1930s-style: selling refrigerators in serenity

The travelling salesman is often treated with contempt, or even ridicule. But we think you’ll agree it doesn’t seem quite so bad to be travelling the US countryside in the late 1930s in a nice car, calling at farms and places to sell—well—refrigerators, for example.

That’s what this salesman is selling, as his company’s name—Servel Electrolux, the kerosene refrigerator—is all over his car and trailer. And what a beauty of a trailer it is! Shaped to fit behind that cool coupé (do feel free to name the marque and model if you know), it’s not only made-to-measure but comes in an almost Art Deco style as well.

Perhaps we’re romanticising things here, but life on the road must have been quieter and more peaceful in those days!

Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: New York Public Library

Published:

Wednesday October 15th, 2025

John McLean

21 October 2025, 11:33

Definitely a 1937 Pontiac Club Coupe with the 5th wheeler caravan being an unusual attachment with the swivel in the boot (trunk) of the car.

Steve Diggins

19 October 2025, 23:17

Last night I watched a show on TV about the history of dangerous products sold in America and these kerosene refrigerators were one example. They emitted carbon monoxide. It did not take long before people were dying. An emergency notice was sent out to all owners to shut them off. It was mentioned that some owners put then out in the back yard. Also, at this time the new electric refrigerators came on the market.
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Larry A. Lewis

20 October 2025, 07:20

What else emitted carbon monoxide? Laundry machines of the same era. The company, Maytag made petrol-powered washing machines and I've seen them at classic car shows and parts markets. A small engine sitting on a frame with a wash tub above it and started by a pedal.

Steve Diggins

16 October 2025, 18:09

Although the car is from the late thirties I think this photo was more likely taken in the early fifties. In the dirty thirties everyone was dirt poor and just surviving. But in the early fifties everything was booming and people could buy things they could only dream of in the thirties.

Larry A. Lewis

17 October 2025, 00:09

True, but by the 1950s I think every part of the USA and Canada had electricity so there would have been no need for kerosene refrigerators. In the 1930s, yes.

David Scott

16 October 2025, 11:12

I don't think selling door-to-door in Thirties America was quite the genteel business we see in the rear view mirror, tight schedules, remorseless targets, ruthless bosses, "only as good as last week's figures", no basic salary, all commission, grinding down endless straight roads in the most basic models of cars, travel in the Mid-West wasn't the leisurely bucolic drive we may think? A brief read of Steinbeck, or watching the classic film "Tin Men' would suggest otherwise?

terry pollock

15 October 2025, 01:27

1937 Pontiac Coupe

Nick Maltby

19 October 2025, 12:39

Correct.

Larry A. Lewis

15 October 2025, 00:24

I believe that it's a 37 Buick.

1930s-style: selling refrigerators in serenity

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