FREE ESSAY ON AMERICAN BUNGALOW

AMERICAN BUNGALOW

The article "Manufacturing and Marketing the American Bungalow" by Scott Erbes discusses
the effects that The Aladdin Company had on the American Bungalow. The Aladdin Company
was a main manufacturer of these mail order homes. By intense marketing and propaganda
the Aladdin Company, along with several others, was able to promote and sell these precut
homes by mail. The Aladdin Company was founded in 1906 in Bay City, Michigan by William
and Otto Sovereign. William and Otto started their firm having had no architectural
experience at all. They were inspired by a friend who was in the business of selling
precut boats by mail so they decided to venture into selling precut homes by mail. 
In order for William and Otto to get their company started and up to the level that they
wanted, it became necessary to use "mass-marketing" as a ploy to draw people into the
idea of homes through the mail. Their way of enticing people to buy these homes was
through their catalogue. They portrayed the homes by mail, bungalows, as an escape from
life's worries: A place where one could "commune with nature". By taking the promotional
aspect to such a high level the bungalow became very prominent in the America in the
early 1900's.
By 1917, William and Otto were selling more than three thousand homes per year. They had
homes spread all over the United States and included in that array of owners were several
large- scale companies such as the Dupont Company. Their success continued for the next
two decades and William and Otto were able to broaden their product line from not only
the houses but also the furnishings in the houses. However, the companies momentum was
nearly depleted during the Great Depression. Aladdin's output dropped drastically during
the Great Depression but in the decades following the Depression, it was able to regain
some of their profit but they never reached the level that they were at before the
Depression. Finally, in the 1980's the company had to shut down because of the lack of
profit.
The author, Scott Erbes, focuses heavily on the different types of the bungalow and on
their origin. The word bungalow comes from the work Bangla, which is a hut-like dwelling
from the region of Bengal, India. This origin design was greatly altered by the time it
reached the United States. The interpretation of the Bangla into what Aladdin's designers
felt it needed to look like was drastically different. The design went from something
portable to something that was permanent and used for seasonal outings. People used their
bungalows as their vacation homes and eventually the bungalows became the year round
residents for some of the lower middle class people. 
It becomes very obvious that a creation as largely accepted as this one, would attract a
large amount of attention from the media. The bungalow received both good and bad reviews
depending on the person. Some were crazy about the idea while others were very critical
of the use of these dwellings for permanent use. They claimed that the structure had no
architectural creativity at all and that they were boring. It is very intriguing that
something as petty as a mail order home could be as popular as it was for the time period
that it was. For William and Otto to think of this idea and to actually be able to make a
profit off of it is very praiseworthy. They took a risk when they ventured into the
business but it paid of when they were able to promote an ideas that spawned so many
other companies to do the same thing. Also, to be able to overcome the overwhelming
disapproval of some critics is admirable. Aladdin's idea for the bungalow was very
versatile and therefore it appealed to the middle class. The middle class would be able
to buy a home like this and be able to change it around as they saw fit for what they
needed. 
The way that the author compares the bungalow to the log cabin becomes very intriguing.
He says that the bungalow is the modern day log cabin. The way that the author relates
these two allows you to really be able to make a connection between them. Everyone knows
what a log cabin looks like and the bungalow is basically a descendant to the log cabin.
It's not exactly the same but one can see several relationships between the two. Both are
very small but at the same time they are ideal for the middle class families. Several
home designs following the bungalow fall into much the same category. They are the Tudor,
the Cape Cod, and the Ranch. All three of these types of homes are still seen throughout
the United States and in new building designs. 
During the first few decades of the 1900's, the Aladdin Company was able to think of,
promote, sell, and become extremely successful in their business. With the help of their
catalogue and their other promotional ploys, they became very widely known and the idea
of the bungalow will always be present in the United States because of their influence
with it. The ability of the Aladdin Company to portray the bungalow as a vacation get
away they were able to appeal to those who worked and were stressed and needed a way to
escape from life's worries and they also appealed to the middle class because of their
inexpensive homes that eventually became the year round homes for many. The bungalows
were very popular and culturally they created a whole new aspect of what it meant to live
in a middle class home in the early 1900's.