Frigidaire Flair: A Kitchen Sculpture

I have a unique problem. I own a Frigidaire Flair stove range combination built into my condo in 1962. It came with the kitchen when I bought the place in 2014. Now only ONE burner works, and neither oven operates. But I won’t gut this appliance. It’s a work of art.

I did my research on the appliance, and who designed it. I found out why I love it so much, and why I cook on one burner and use a toaster oven for the rest of my cooking prep needs. Art has its way of dominating the stomach.

A scholar trained at the Bloomfield Hills Academy’s Cranbrook School, one of the leading centers of new ideas in science and art, developed the appliance. I researched in their Art Museum because I own a mural designed by one of their former presidents. For this article on my ‘Stove-Range’ I found MUCH information in their wonderful Center for Collections and Research of Material Culture.

Frigidaire Flair 1962

General Motors used to own Frigidaire, hence the Michigan connection with Cranbrook. To this day you’ll find such a range installed at the visiting scholar’s house, the ‘Edison House,’ at Cranbrook. My electric range has four burners, a part of a countertop situation that rolls in and out of the wall like a drawer. Above it sits two counter height ovens, with unique dual flip doors, one for baking and one for broiling. I love to show off the two settings on these oven doors. They swing out or in at a press of a button.

I don’t want to gut my Flair, so I hired a genius electrician. He sees why I’m intrigued with this appliance, essentially a range in a drawer, invented in 1960. He will fix it, he thinks. The architect of my condo in 1962 was forward thinking with a connection to the latest in modern design. He had the nerve to bring the Flair to Santa Barbara.

M Jayne van Alstyne, a ceramics major at Cranbrook 1941-42, designed the Flair. She went on to study Industrial Design at Pratt Institute, then refined her skills at Alfred University in New York City 1948-1950.

General Motors snapped her up in 1955. She became one of Harley Earl’s Automotive “Damsels of Design.”

Even if she COULD design a great car, they made her studio head for GM Frigidaire, leading the research, development, and design of kitchen appliances. The blockbuster museum show, “Ideas for Living” was her brainchild, and opened, showing MY STOVE, in 1960. 

Actress Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha) often cooked as a mere mortal on the set of Bewitched, with her Flair from 1964-1972. She made casseroles for Darrin Stephens (Dick York) as an ordinary housewife.

And here is the kicker:

Cranbrook’s Center for Collections and Research of Material Culture calls its blog “The Kitchen Sink” for this kind of design wonder. They admit their Flair doesn’t work either. Anyone who sees the Flair in Edison House will agree it’s a marvel of design. While they won’t whip up lunch on the appliance, I hope the kids taking classes in the house take a moment to appreciate it. As Frigidaire promised in 1962, the Flair is “The happiest thing that ever happened to cooking… OR YOU!”

I searched advertisements online. and found a dusty, maybe not working, Flair on eBay, in Hollywood, from a TV set for $700-800. But can we think of this as a kitchen sculpture? Yes!! Who needs to cook?