Category Archives: Photography history

Most Telephoned Girl in the World, 1924

A hundred years ago today, this unnamed woman was named the “most telephoned girl in the world.” The title didn’t come from her receiving the most calls, but by her image being transported over phone lines. The July 22, 1924, issue of the New Britain (CT) Herald noted that it was “this beauty that the research laboratories of the American Telephone and Telegraph company selected for experiments on ways of retaining clarity and loveliness in reprodcution and transmission of telephoned pictures.” He picture was on the cover of the instruction booklet for the AT&T Telephotography service.

Kodak Instamatic Cameras, 1964

Sixty years ago today, Kodak ran this ad in the June 26, 1964, issue of Life Magazine for its then-new Instamatic line of cameras. The Instamatic 100 shown in the ad could be had for less than $18. The line proved immensely successful. You could see it for yourself at the Eastman Kodak Pavillion at the New York World’s Fair, or at any Kodak dealer.

1944 Home Telephone System

Eighty years ago, the May 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics showed how to put together this two-tube home telephone system. Both the master and remote units were built breadboard-style. It might have looked austere, but there was a war going on, and a metal cabinet would have been an unnecessary luxury. It ran off the AC line, and the filament voltage was obtained by dropping it through a 40 watt light bulb. Calling was accomplished by an independent bell or buzzer. Therefore, it could be switched off until needed.

This couple were using it to communicate from house to barn. But the magazine noted that it could be used to communicate with the photographic dark room, since the remote emitted no light.

All parts could be found in the proverbial junk box, or from the dime store. For example, the talk-listen switch is fashioned from the handle of a toothbrush.

1939: The Camera as a Sales Tool

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Eighty-five years ago, radio repairman Lewis P. Evans of Chicago’s Evans Radio Laboratory brought along a camera on every service call. He would snap a picture of the house, or if he was lucky, a picture of a child, or even the family dog.

He would hold on to the pictures for a few months, and then send them to the woman of the house, with the shop’s address on the back. He reported that a woman can’t resist a picture of her own home or someone in her family. The picture would be saved, or perhaps placed in the family photo album. And when the radio needed service, they would know exactly where to find the shop’s address.

This feature appeared in the February 1939 issue of Radio Retailing. According to this 1936 newspaper advertisement, the shop’s address (presumably the one on the backs of the photos) was 7152 S. Exchange Ave.

Give Your Boy Scout a Brownie, 1924

If you were in the market for a gift for your Boy Scout a hundred years ago to celebrate the anniversary of the BSA, you couldn’t go wrong by getting him a Brownie camera from the Eastman Kodak Company. And if you were in Omaha, the place to get it would be the Kodak counter of the Robert Dempster Co., 1813 Farnam Street, as seen in this ad from the February 13, 1924, issue of the Omaha Bee.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from OneTubeRadio.com!

We present a hundred year old silent film, the 1923 version of A Christmas Carol starring Russell Thorndike as Scrooge. It’s a short feature, so the story is quite condensed into less than a half hour. This rendition is accompanied by recordings from that era. Thorndike is best known as an author, and you can find his author page at Amazon.

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1923 Photo Finish

The concept of a “photo finish” has been around for a century, as shown by this Illustration in the November, 1923, issue of Science and Invention.

This setup was in place at the Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse near Paris. The horses crossing the finish line broke a thread, which would trip the shutter of the cameras above. The photos would be ready in four minutes to decide a close race.

Movies on your Phonograph: 1923

This illustration from the November 1923 issue of Science and Invention fits squarely into the category of very interesting things that never caught on for want of a practical application.

It is a system for showing motion pictures from your phonograph. The phonograph is busy spinning at 78 RPM, and this system allows you to use that phenomenon to project movies. The frames of your movie are printed on the edge of a paper disk which is placed on the platter, just like a phonograph record. Two bright lights shine on the image, and the opaque image is projected through a prism onto the screen.

A single disk will give you a movie of about 1/78 of a minute long. To provide for longer movies, the disk bends up automatically as it passes under the prism, which allows the layer below to be shown.

The magazine refers to it only as the “Jenkins movie machine.” That is probably a reference to Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934), a pioneer of early cinema. He went on to television, as the principal of W3XK, the first television station in the United States, which began broadcasts to the general public in 1928.

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween a hundred years ago, if you were in Omaha, you could use the occasion to buy a phonograph for your family at the Burgess-Nash Company. While you were there, you could get your Halloween dinner for 65 cents. Or, if you were on a budget, you could get a lunch of chicken a la king in the mezzanine for 35 cents.

The ad appeared in the Omaha Bee, October 31, 1923.

Uncle Fester: The Early Years

Shown here, a hundred years ago today, in the Washington Evening Star, March 9, 1923, is film star Jackie Coogan, talking from WGY radio in Schenectady, NY. The device shown is the pallophotophone, used for recording sound on film.

Uncle Fester. Wikipedia image.

If the actor’s name rings a bell, it’s because he went on to play Uncle Fester in the Addams Family. Perhaps his trademark image with the lightbulb in his mouth was inspired by the pallophotophone.