Anecdote, but I rescued a 1947 Kelvinator C-7-R (essentially a 1930's pre-war design) last year from the National Grid fridge scrapping scheme. It'd sat in an unheated garage since 1993, after being continually in use by the same family from 1948 to 1993. I plugged it in once I got home, and it cooled down to 38F within an hour. :)

Functionally, it just needs a new door seal to go back into service. Unfortunately I turned it into another restoration project... the original glass drawers got smashed in the 70's, and replaced with pieces of wood paneling, the interior door panel is cracked, and most importantly, it needs all the wiring replaced.

Something of note for post-war appliances like this; due to copper shortages, a lot of manufacturers switched to aluminum wire. This, combined with the natural rubber insulation, and the lack of grounding, it's basically waiting to electrocute me, then set my house on fire.

A lot of other 40's and 50's appliances are probably the same in terms of aluminum wiring. Pretty much everything prior to the 70's is gonna be full of natural rubber insulation and no grounding (or double insulation), however.