Monsanto: Plastics History Mega Giant

Monsanto Plastics: It's no secret this company has been under scrutiny for decades, and may be viewed in history as a spectacle of concern with activist groups due to their decades long environmental issues.  Looking back in time, we cannot deny in the area of plastics history they were one of the top plastics manufacturers of the 1940s, making them a "plastics giant."  Unfortunately where there is plastics, there are chemicals, and that's another story.   At any rate, here are some snippets of things in regards to Monsanto's early days.

This Monsanto Plastics ad I found is unique because all of the little "M's" are actually color samples and I thought how cool it would be to find them now.  Where are they all?  Did any survive? I don't know when this ad was from, I bought it on Ebay years ago. Note the plastic "crystals" in rainbow colors.

 

Many "Monsanto" post cards exist where the company set up exhibits at Disneyland and talked about plastics being the wave of the future, or showed the wonders of plastics though setting up a "Hall of Chemistry." One could find out a lot by collecting post cards. 

Plastic mebel food tray advertising Monsanto's plastic cafeteria and plastic ware.  I find it odd because it's a plastic tray showing plastic ware, how ironic is that? This item  for sale (and photo by) Fun Vintage Living.

  Rare Wall Art by Monsanto - plastic letters courtesy of OldeTymeStore

This item is really strange.  I really didn't know what to think when I saw this.  Partially because I recognized it. I have a small 5"x7" section of this at my home.  Originally purchasing it thinking it was a wooden letterpress collage, I quickly found it to be some form of plastic resin.  I kept trying to identify it but never found another.  Look how happy I was to learn that my mini collage was part of something grand! It appears those crazy folks at Monsanto decided to cast resin letters and show the wonders of plastic in some type of mod art form, according to the seller circa 1976, this one still having the original paper tag, how rare is that?

Rare Wall Art by Monsanto - photo courtesy of OldeTymeStore

Possibly the best thing Monsanto ever did was House of the Future!  this special print or poster available from the above "original slide" at VintagePix on Zazzle HERE

The House of the Future (torn down yesteryear) was a "model" home built in 1957, as a Disneyland attraction.  This sexy mod pod the entire house was supposedly "made of thousands of pounds of plastic" to show the wonders of plastic and what homes may look like "in the future."  According to Christopher McPherson's website below, it also had other materials (which we don't care because it was so groovy anyways.)  I'm sorry to say it was torn down,  a true work of good design.  According to Yesterland, a groovy outdoor dome was across from it.

Postcards range from $8-$15, this one available at Antiques Plus Judy Posner for $12

Much like a bad Jaws sequel, (or the Rocky Balboa 6th in series movie) Disneyland and various investors spent $15 million dollars "making a new one"circa 2008 which they call "The Innoventions Dream Home".  This for whatever reason, just doesn't sit as well with me.  What's worse than wasting all that money, making a spacey new futuristic building trying to mimic a gorgeous vintage version that you ripped down years before with absolutely no appreciation for preserving good design?  You decide---you can view that information here.   

Original Monsanto House of the Future informational sites:

1) This great website, Plastic Living has a whole section of information intelligently researched by Christopher McPherson, dedicated to the House of The Future here.  

2) Original Wikipedia Monsanto House of the Future information HERE.

3) Journey into Yesterland to see the real deal House of the Future HERE!

While we're on the subject, here's a few Non-Monsanto Mod Homes Links you might like: 

a) Read something noteworty about Lumenhaus who has a real house of the future HERE..    

b) Too bad this Woody Allen house of the future sold for 1/10 of it's original price, I wish I lived in this thing, but then again, maybe not after Woody Allen was there.  ☺

Harmony House : Sears Melmac

Photo and Item offered by palimpsette store on Etsy.  This is the Catalina Sugar Bowl.

Gorgeous in Design, sturdy and well made were the Harmony House melmac liens.  Some of the styles included "Catalina" and "Talk of the Town" melamine. Many of you may have seen Harmony House in ceramic or china, and that's because Harmony House was a generic brand name for Sears!

Life Magazine,  May, 1957

In fact, many manufacturers created items under this generic name, whose point was "to increase Harmony in your home."  Sleek designs, affordiblity, and color pallete were key to the good design items offered by Harmony House.  One may call it the "Macy's" department at "Sears."  Any discriminating housewife in the 50's would not be complete without a Harmony House room - from furniture, linens and spreads to cool ceramic dishes or Melamine designs.:

This photo and grouping for sale by palimpsette store on Etsy shows the lovely, 

sleek design of the Catalina Sugar & Creamer.

Sleek detailing of cups makes for good design. Photo /Item by RicRacandButtons on Etsy.

Close up of backstamp as shown by Magark, who deals in vintage items.

I love these bowls photo and item by TimeforVintage on Etsy.

The Talk of the Town line was square and modern in design as opposed to the round designs of the Catalina.  The backstamp still donned the Harmony House logo.

Photo: LindaPaloma

In my experience it's been a slight bit harder to find.  Although I do not have proof I only can offer a few guesses for why:

•  Catalina may have been more popular and carried for longer, which is why it is more plentiful.
•  Perhaps Catalina was priced lower than Talk of the Town, who knows?  
• My personal #1 theory would be that the Talk of the Town looked too similiar to the already rapidly selling "Brookpark Modern Design" by Joan Luntz, and the "Arrowhead" commercial line.  Just a thought.....look at the photos below and tell me what you think?

 Jadite Talk of the Town, items &  photo by BantamHouseAntiques.on Etsy.

Undersides of "Talk of the Town" Melmac photo and items at LindaPaloma on Etsy.

Top View of "Talk of the Town" Melmac photo and items at LindaPaloma on Etsy.

 Talk of the Town Cups, not as square as Brookpark. These items &  photo by BantamHouseAntiques.on Etsy.

Very Rare Brookpark Fantasy Melmac Dinnerware by Joan Luntz

Brookpark Melmac 

I don't know why this is so rare and hard to find, but it is.  This is Brookpark's Fantasy line designed by Joan Luntz.  Mr. Melmac aka Robin Ptacek, (now deceased) who was writing a book on Melmac had done a lot of research and made contact with Joan Luntz several times.  Many melmac lines had "designers" on hand to come up with new styles, colors, and patterns. Some patterns were simple transfers ordered from books, others were actually designed by the designer itself.  Enter Fantasy:  

This set , original listing was being sold by grtest8 on Ebay.

This set has brown accompaniments, but you have to take what you can get.  Currently this seller is selling it on ebay, starting bid for the lot only $99 for 65 pieces, even with shipping, that's not bad for a monstrosity this size.

Good Design:  Note the retro stylized leaf, so modern in design. The gravy boat is hard to find, and stylized wonderfully.  The seller indicates that a black inkstamp was used on the base of the pieces.  So imagine after use all the ink washes off over time, how would one know exactly what they have? I guess I'm just not a big fan of ink stamping.

More about Brookpark:

Ad from Etsy shop NostalgicDreamsCND

Joan Luntz married the owner of Brookpark, and she was key designer. I am unsure if she made the standard line Gaiety or not, but I love the speckles: 

Gaiety Design by International Molding, Brookpark pic: Retrochalet Etsy

I did manage to find a few Brookpark pieces that had black ink on them. As I was washing them gently, the ink did wash off. I suppose examples with the ink will be hard to find.

Recently updated in 2019 is a new article about Joan Luntz and Brookpark here on my blog.

Read all my posts on Brookpark here. 

Make sure to share my site, all of this plastic information is kept free by my retrochalet shop and only done so thanks to people like you sharing it!  Quality checked 1.29.19