WILLOUGHBYS , i thought they were long gone

[walter_degroot]

i thought that WILLOUGHBYS was gone years ago, yet it came up in a

search. there is a web page, too,

I believe Olden's is gone, too.

[User_1172872]

The name is still with us. I don't believe they have the same owners as the Willoughby's store that was in Manhatten for decades. Until the late 60's for sure, anyone know when they closed their doors?

[dennisprice]

Wow, Willoughby Peerless - that name sure brings back memories...

 

They had a store across from Spiratone and I think another one near Bloomingdales, didn't they?

[stephen_kruft]

There is still a Willoughby's store near Penn Station, or was there recently, but it is or was very small. The huge Willoughby's that was there is long gone. Not sure of Olden's. Another NY store that had good used stuff was Wall Street Cameras, which closed years ago too. B&H is the big one now, like a department store.

[harvey_edelstein1]

I don't believe they are the same owners. A friend of mine father was at one time the camera dept. manager. I went to the inventory liquidation sale and bought a lot of P67 items. I think they dropped the peerless part of the name but are still in the same store.

 

As for Olden, now that was a real grunt photographers store, for the informed a lot of used stuff. I doubt they are still there but I hope someone knows for sure. It brings back the memory of me buying my Leica m4-p body there when Leica ran a rebate sale since they were pushing to make the M5 sell well, which it wasn't. Olden for me seemed to have on staff all the old photo gear salesman in the city who were not ultra-orthodox Hassidic Jews. I felt like I was talking to my grand dad since I was so young at the time.

[harris_goldstein]

I remember going to both Olden's and Willoughbys on a visit to NYC in (I think) the late 60s or early 70s. Both were in their prime.

 

Later, in the 90s, I happened to see Willobughbys again. Different location, much smaller, and apparently no difference then a couple a dozen of the small shops in Manhattan that cater to "unsuspecting" tourists.

[jeffpolaski]

I once visited Olden's in the mid-1980's. A couple months ago we were in the neighborhood (I had looked up the address) and the second floor space they had occupied was vacant. We talked to a neighboring building's dooorman and he said they were gone.

 

What a place it was; piles of equipment to walk around and sometimes you had to duck under it. We lost another such store here in Philadelphia a year ago. Welcome to the 21st Century !!

[david_m]

Willoughby's was around long after most people had assumed it had gone. They went over to computers and electronics and their photo business shrunk almost to nothing. I remember Olden well, they used to have three floors at one time, one just for darkroom stuff. You went up a steep and narrow staircase that was an adventure in itself. Cardboard boxes on the floor full of odds and ends where you could find a case for a Minolta Autocord. A crusty counter with shelves behind that housed who knows what? Anyone remember the nearby 'Camera Barn' store; that was my favourite place.

[vdp]

Willoughbys went under years ago but the name was purchased by the new owners and was a non union shop.

 

Olden indeed is gone -- was it a victim of the success of Ebay?

 

Camera Barn went out of business in the early to mid 90's when the owner Hersch retired.

[steven_zellner1]

Willoughby's is currently located in Manhattan on the south side of 31st street just west of 5th Avenue. It is a Konica-Minolta imaging center (they have some luck).

 

I too remember the old Willoughy's. It was located on west 32nd street across from Gimbels. My dad owned a small handbag manufacturer one block east of the store. When I went to visit him at his factory, and when I was old enough, I was allowed to go to the store all by myself. That, and the fact that my next door neighbor worked for E. Lietz as a repairman, was what got me interested in photography.

 

Although B&H is a fabulous store and is fun to visit, I miss the old Willoughby's. I wish stores like that existed.

[Rich B NYC]

Does that ever bring back memories.

 

The Willoughbys that I shopped in was the Lexington Avenue location. I think that it was on the corner of E 43rd St.

 

Spent many a lunch hour there as I only worked a few blocks away at the time. Their darkroom department had more chemicals than I've ever seen in one place and the sales people knew every one of them.

