Mother Takes a Holiday (1952)

[Music] e [Music] my goodness Marilyn you must have put a lot of effort into this Miss hex Shaw you'll just never know that's right Miss hex Shaw probably never will know the whole story behind Marilyn's last assignment in English too how's it coming Lyn so there I was at 20,000 ft hey what's this big treaty on anyway perhaps you mean Trea for rather get this carol what does the emancipation of American women mean to you Eman patient yeah Liberation Etc how about women's right to stand up on buses and street car then how about the modern gal's right to go dutch when her dream boat's out ready oh Betty be serious we have to help Marilyn do Monday you said that's right Carol I know women's right to vote what's the biggest thing that's happened to women since since Adam's Apple Carol you sweet dumb thing pull up your flaps you're Dragon hey wait a minute I'm having enough grief over this theme there's only one thing I'm sure of for Miss hex Shaw it's got to be the modern approach say let's look around the kitchen um something about New Freedom in our own home electricity uh gas mechanical servants you know something about um oh freedom from drudgery sort of like that oh you mean like today we women have it easier than the Pioneers honestly Carol oh my gosh that's a terrific angle talk about emancipation take the family wash for instance no more clothes lines no more dark basement no more blue Mondays boy here's real emancipation from oldfashioned chores just set a dial and walk away that's the kind of emancipation any woman can understand well what do you think of our Complete Home Laundry a subject for my theme great for you but what about the rest of us peasants what we don't got it we don't happen to have anything like this at home well just the same it's still a good subject for we neither ours are so old and rackety you mean rickety Carol I mean you can hear it all over the house papa is so stubborn stubborn men are plain inconsiderate I just wish my father had to wash a few clothes instead of just getting them dirty mine too emancipation fine I could use a little say it might be crazy but if it works you'll have your emancipation and I'll still have a valid theme talk sense I have a plan a plan mhm it's a th to one but it might work then give well the whole trouble is your mother's huh well they just don't understand men then what am I doing here they're using the wrong approach you've got to let your fathers sell themselves you mean so they'll think the whole thing is their idea exactly but how this weekend we get our mothers up to the lake and we let the men stay here and make sure they do the wash right and Carol you're elected to get Mr walligan on our side Mr walligan Mr walligan please if you'll just make sure that you have two complete laundries ready to deliver this Saturday two complete laundries so this weekend you men can have that complete uninterrupted cribbage game you're always talking about of course you'll have to do Mother's washing while we're away oh no mother uh let Daddy do the wash while we're away but but why Marilyn well uh because because you need a holiday [Music] [Applause] goly what took you so long where's Carol right behind me [Music] good hey you girls forget anything we sure hope [Music] not may it all come up out in the wash you made the lemonade Jim must have been Mar and I found it in the refrigerator bye golly this is it you know oh wait a minute George I'd like to make a toast sure Charlie who too Jim to whom why to our recently departed who else yes sir boys here's to Our Gang of Little Women on a well eared holiday memorable weekend for us all it's not oh excuse me George go ahead I'll be right back this is not bad oh jumper G husta fat what's wrong Jim oh I promised Nancy I'd finish the wash but I didn't figure on anything like this Yik holy smoke that reminds me I promis to do the wash too so did I well come on George we might as well get it over with now wait a minute you can do that tomorrow what about the cribbage game you kidding with this on your hands oh there's no bother it's no trick to do the wash with this baby and we can go right on play cage automatic huh oh you bet you Al this is a real nice setup you got here Jim oh I don't know Clara keeps harping on an automatic laundry but look at you Jim what do you mean well we men keep making it easier for women to do their work and the next thing you know we're doing it yes I'll admit there's very little labor left for ladies these days You're darn right you take this washer here I do I mean the way it's designed so a child can run it um I mean uh speaking as an engineer well what I mean is you you take the basic design or you do is work out a system of pumps and uh then you hook in some uh uh different Valves and uh then no well that's not precisely what Tom walligan told me George look well of course there's a lot Mr Warren couldn't be expected to know but to an established company in the Home Laundry business How It's Made is a point of engineering concern that goes back a long way some 53 years in [Music] fact perhaps inelegant now these washers met the need in their day and they set a course of valuable engineering experience a course leading inevitably to today's ingenious automatic washer even so how do you go about designing a new automatic washer well first of all you begin some 8 