Dec 1939 article on a unique photography retailer’s store front
Toronto. … or so they say. There are many innovative ways to advertise and this article found by my good friend, George Dunbar, who shared it here with us, shows oner example.
In the December, 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics, an article described how a Los Angeles camera retailer created a store front modelled after a miniature camera. While I don’t recall photo shops with fancy fronts, I can remember a place on Decarie Boulevard above Queen Mary Road in Montreal that was shaped and coloured like a giant orange. The retailer sold Orange Juleps! With its shape and colour, it was hard to miss even though it was on the ‘wrong’ side of Decarie.
We have seen older automobiles or trucks driven around with what appears to be a giant camera to advertise a photographer/photo service. And years earlier store signs were often shaped to identify the main business conducted therein. Some stores carry on this tradition even today – remember barber poles, pawn shop balls, etc.
