[rollei_list] Re: (OT) Rilex Press Cameras
- From: David Sadowski <dsadowski@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:29:55 -0500
In the 1980s and 90s I worked for LaSalle Photo here in Chicago, at
one time the largest independent photofinisher in the Midwest. This
was a family business started by William T. Yamamoto, a
Japanese-American who had been in an internment camp during WWII.
He got started in the photofinishing business as a nightclub
photographer, developing film in his bathtub. Eventually, he had
enough of a business to hire a delivery person, who was as I recall a
kid on a bicycle. Things grew from there and eventually nearly every
mom-and-pop camera store or drug store in the whole region used LP.
Mr. Yamamoto (or "Bill" or BY as everyone called him) was very loyal
to Kodak paper, chemistry, and products. He had great offers to
switch to Fuji but refused. For a few years, in the late 1980s, he
even had his own Kodachrome line and had to keep a chemist on
full-time, since some of the chemicals were mixed from scratch.
Times changed and eventually the days of the big centralized lab were
over. There are condos now where the lab once stood at 1700 West
Diversey.
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