years before you decide the machine is ready for Homemakers and You Begin by checking with the ultimate user herself the first request was for an automatic washer that would get clothes as clean as standard ringer models that meant an agitator type how to engineer this fine idea into an automatic washer with a spin basket was a problem yet to be solved the second request was for a method of saving Suds and hot water something the engineers themselves had long thought about but again figuring out how to save and reuse hot Suds in a a compact automatic washer with a single tub was a stiff engineering challenge the third request was for adaptability an automatic washer that would still let a housewife do her washing the way she wanted to do it that meant a flexible time and Cycle System to these three basic demands the engineers added one of their own an automatic washer so well balanced it wouldn't need bolting down so armed with what would be right in an automatic washer your lab men proceed to find out what's wrong with existing types and then the fun begins most good ideas start out as problem children it is the design engineer job to make them adoptable the engineer usually has a team of draftsmen to help him translate ideas into working parts and with time and patience and trial after trial one of your brain children at last becomes socially acceptable you have a flexible timer another the agitator in time gets a superior twin again after many tests and rejections you finally come up with the agitator you want one that does an even better job of washing clothes than originally requested but here in the sud's return system you find an engineering challenge so typical it hurts that of developing a simple good idea into a good simple design starting from scratch the first exploratory attempt was crude the engineers tried an electric motor an automobile pump and a siphon line into the washer tub the first unit was manually operated through a separate switch and the water returned through the top opening of the washer tub no good in time a two-way valve development got rid of the siphon hose but the new pump still hung on the side of the tub still unsatisfactory then both motor and pump were hidden beneath the washer and a new problem was born in this position the pump now required precisely a pint of priming water to start its sud's return action a coffee can held just enough but soon became a brightly painted specially designed priming can eventually the priming can became an aluminum Derby hat itself subject to further Improvement after many other refinements the engineers finally released the unit to production a good simple design it works beautifully this baton likee Affair is a steel rod with a hard rubber ball at each end believe it or not the rubber ball is used to eliminate bounce again eventually a simple design the ball Rod suspension system is the engineer unique answer to their own problem a perfectly balanced machine that needn't be bolted down and these of course are just some of the things George Warren couldn't be expected to know about automatic washers and how they're made Carol yeah are you sure you gave Mr walligan the right number relax he isn't supposed to call until 6:00 and it's not 6:00 you're right Jim you're right what now what do I do Jim you got all the clo in yep and close the lid and set the timer for about uh whole 12 minutes that's all very true to a woman the most important thing is how it looks yes styling was important to sure you know when a thing's engineered right it's beautifully simple simple that's exactly the point appliances why it's the same with Furniture automobiles houses anything if you want to make it easy to live with for a long time it's got to be made simple simple and functional that's all there is to styling well at least that's what I always say and Mr Danning it is easier said than done how do you go about styling a new automatic washer as with engineering design you begin long before the first washer ever goes into production it is a process of patient deliberation over hundreds of styling ideas eventually you get down to a half dozen final selections and minute details of form balance color and working requirements here for instance is a pleasing design good form nice balance deaf use of color but it was rejected you'd have to raise a second lid to place your clothes in the tub here's another idea equally attractive at first glance but chrome trim like seasoning in food has narrow limits of tolerance so partly because of over seasoning and again because raising the whole top seemed unnecessarily cumbersome for women enough rejection so it goes with rejections and refinements measured always against the best interests of the ultimate user leading at last to the one best styling design a clean line simply designed purely functional Beauty and the long search is over it is worth the effort because even though the average person Charlie Danning for instance may not know why he finds it easy to live with for a long time don't you ever inhale go ahead and deal and stop gloating never figured to Peg out on both of you it won't happen again I assure [Laughter] you wait a minute Jim let this one be on me where I suppose Nancy be lost without it now without what well that complete laundry outfit oh yes guess you would Marin too I guess we all would service is expensive huh