Bonita Springs Florida Weekly

Swept away by the memory of a great vacuum design

COLLECTOR’S CORNER



This Hoover Constellation vacuum, dating from the early ’60s, epitomizes midcentury Space Age design. SCOTT SIMMONS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

This Hoover Constellation vacuum, dating from the early ’60s, epitomizes mid-century Space Age design. SCOTT SIMMONS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Nature abhors a vacuum.

So said Aristotle.

But I adore a vacuum, especially if someone else is using it.

And I especially love one when it packs as much whimsy and history as the Hoover Constellation.

Grandma called it the sweeper, and so it was.

It swept the sand and the dust of the days in her Fort Myers home.

Made circa 1962, this orange vacuum brought the Space Age to middle-class America.

I’m partial to vintage Electrolux canisters — they really get the job done.

But the Hoover Constellation?

Well, it was shaped like Saturn, with a white rubbery ring around the area where you opened it to change the bag.

And unlike the Electrolux vacuums, which relied on casters to maneuver, the Constellation glided on a cushion of air created by its exhaust.

That was almost magical by mid-century standards — back then, people watched “The Jetsons” fly to and from work each day and dreamed of a magical future. They still do, in fact.

Scott SIMMONS

Scott SIMMONS

The Constellation had great style.

In fact, Hoover recognized that many of its products looked as utilitarian as the tasks for which they were intended, so it hired industrial designers.

The company brought in Henry Dreyfuss, who brought a streamlined modern look to its upright vacuums in the 1930s.

Dreyfuss turned his attention to the canister vacuums, creating the first version of the Constellation in 1954.

It was the beginning of the Space Age, and the race was on for humans to reach the moon.

By the time my grandparents bought this machine, NASA’s Project Mercury had been underway since 1958, sending chimpanzees and humans into orbit.

I was enthralled by that and by the Constellation.

I remember chasing the vacuum around as it cleaned the house and the cars.

Grandma used it to well into my adulthood.

Then, as she aged and the vacuum became too cumbersome for her to lift and the hose became a tripping hazard, it was relegated to the hall closet and, finally, a shelf in the utility room.

Grandma was fascinated to see a vacuum identical to hers for sale in a booth filled with mid-century designs at an antiques show.

She told me I should sell hers and keep the money.

But I never got around to taking the vacuum until after we cleaned out her house. Even then, I couldn’t quite let it go.

For a decade, it was consigned to my garage, then I stopped in a vintage shop in downtown Lake Worth Beach.

That shop, The Tacky Tourist, deals in all kinds of tchotchkes, from the sublime to the ridiculous. And owner Andy Amoroso told me he uses this vacuum’s near twin on a daily basis in his shop.

So I gathered up the vacuum, its hose, brushes and nozzle, and took a photo, then took the set to Andy.

“Sell it,” I said. “Or use it for an art project — it still works. Just don’t let it go into a landfill.”

I’ll be curious to hear what happens.

Because it would appear this vacuum has avoided disappearing into, ahem, the vacuum of my garage. ¦

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