I had that identical job during the 1960s at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles. From the time the camera "girl" brought the film holders to the darkroom, I had 15 minutes to develop the film and print two 5X7s, postcards and matchbook covers each. On busy nights, that could be as many as 10 sets at a time, continuously (Ack! New Years Eve! Gah!). Film developer was undiluted Dektol, dunked for 1 minute, quick fix and rinse, then printed wet in a glassless carrier on cut to size USAF surplus aerial reconnaissance rolls, quick rinse and dropped on a hot plate. All sensitized material and chemicals were purchased in bulk and many years out of date. Lots of benzatriazol was used. The pix had to get out fast before customer walked, so evenings always began with the camera person apologizing profusely for the profanity she was about to visit on me during the shift and ended the same way (she was basically a nice person but very high strung). The darkroom was situated in an area separated from the floor show by a heavy curtain, so I got to hear all the acts quite clearly. My favorite was the Righteous Brothers. There was some personal drama one night as a face came up in the printing tray of my then girlfriend, who was out with another guy.
Hadn't thought about that job for a long time. Thanx for bringing it up :) .
Allen Zak On Mar 24, 2012, at 8:30 PM, Jerry Lehrer wrote:
RUGers,I did use my 4x5 Graphic for high school and college sports and special events work.Naturally I was never paid for the prints, which were needed that day. I was repaid in film.The 4x5 fast print work stood me in good stead when I was working nights till 2:30 AM in night club darkrooms at the Copacabana, Latin Quarter etc in New York. Tray developing and making prints from wet negatives for the scantily dressed "Camera Girls". They always wanted fast print service, which I tried to oblige.. My problem was getting to 8 AM classes the next day! The girls doing night club photography with their 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Graphics were a special kind of people. It is too bad that no one ever did a story about them-- Not even Weegee.As "Pal Joey" said "If they asked me, I could write a book". Jerry Lehrer On 3/24/2012 2:56 PM, Jon stanton wrote:I have a Speed Graphic for anyone interested Olympia, WAOn Mar 24, 2012, at 2:20 PM, "Richard Knoppow"<dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Williams"<dwilli10@xxxxxxx> To:<rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2012 12:18 PM Subject: [rollei_list] Press CamerasI remember 21 and the awful scandal it brought about. It seems to me that cheating was found to be common on these high- jackpot shows. All meant to make the shows more exciting for the audience and sell more soap or cigarettes or whatever. The Speed Graphic was the standard press camera. There _were_ others such as the B&J camera. After the Crown Graphic came out in 1947 a lot of photogs switched to them because they were noticeably lighter. The difference is that the Crown does not have the focal plane shutter of the Speed. Busch also made good folding cameras, and at one time, advertised one with a focal plane shutter in it. This was probably to meet a military spec for the Speed but the Busch shutter was much advance over the very crude one found in the Speed Graphic and Graflex cameras. I've never seen one of these Busch cameras in the flesh so I don't think many were made. I had a Busch Pressman long ago (a burglar go it) it was a fine camera. The Speed Graphic became the defacto standard press camera sometime around the late 1920s. Previously the Graflex SLR was very often used, especially in the 5x7 size. The story, which may be apocryphal, is that a N.Y.Times photog was using his Graflex to photograph an automobile race and was hit and killed by a run- away car because his face was in the hood and he could not see it. The Times forbid the use of Graflex cameras and so did other papers so the Speed Graphic came to the fore. The film of the time tended to be grainy so having a large negative was a virtue. Also, plates and sheet film lent themselves well to rapid processing. Also, the usual technique was to use a powerful flash, stop the lens down, and use the camera as pretty much a fixed-focus or guess focus camera to speed up action. Even if the wanted image was captured on only a corner of the negative it could still be blown up with enough detail for the very low resolution half-tone printing of the time (sometimes with lines drawn around the important parts). After WW-2 smaller cameras began to make inroads. Initially Rolleiflexes started to appear and then 35mm cameras. I was brought up on press cameras. One of my teachers in highschool had been a working press photographer and showed me how to use a Speed Graphic, both to take pictures and as a weapon (metal re-inforced corners). I still like these old dinosaurs and can work pretty fast with one. Of course, modern press work is simply to point your cell phone at the subject and take a low frame rate movie of it. One can then select the right picture. In the old days one had to have a nose for the "right moment".Just a random comment- Today I just happened to watch, on TV, the show about the "21" quizshow where Charles vanDoren and others were found to have been givenanswers to the questions. Maybe half of you will remember it. As I watched the movie, I noticed there were many press cameras and some pretty cheap cameras in the courtroom scenes. From a very young age I wanted a press camera, maybe a Speed Graphic, or something similar. I now realize that having a presscamera would have been a real bother and I would have had no need for one.Are there others who had the same thoughts as a young amateur photographer?DAW-- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles WB6KBL dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
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