The Classic SUNBEAM MIXMASTER...THE Appliance Of The 20th Century

Eight years ago this site was first composed and written. Your chronicler suspected then that it might provide a round of laughs to those happening upon it, certain that this subject was as off the wall as could be found. He knew the laughter would be that of recognition. And there have been those situated professionally in the antiques and collectibles world who understood, even praising warmly what you are about to see and read. <>

<>To wit: There was no more popular small kitchen appliance than the classic Sunbeam Mixmaster, from practically the moment it was born for public sale around May 1930. There may be no more popular or sought-after appliance of that generation, even eight years since this site was born. Visit the online auction sites, the second-hand or antique shops, the swap meets, anyplace vintage electric appliance<>s are sold. Unless your chronicler is very wrong (being only human, he is wrong often enough), the most likely candidate for the most offerings will be a Sunbeam Mixmaster manufactured between its 1930 production birth and 1967, the year the last of the truly classic Mixmasters went forth from the factory.

This is not to say the Mixmaster wanted for competition. There were very worthy competitors making their own impact on homes American and abroad. (They receive due recognition on this very site.) But since this tributary's cyberspace birth in February 1999, the response (quiet but expanding, in measured paces) said the vintage Mixmaster's popularity continues holding its own and even rising. Your chronicler dares suspect that any poll taken (by anyone insane enough to try) would rate the 1930-67 Sunbeam Mixmaster as the most beloved kitchen appliance of the 20th Century, and perhaps beyond.

The classic Mixmaster played second fiddle to none of its worthy competitors for blending aesthetic appeal, functional versatility, and all-around durability. To nearly every household which owned and displayed one proudly in its kitchen, the Mixmaster was as close to a family pet as a home appliance came, with personality generously endowed. High quality, high aesthetic, high affordability, without compromise or shortening up. Many a classic Mixmaster has been handed down through generations in numerous families. Often as not those generations seek to have them restored, platform up, to their original operating and appearing condition. Most encouraging, Sunbeam Products, Inc. today seems not just comfortable with the Mixmaster's past but has made at last a contemporary acknowledgement of its position in Americana.

Many who owned one might not have comprehended it, but the Mixmaster also represented something far deeper, above and beyond even its worthiest competitors. It evoked a strain struggling to reclaim its rightful position among us who live today's experience. An idea, an imagination, a balanced hand between tradition and creative thinking, was allowed to breathe properly, making its own way across the lay of the culture. No instantaneous cross-examination by self-appointed arbiters of propriety, political correctness, regulatory suffocation, bottom-line bulimia, or near-complete fear of freedom. No hem and haw about trumped-up "environmental" concerns. To justify its creation, its creator needed no grounds more highfalutin' than a charming idea, a faith that it was workable and practicable, an execution in the highest possible quality for the least possible imposition, and a wish only to hoist it forth in plain sight, for anyone to try of their own will and choice.

The Sunbeam Mixmaster became an American icon all by itself. No one subsidised it; no one jammed it down the throat of reluctant or recalcitrant consumers. The American public (oops--today we say "consumer") made the Mixmaster an instant success and an American institution all by itself. Considering its birth on the threshold of the Great Depression, that is an achievement worth magnifying. As a practical machine and a legitimate pop icon, the Mixmaster represented what this Republic, what remains of it, could become once again if she permits herself to become so; if we overcome our near-complete fear of freedom to let it happen, once again, in all phases of our lives. Such a time is long overdue. Whether its resurrection has begun, regardless of what the fear-of-freedom contingent may have ground into our battered-enough hearts and minds, time alone will tell.

The question before the house was, at birth, and remains, at age eight: Can we allow even in part again--never mind recreate completely--the kind of quiet, unobstructed, can-do daring which produced the classic Sunbeam Mixmaster* and other legitimate classic Americana?

