Admiral (electrical Appliances)

Admiral is an American appliance brand currently manufactured by Whirlpool Corporation. The brand is sold at The Home Depot.

Ross Siragusa founded Continental Radio and Television Corp. as a maker of consumer electronics (radios and phonographs) in Chicago during 1934. This later became Admiral Corp. Its annual sales were about $2 million. Admiral supplied the U.S. military with electronic equipment during World War II, and was one of the major television manufacturers in the early era of that medium. In 1950, for instance, Admiral was selling a line of seven TV sets, with four models having a 12.5 in (32 cm) tube size (between $179.95 and $379.95, equivalent to $1,738 to $3,863 today), a 16 in (41 cm) model at $299.95 ($2,897), and two 19 in (48 cm) models (at $495 and $695, equivalent to $4,782 and $6,714). Success in television sales enabled the company to branch out into major appliances such as refrigerators by the 1950s.

During World War II, Admiral was the weekly sponsor of the CBS Radio Network Sunday news program, World News Today, and Admiral used the promotional slogan "America's Smart Set". Admiral was also one of the first major advertisers on television, sponsoring Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, Lights Out, Fulton J. Sheen's Life Is Worth Living, Admiral Presents the Five Star Review - Welcome Aboard, and Notre Dame football games. Annual sales approached $300 million and the company employed 8,500 people by the early 1960s.

The various divisions were sold to other companies by the mid-1970s due in part to competition from imported consumer electronic goods from Japan. Rockwell International acquired the company in 1973, selling the appliance operations to Magic Chef which was sold to Maytag which was acquired by Whirlpool.

The Milwaukee Admirals hockey team derives its name from Admiral appliances. In 1971 when the team was sold by its original owner to a group of investors, one of the investors, Edwin J. Merar, owned an appliance store. The team was renamed the "Admirals" after the Admiral refrigerators sold in his store.

In 1991, Maytag contracted with Montgomery Ward & Co. for the exclusive use of the Admiral brand on its consumer electronic goods. Montgomery Ward later went bankrupt and closed all stores. After Maytag's sale to Whirlpool, the brand became exclusive to The Home Depot. During the 1990s, the Admiral brand name was being used on Zenith products.

The Television business continues with AOC International. AOC (originally Admiral Overseas Corporation) is an international brand of LCD and HDTV display devices.