The Story of Polaroid

In 2013, the notion of instant photography is with most people all the time.  Our mobile phones have not only cameras, but video cameras that were once seen as gee-whiz technology.  But 40 years ago, we still had things like Fotomats, which were the original outparcel retailers that offered fast (next-day) photo developing before every pharmacy in the country did it right in front of you.  In those days, developing film still required a dark room.  Mail-order providers like Clark Color Labs offered film developing at a discount if you did it by mail order.  These days, they still develop photos, but has refashioned itself as something akin to Snapfish (although competition exists, including from Lenovo Photos which sells photo books and the like at cut-rates).

However, as WNYC's "Leonard Lopate Show" featured last November, during the 1960s and 1970s, Polaroid was the coolest technology company on earth.  Mr. Lopate interviews a man named Christopher Bonanos who has a new(ish) book entitled "Instant: The Story of Polaroid".  Listen to that interesting interview below, or by visiting http://www.wnyc.org/story/250794-story-polaroid/:

In his book, and in the interview with Leonard Lopate, Christopher Bonanos tells the tale of Polaroid's first instant camera to hit the market in 1948 to its meteoric rise in popularity and adoption by artists such as Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close, to the company's dramatic decline into bankruptcy (Polaroid stopped making film in 2008) and its unlikely resurrection in the digital age as a hot brand.

These days, Polaroid[s], or at least pseudo-Polaroids, are everywhere, with Instagram and popular websites like Poladroid [http://www.poladroid.net/] and Polaroin [http://www.polaroin.com/] making it possible to turn virtually any shitty photo taken with a cheap cell phone to look like a retro-Polaroid.

Indeed, the Polaroid background has proven very enduring.  The image of instant photos with a wide strip at the bottom seems more popular today as a photo enhancement than it ever was during the original company's original business heyday (today's Polaroid is a re-invention as the original company, which pretty much ceased to exist at the turn of the new Millennium).

A man named Antonio Pedrosa from ADR studio developed a concept he called the Instagram Socialmatic Camera, which interestingly enough, will be soon sold by Polaroid itself, or at least the new owners of the Polaroid brand name.  The concept features an internal printer which will allow users to print directly on Instagram paper sheets, with a release planned for early 2014 (Editor Note, Jan. 6, 2014: An "official" announcement of this product's launch can be seen at http://bit.ly/KtI113).  Not surprisingly, the camera will look much like a retro-Polaroid Land Camera in a new, digital format.

The Soon-to-Be-Introduced Instagram Socialmatic Camera

So it seems that Polaroid has reinvented itself for the digital age, while former giants like Kodak haven't been so lucky.  To be sure, some rivals like Fujifilm still sell the old chemical film (in fact, Fuji still sells cartridges that work in old Polaroid cameras in case anyone is interested, for now anyway).

But Polaroid has endured as a brand.

To be sure, royalties for the brand doesn't quite make it the powerhouse employer in the Boston area that it once was, but it seems that nostalgia still means something.  An online store selling film and other Polaroid merchandise can be found at https://us.polaroidoriginals.com.  Only time will tell whether the hipsters who have helped to resurrect the brand in today's environment will continue to support the brand over the long-term, but today, its very much around.

Author P.S. (July 30, 2014): There was news today that another iconic American brand that pretty much died as a result of the digital revolution is getting some help from some big-name film directors, including Judd Apatow and Quentin Tarantino, who are apparently pushing various Hollywood movie studios to commit to buying a certain amount of film from Kodak for the next several years.  The reason is that they want to preserve the option to shoot film recording.  Movies shot on film do have a certain artistic quality that doesn't exist with digital recordings, and a number of small theaters across the country are still only equipped to show movies shot on celluloid film.  However, American Public Media's marketplace.org reports that David Reibstein, a professor at The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School says that having the option to use film in the long-term really depends on just what Kodak does with these sales now.  If the company continues to do what they were doing yet isn't working, that won't ensure that Kodak film (or film from any other film manufacturer including Japan's Fuji or Europe's Agfa which is based in Belgium) will remain available indefinitely unless the company behind the product remains in business, which means they must use the money to evolve their business.  As we've seen, another U.S. film manufacturer (Polaroid) has enjoyed considerable success as a brand.  Whether Kodak can do the same remains to be seen.  Listen to the story at http://ow.ly/zN53G.

Author P.S. (November 23, 2016):  Marketplace ran a story entitled "Nostalgia is driving up sales for Polaroid" http://bit.ly/2fHnyX2 which discussed the company's resurgence and acknowledged that hipsters with no experience with the original instant photography were a big part of their success.

Country Crossover Pioneers: Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

You don't have to be a country music fan to recognize that a handful of country music artists have managed to "crossover" into pop (known sometimes as country pop music).  To be sure, some country fans don't particularly like country crossover artists or their music, and there are also a few pop fans who aren't all that crazy about country crossover music, either.  But if you're a musician (or a record label), it means you're able to sell your music to many, many more people, and effectively become pop culture celebrities in the process.