How To Get The Most Out of Your Sunbeam Mixmaster

Realistically, no one can say for certain. Even when the aforesaid resurrection does arrive, there will remain among us yet those of sharp enough tongue, recalcitrant enough political possession, and immobile enough negativism, to make certain the fear-of-freedom contingent sustains a secure-enough position across our divide. We took a terrible blow upon our patrimony and our sociopolitical psyche by way of the 11 September 2001 atrocity. We fight a war of the soul imposed upon us from an enemy to whom human life means less than nothing. We find ourselves in danger grave enough of doing what wiser men than your chronicler once upon a time enunciated: defending freedom abroad by abandoning it at home. Yet, we remain the can-do nation, somehow. We have done, admirably enough. We should do, once again.

Maybe no home appliance will ever again know the Sunbeam Mixmaster's standing as a transgenerational family pet. The reasons are probably too numerous to isolate. But thanks to those who work with love to keep it so, the classic Mixmaster's survival may yet prove part of a quiet renaissance of the best of America. The classic Mixmaster could be called the not-so-little mixer that could (and did!) do practically anything. So could America, the can-do nation, warts, flaws and all (we cannot, and ought not, pretend them away), become once again the not-so-little nation that could do and did done. Fear of freedom cannot make it so, and never will.

This site was born of a genuine personal affection with this unique one-stop kitchen appliance. To three do I dedicate this site in particular: to my maternal grandparents, of blessed memory, whose own Mixmaster introduced him (somewhat in terror, as you will learn in due course!) to the marvels of this machine; and, to the man who made it happen in the first place. He should be honoured as having made an irrevocable impact upon the best sides of American home life. Until this site premiered in early 1999, his name was all but obscure to millions enhanced by his products. But he has more than earned tribute from all the kitchens, all the families and friends, which produced and consumed innumerable meals and treats, prepared beneath and through the diminuendo and crescendo of his Sunbeam Mixmaster.

- JK

This site was created for entertainment and historical purposes alone. It is not endorsed or supported by Sunbeam Products, Inc., American Household, Inc., or any of its employees in any way. Photography and imagery on this site comes through the courtesy of numerous fellow Sunbeam collectors, traders, and hobbyists. All credit is due them for having shared these photographs and much supplemental material. Any errors are mine, and I am happy to correct them upon receiving the appropriate feedback and information.

Thanks especially are owed to the following, in alphabetical order - Peter and Karen Beimford (The Mixernuts), Kevin (vtakro) DesRoschers, Timothy Doe, Jim Friar, John Griese, Lori (Ladifrog) Hicks, B.V. Hill, Linda Franklin, Cathy and Lee MacGregor, Cookie McKee, J.C. McDermott, Dan (Decodan) McQuade, Arnie and Susan Mutzke, Scott Onasch, Agent Roarke, Philip Reed, Denise St. Pierre, and the members of WACEM (We Actually Collect Electric Mixers).

I further thank Abby Burnett for kindness and amiability in writing so fondly of this volume of love, the Journal of Antiques and Collectibles for the honour of their own recognition, and the numerous enough kind souls who write with questions, affection, contributions, and applause for this site, as they have since inception. I have done as best I can to be as accurate as possible in the text of what follows. As always, if anyone has any factual information which might enhance or clarify the story of this unique machine, I am more than appreciative of any addition you may share!

"Sunbeam," "Mixmaster," "Mix-Finder Dial," "Full-Mix Beaters," "Bowl-Fit Beaters," and various logo and trademark text and imagery you will see throughout this site are registered trademarks of Sunbeam Products, Inc., a division of American Household, Inc. The various old advertising signages depicted on site are here for nostalgic purposes alone. The image of the Sunbeam Mixmaster postage stamp is held in copyright by the U.S. Postal Service.

Front page photograph, Sunbeam Mixmaster Model 7. Restoration by Dan (Decodan) McQuade, photograph by owner Lori (Ladifrog) Hicks.

This page: Model K store display, photograph provided your chronicler from an unknown source - should the photographer happen upon this site, I encourage him or her to step forth and claim original credit, for acknowledgement here. Advertisement, "The National Favorite: Sunbeam Automatic Mixmaster," from 1937 print advertising for Model 3. Cover, How To Get The Most Out of Your Sunbeam Mixmaster, from your chronicler's collection.

Sunbeam Automatic Mixmaster logoplate shown as it appeared in a decal affixed to the motor sides of Mixmasters produced from 1936 through 1941.