 

I was in Olden's about a year or so ago (unless I'm aging faster than that) and they are/were only a shadow of what I remembered. My first SLR, a Mamiya/Sekor 1000TL was bought at Olden's around 1968 or so.

 

There are still plenty of camera stores here in NYC, but most are just looking to rip you off. The ones that I use, B&H and Tamarkin(for Leica equipment) are the best I've ever come across. B&H can be a "little" impersonal, but they're hard to beat.

[john_verity1]

Olden Camera has closed, but only in the last couple of months. Gone is its wonderful old

red-neon sign, showing a bellows camera.

I live in So. Orange, NJ, and the owner of the local camera shop has been filling me in on

some history of the old Penn Sta./Herald Square photo district. Olden, he tells me, was

owned by a pair of brothers. One of them supposedly came down with a nose-candy

problem, the other hung onto the store for as long as possible. Seems that many of NY's

camera shop owners, including Ken Hansen himself, got their start at Olden. The Olden

people - named Olden? - actually own(ed) the building where the store was, renting out

the prime ground-floor space and keeping the shop up those narrow stairs.

I have a memory of buying a Miranda Sensomat from Olden back in high school, in late

'60s. I went in from NJ, where I lived, and bought the thing in cash - $135. They mailed it

to me and I will never forget the anticipation. Alas, when the camera finally arrived, I was

let down, but only a little - confirming Oscar Wilde's adage that the only thing worse than

not having what you want is finally getting it. It was actually a great camera - v. good lens,

removeable prism. It still exists, at my mother's house; I will have to retrieve it.

And about 2 years ago, I dropped in to Olden, to see what was cooking. I saw an office

door open away from the shop floor, knocked and introduced myself to the guy behind the

messy desk. He must have been the owner. I told him of buying my Miranda years ago. He

seemed pleased, then told me a story about Miranda, that it was a Japanese camera but

that some guys on Long Island (as I recall) started to import it and even contribute to its

design, asking for this feature and that.

Olden always had an air of the bazaar about it, whole glass cases full of old Leicas and

other strange cameras, old cine units, old lighting and englargers - an amazing selection,

most of it out in the tantalizing open.

I have to say, though, that Camera Barn was my all-time favorite camera shop, on B'way

between 32nd and 33rd (now a Duane Reade drugstore) and another way down on B'way

near Fulton St. (Were there others?) Both places were paradise, as far as I was concerned,

chock full of gear and chemicals and film and old magazines and lots of sales people and

customers yakking away. I used to buy out-of-date film, there - they had boxes of the

stuff out just around the counter, B&W and color. And they had such a great selection of

chemicals and paper. It was a joy, and I truly miss that place. Such a big place in my

childhood. (I used to spend $1.12 round-trip on the Erie-Lackawanna train to Hoboken,

50 cents round-trip on the Path into the city, and then a buck or so for a hot dog and

drink and I could spend all day in the city, shooting and exploring and dreaming of camera

gear and ... well, those were the days. I like to think, now, that I had been rubbing

shoulders with all sorts of famous photogs, there. And I probably was. Eugene Smith lived

just a few blocks south on Sixth Ave., in the flower district.

Willoughby's was another place to visit, but I was always put off by the hustle there.

Spiratone was a gas; cheap paper, a famous vinyl camera bag, and a 400mm f6.3 tele lens

for $34.95 - which the magazines tested and found to be fairly good, especially when

stopped down a little!! Another store: Minifilm, in the Hotel Penn. (which still has its

famous phone number, made famous by Glenn MIller - Pennsylvania-6-4-0-0-0!)

Oh, I do miss the old photo world; it had a certain magic and mystique that is gone,

vanished so swiftly, more swiftly than I ever thought possible, under the influence of the

computer, aka digital photography.

