tell, it's the wrong color. But, great that you have it. Nice to see Miss Connie Hoover as the vacuum of the day. Do you have any bags? I've a huge supply. The green ones are great. Just this past Thursday, I scooped up a bunch of green paper bags at the thrift store.
Happy Hoovering.
John

 

[electrolux137]

~
~


Hi John, I don't have any of the better/later bags, the green ones, nor any of the hepa bags -- all I have are the early blue bags which, as I just discovered, are dirt-belchers. You have my email address -- will you get in touch to let me know what you want for some bags + shipping? Thanks!

 

[aussie-plugs]

Pricing

The advertisement at photo 11 is fascinating. A Dial-A-Matic was almost four times the price of a Constellation. I wonder what price a Convertible would have been.

Does this pricing ratio of canister-to-upright seem to be a rule, or was the DAM perhaps priced at a premium for being a fairly new concept at the time?

 

[electrolux137]

~
~


Collector R Vanik kindly sent me this scan and information:


 


 


<div>[COLOR=#800080; font-size: 14pt]By the time the 444 was in production (late1963/early 1964) it was the entry-level canister with the Slimline (model 2000) being the intermediate and the Portable (suitcase) was the premium.  It was color co-ordinated with two other budget-models - - the model 34 Convertible special and the 5131 polisher.  The previous constellation (86 in blue) color co-ordinated with the deluxe 68 Convertible, 5460 Shampoo-Polisher and 2940 Lark stick-vac.

[/COLOR]</div>
[COLOR=#008080; font-size: 14pt]<span style="color: #800080;">In case you're interested, original accessories would have been white ultraflex (double-stretch) hose with gray tools (rug/floor nozzle, crevice tool and oval furniture brush (not the separate upholstery nozzle and dusting brush, unless you were looking to upgrade from original.[/COLOR]</span>