1946 ad for a PHOTO-CRAFT camera ‘kit’
Toronto. Sometimes when you can’t offer better specs, you can suggest the offering has many pieces. I fell for this gambit as a kid. I bought a “computer” from NYC which was touted as having 100s of parts. Turned out to be a true ad – BUT the parts were paper pins, washers for the pins, tiny lights, a D cell, wire, a mimeographed instruction sheet, a half dozen round masonite disks with holes for the pins, and a rectangular masonite base with rows of holes, plus some nuts and bolts to mount the disks. Properly wired, it gave an answer to a logic question when the disks were turned.
In a way this ad for a PHOTO-CRAFT camera is similar. The popularity of the minicam a decade earlier led to some box cameras such as this one being shaped like a “candid camera”. This Bakelite marvel with a cheap lens and simple shutter came as a “kit” of the camera, three rolls of 127 film, and a camera case (likely pressed paper given the price).
The disc around the lens says ‘distributed by The March Corp’ while the order form is sent to ‘Imperial Industries’ in Chicago. I tried McKeown’s 11th edition and discovered a newer looking version of the camera with a ring stating ‘Altheimer & Baer Inc‘. Both rings say ‘Made in USA’ on the bottom. None of the companies named seem to be around today.
The viewfinder and ad copy suggest the camera took ‘half frame’ photos (16 photos per roll of 127 film). This particular ad is from the April, 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics and is curtesy of my good friend George Dunbar.