The country crossover musical genre, if you can believe Wikipedia (see http://goo.gl/BbhBn), first emerged in the 1970s.  There were a few others that crossed over include Jeannie C. Riley with her smash "Harper Valley PTA" released in 1968 which later spawned a movie and short-lived TV series produced by Sherwood Schwartz), and another Lynn Anderson's cover of  "Rose Garden" [a.k.a. "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden"] back in 1970, driven as much by music legend Clive Davis who helped that track reach #3 on the Billboard Top songs back in 1970 (it had already reached #1 in the country music category) as it was Ms. Anderson's vocals.  Then, of course, there was Glen Campbell, who emerged at the same time as Jennie C. Riley did.

Among those leading the way were two country stars who actually did a duette in 1983 called "Islands in the Stream" which was written by the Bee Gees (the title was named after the Ernest Hemingway novel) which proved to be big crossover hit for both Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.  A clip of those two artists performing "Islands in the Stream" can be watched below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/HQW7I62TNOw:



Ms. Parton was perhaps the more successful of the two, achieving success not only in music, but also in the movies, having co-starred in the 1980 box office smash "Nine to Five" along with screen legend Jane Fonda, and TV (best known for her role on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In") star Lily Tomlin, and while that was Dolly Parton's first movie role, she also wrote the theme song to the film, which turned into one of her biggest hits, spending several weeks at number one according to Billboard.

Dolly Parton on People, April 4, 1977

With "Nine to Five", Dolly Parton became the second woman to top both the U.S. country singles chart and Billboard's Hot 100 with the same single (the first was Jeannie C. Riley, who did so with "Harper Valley PTA" in 1968, the song which inspired a 1981-82 TV sitcom produced by Sherwood Schwartz which starred Barbara Eden; Schwartz was best known for "The Brady Bunch" which I wrote about previously, see my posts at http://goo.gl/tE0ur and http://goo.gl/X7dYp for more details).

Those two paved the way for others, including Reba McEntire, and a whole new generation of country crossover artists.  Newbies like Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood are moving in the same direction.

At the end of 2012, there were public radio interviews with both Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton which were definitely worth listening to.  In those interviews, we hear a bit more about their remarkable careers and the adventures both have had in becoming mainstream celebrities from what were arguably very humble roots for both artists.

2012 Interview With Kenny Rogers

New York City's NPR station WNYC has a show called "The Leonard Lopate Show" which re-ran an interview with Kenny Rogers from October 2, 2012 at the end of the year.  In that interview, Kenny Rogers talks about making his career in country music and his most memorable songs, including "Lucille," "The Gambler," "Lady," and "Islands in the Stream." His crossover success is best evident by the fact that he was featured as one of the artists who sang "We Are The World" back in the 1980s, catch my post on that by visiting http://goo.gl/i0LLg.  He has a new memoir entitled "Luck of Something Like It" (Amazon sells the book, you can find it at http://amzn.to/Vno4Oe) which details growing up in Depression-era Texas, surviving in poverty, and he recounts his early years as a jazz bassist and later as a member of the folk group the New Christy Minstrels.  That interview can be listened to below, or by visiting http://www.wnyc.org/story/258388-kenny-rogers/:



2012 Interview with Dolly Parton

There's a also podcast known as "Bullseye with Jesse Thorn" (formerly known as "The Sound of Young America" which I may feature in a different post sometime soon) which is a public radio program/ podcast distributed by Public Radio International (PRI).  Jessie Thorn hosted in-depth interview with Dolly Parton (and Judd Apatow who's at the start of the podcast) on December 11, 2012.  He talks to Dolly Parton, noting that her voice could probably have easily carried her through life.  But her unwavering drive and embrace of hard work meant she was ready and willing to carve her own path, however, despite the great sacrifices such commitment required.  In that interview, Dolly Parton discusses some of those sacrifices, how they've affected her life, and how she feels about them now. She also shares stories from her childhood (having grown up in a large family in the mountains of Tennessee, Parton has no shortage of fondly remembered anecdotes) and relates the story behind one of her most well-loved songs, "I Will Always Love You."

That entertaining and informative podcast can be listened to below (aside from the introduction, you can skip ahead to count 42:25 to skip the Judd Apatow interview), or by visiting http://bit.ly/Ty0IVf:



Ms. Parton also has a new book out, entitled "Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You" (see it at Amazon.com by visiting http://amzn.to/10KmcvG) which expands on a popular commencement speech that Dolly Parton gave at the University of Tennessee on her personal philosophy on life.  That book was released in November 2012.

Although newer country crossover artists like Taylor Swift (who hails from suburban Philadelphia, which was never exactly the heart of country music) are in the tabloids all the time these days, the newcomers could probably learn a thing or two from people like Kenny and Dolly about becoming pop culture icons.  Don't get me wrong, I love her song "Mean", but there's also something to be said for learning from those who have gone down that path already.  Or, maybe, they've borrowed a page from them already?