oh does that mean it isn't or you don't know both we have a needed service yet but I'm sure Tom walligan stands squarely behind everything he sells you can say that again Tom walligan handles only the best and he backs it up with good service at least that's what I've always heard a good name worthy of friendto friend advertising is a very desirable asset to be a permanent asset it must stem directly from the manufacturer and be continuously built into the product without effort it is not easily gained without constant vigilance it is easily lost at the plant in St Joseph Michigan constant vigilance goes by a simpler name they call it quality control and it starts with incoming materials and extends throughout all plant [Music] operations you find quality control in precise laboratory tests made before any quantity shipments of materials are accepted you find quality control in giant operations that keep in mind the human factor for safety sake all hands must be on the starter buttons before this press will operate you find quality control in specially designed machines such as this tangent Bender for greater strength it forms the automatic washer cabinet from one piece of sheet steel then an automatic welding machine called a stitch welder completes the one piece construction and you find quality control in better ways to do such things as painting these ingenious automatic paint sprayers lay on an incredibly smooth even finish through electrical attraction an entirely new princip ible but most of all you find quality control in specific checkpoints not only at the finished stage but at every step of the way more than 10% of the workers here are quality control inspectors and you find them checking every part of every [Music] machine every base plate assembly is checked to make sure the supporting studs are perfectly aligned in soundproof quiet rooms running tests of all moving parts are made in this instance the gear case assembly everyone is tested before it moves on the heart of the suds return system is the two-way Val everyone is checked for possible leaks before it moves on in other quiet rooms along the final assembly line every completed machine gets final working tests before it is tagged satisfactory and you'd think then they'd be satisfied they're not every day accepted machines are pulled off the lines they're given complete and punishing test runs just to make sure again there's a good reason for all this concern with quality control how to maintain the flow of mass production and maintain the highest quality standards at the same time is always a problem but there is only one answer to the problem here it is supplied by daily reports of quality control if they should indicate serious trouble there is a man here with power enough to say stop the [Music] lines actually there has never had to be a stoppage of production such as this quality control itself is the Safeguard new methods better equipment constant checking keep the rhythm of production on a 24-hour [Music] beat [Music] n [Music] yeah [Music] la [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] a good name worthy of friendto friend advertising is worth all the effort Carol why don't you go in the water oh I'm too lazy honestly if Mother wonders out loud just once more how the men are making out all scream I wonder myself well that's a mighty neat job if I do say so myself he Jim won't Nancy be so surprised to see this more likely amazed Charlie amazed oh I don't know no more than Claire and Emmy when they find out about your hidden talent for washing clothes I've still got our wash to do me [Music] too say Charlie I suppose me uh yes George just like Clara week after week why why not they kind of deserve it so let's really surprise them both you mean the whole works just like this what do you think Jim I think you two birds have been stalling your wives long enough you can afford to give them a real holiday come on nuts what's the matter Tom walligan suppose he is still there how do we know that he's prepared to deliver two complete laundries at this short notice well why don't I call him if he's still there I'll explain the situation [Music] fine Please Mr Wan just a few minutes please but miss Danning I got a close up now I know I I know you want to leave and everything but yeah well with my wife I got to have good reasons for missing dinner but I'm sure she will understand lon's busy oh that's too bad yeah yeah well hey that means he's still there come on Charlie keep calling Jim tell him we're on the way okay fellas so you can see how important it is to us Mr walligan yeah well I I'm sure you girls had a very good idea there but but remember the suffering Jets Mr Wan they never gave up till they won the woman's vote no sir re talk I don't know what to say say anything the B and vilia are too my mother has a new trus in our house [Music] and Paul re riding all night up and down the countryside shouting to the people the British are coming the British are coming and glory be the British are [Music] coming okay kids you win and none of us had the faintest idea Clara and Emmy are simply Delirious just imagine George and Charlie taking the notion just like f well what is the matter oh I was checking my theme at breakfast oh [Music] yes my goodness Marilyn you have to put a lot of effort into this mother you'll just never [Applause] [Music] know