io9: house of tomorrow

1964 Teen Mag Predicts Inflatable Sofas, Glass Houses, and GPS

Lynn Peril — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:09:00 PDT

Co-ed was “The High School Magazine for Homemakers” from the 1950s to 1970s. In 1966, it took a peek at future household technology. Home computers figured prominently (“Imagine having a mechanical secretary to keep budgets, figure your income tax, or plan your menus!”), along with home video recorders. Not surprisingly, the balance of the items featured in the article “Tuning in Tomorrow” were aimed at the future housewives of America.

The Groceries Come to You! A trip to the store will be aided by “memory belts” that could “learn” and “remember” coded information. This “could mean that you would step up to a switchboard, push the proper buttons—and the items you select would come to you on a conveyor belt.”
Glass Houses! “House-making machines” might “drive up to your lot and wind endless fine threads of glass to make a cone- or mushroom-shaped house. It’s possible that your may one day look back to your ‘square’ teen years, when you lived in a cube instead of a curved house.”
Inflatable Sofas! “Easy-go furnishings, things that can be transferred with little effort, will be necessities for your mobile family. You might own an inflatable sofa that can be folded up inside a small cabinet, tables that can be collapsed, expanded, raised, or lowered, . . . storage pieces that become suitcases.”
Big Brother Watches Little Brother! “In the future portable TV cameras will establish complete communication throughout the house. . . . Metal reception tags will be sewn inside a child’s clothing and a family radarscope will ‘beep’ his presence within a ten-block area.”

And my favorite innovation:

“Picture yourself making draperies from a can of ‘fiber spray’!” Because who cares about a jetpack when curtains come in a can?

Tex Avery Introduces “The House of Tomorrow” in 1949

Lynn Peril — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:20:00 PDT

An in-house tanning bed (complete with spatula-like flipper), self-adjusting chair, three-way TV set (anticipating the Food Network, Playboy Channel, and Nickelodeon, to boot), a disturbingly efficient electric razor, and some rusty mother-in-law jokes are all part of "The House of Tomorrow" envisioned by animation genius Tex Avery in 1949. "The House of Tomorrow" was the first of four cartoons showing various aspects of life in the future—keep your eyes peeled for more to come.

The 1958 Documentary That Inspired the Jetsons

Lynn Peril — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:30:33 PDT

Cars of the future drive themselves but Mom is still relegated to the back seat in this clip from "Magic Highway, U.S.A." Originally broadcast on the Walt Disney television show in May 1958, the last fifteen minutes of the program (referred to as "The Road Ahead") showed radar-equipped cars whizzing along color-coordinated highways, while ambulance jets swooped down to pick up the squashed remains of accident victims, both human and vehicular. The style and tone of the whole movie is very Jetsons-esque.

After the family car is automatically washed and refueled at home, Dad (in a snazzy pair of Ugg boots) takes responsibility for setting the automatic course. Then he's free to play checkers with wife and son—or ignore them altogether while conducting a video conference up front. Closer to the city, the car separates into two vehicles, one headed to Dad's office (which looks suspiciously like George Jetson's building), the other taking Mom and son to the shopping center (just like Jane Jetson!). You can watch a longer clip from "The Road Ahead" here (and here's the opening sequence of "The Jetsons" [1962], if you want to compare and contrast).