1947 Ad for a bargain 16mm
Lektro Jr camera
Toronto. Some of us may remember the days when the local war surplus store had stocks of photo paper, film, chemicals, equipment, etc. at big discounts since the cost was already paid once by tax dollars.
This November, 1947 American ad is for a Lektro Jr 16mm movie camera ($59.95US – cost new over $200.00US) and cheap Super-X B&W movie film with processing.
Ironically, the American Surplus store was called ‘Fotoshop’… An interesting choice of name for the business – and prophetic – Adobe ‘Photoshop’ software (Mac only) came to market in 1990 a bit over 40 years later.
In the day, I visited surplus shops in Toronto, mainly Hercules on Yonge above Wellesley. Film and paper were my main buys. I still remember the Kodak paper. It came in large rolls about 5-1/2 inches wide and could be cut to size.
Once again, a thanks to my good friend, George Dunbar, for discovering and sharing this record of photographic history going back to the post war era.
