October 1934 ad for the ‘Camerette” photography kit.
Toronto. Old P.T. was tagged as saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute“. If not, how could the old Popular Mechanics ads attract anyone? Take for example this October, 1934 advertisement they ran aimed at all wannabe photographers: For a measly 35 cents US (or 50 cents in Canada – another 15 cents up here in the frozen north). Plus 10 cents for “shipping and handing”. And how can you order a ‘kit’ when no address is noted? Write the magazine, perhaps.
Real photographers will see this ad offers a cheap box camera, contact printer, film, chemical powders, and paper. The camera makes negatives ‘not quite 2″ x 1-1/4″‘ – kinda tiny for these old eyes. No mention of the lens sharpness, elements, etc. Eye balling the camera and the contact printer hints that the camera too is tiny. The text for the advertisement is entirely marketing – very little hard information but lots of vague statements and glowing comments that the naive reader can interpret favourably and be impressed.
The camera itself was made by Yen-Kame in Japan and took ONE shot on a piece of cut film in a paper holder – no winder (Kodak usually placed their winder on the side hidden in the ad). So when the ad says “complete with four films”, it means four shots! Ironically, the cameras were popular in the 1930s and post war, and were worth about $20 – $30 US a couple of decades ago to collectors according to McKeown’s 2001-2002 price guide.
My thanks to my old friend George Dunbar, who once again has delved into photographic history back in the days when everyone tried to raise interest in the unwashed majority to invest in our art, deep in the greatest depression to ever hit the modern world.
