About the program:

"People living in all-electric homes have to live with the legacy of decisions that were made a long time ago," Mills said. The utilities and developers "made a multiyear decision in the '60s when they created all-electric homes. Now homeowners are stuck with this for a long time."

In the 1950s, when the all-electric home-building campaign was launched, the process of making electricity was not as efficient as it is today. The utilities rushed to build electrical plants to streamline production, and as the cost of electricity decreased, homeowners were encouraged to consume more power. The more they used, the less they paid.

To keep demand high, the electrical industry launched the Live Better Electrically, or LBE, campaign in March 1956. It was supported nationwide by 300 electric utilities and 180 electrical manufacturers.

The campaign got then-actor Ronald Reagan, the popular host of "General Electric Theater," to take his television audience on a series of tours of his and wife Nancy's all-electric Pacific Palisades home.

An in-house GE sales pitch declared that "by Thanksgiving, there should not be a man, woman or child in America who doesn't know that you can 'Live Better Electrically' with General Electric appliances and television."

In October 1957, LBE launched the "Medallion Homes" campaign, which sought to sell 20,000 all-electric homes nationwide by 1958, 100,000 by 1960 and 970,000 by 1970.

To earn a gold medallion--a decal affixed to a home's entryway and considered the apex of modern, all-electric living--a home had to have an electric clothes washer and dryer, waste disposal, refrigerator and all-electric heating.

The Medallion Homes campaign was a huge success. By some estimates, the nationwide goal of about 1 million all-electric homes was achieved, according to the Edison Electric Institute, although data on the actual number built is unavailable.

Local builders such as Michael L. Tenzer, president of Larwin Homes from 1962-75, said that his company built several thousand Medallion homes in Simi Valley, San Diego, Chatsworth and other West Valley areas.





-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), August 13, 2001

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