 

At one time, I believe, photography was the most popular hobby in America. Certainly, it

was the perfect hobby for selling people lots of stuff - gadgets, new gizmos guaranteed to

make your pictures better, new films and lenses and bodies and filters and flash

attachments and and developers and toners and reducers and intensifiers. And more. And

so, it was only natural that so many camera stores would open near Herald Square and

around Wall St., where masses of people either worked or passed by on their way to and

from work. Only a few traces remain, if any, and now, with the removal of Olden old neon

sign, one of the more significant ones is gone - to a happy resting place, I truly hope.

 

(One last thought: I have been thinking a good deal about this whole scene, what it

meant to me in my youth, etc., and it occurred to me that for all the photos I took back

then - and I still have my negs, evidently well-fixed and preserved, I am happy to say - I

have none of the camera stores themselves, neither outside or their bustling interiors.

Does anyone out there have any images of these places, any they might share with me for

a writing project I am undertaking? Pls contact me if you do: john.verity@verizon.net. In

the meantime, I am all ears about others' memories of these places and the ambiance.)

[barry_strum1]

I'm an ex-Ny'er, 61 yrs old, living in Cincinnati. Perhaps my fondest memories of growing up in NYC (we lived in the Queens wastelands)was my Saturday sojourns into Manhattan, ostensibly to take a music lesson at the Turtle Bay School of Music, located in a brownstone on a sie street near the U.N. At around age 11, my folks finally felt me ready to make the jopurney on my own.....the # 65 bus to the IND train (the "F" if my memory serves me). I took it to 34th and walked to ther lesson. After the dreaded hour, I made my way uptown. The objective was the IND stop at the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd & 5th. After a short stint in Grand Central, I made my customary pilgrimage to Peerless on Lexington Avenue. My 11th birthday got me a Yashica A.......my parents went half with me on the camera...$29.95. I wore it around my neck on each trip like a million other kids making the same pilgrimage.

 

Perrless was the FAO Schwartz (NYC's temple of toys) of cameras...a down to earth wonderland. The first rush came at the store windows. The main entrance was between two large display windows at 45 degree angles to one another. They contained a glorious array of equipment...the Leicas, Rolleis, Linhoff view cameras, huge Metz flashes with batteries the size of a suitcase, ......and the latest bargain cameras from Japan......the Aires, Yashica, Minoltas....all 35mm rangefinders (we're taling 1957 here). They were piled high for maximum effect.

 

Once inside, I cruised from one counter to another. Thye salesmen were all seasoned guys........they knew who to spend time with.......11 yr old kids never seemed to make the cut unless the store was empty, which it hardly ever was. A good listener did pick up a thing or two.

 

Second level usually had a live model on Saturday. Everyone scrambled for a position. Flashes were going off everywhere. My peers, unless seasoned, street-wise kids, were usually more taken with the fact that an attractive woman in a swinsuit was within a few feet as opposed to the technical challenges of capturing a good shot. Thos of us able to maintaqin a presence of mind, began firing away with our folding fan flash guns................and as a similar refrain to be heard in basic training a decade later, one of the store personnel kept reminding us to police our used flashbulbs.

 

I think there was a lower level devoted to darkroom and lab equipment. Fascinating dream machines...as I was using a contact printer box at home.

 

I distincly remmeber my first Peerless visit after returning from Vietnam. Now I had a Nikon F hanging around my neck and had spent a year doing my main duties (medic), but also getting the opportunity to make some wonderful photogrpahs.

 

Peerless was an education. Willuogby's was over near Macy's & Gimbels............another photo temple. These stores were so much like the music places on W 48th st. .....grond zero for the famous photographers, musicians, whatev er was the dominant interest on the street. NYC kids of that time could get quite an education just browsing though the various areas dedicated to their particular interest. A great time that like so much else in NYC, has been lost to other, more powerful interests. I don't think I'd relish te opportunity to visit the Peerless/Willoughby remnant........likely a sea of little plastic digital boxes and SLR's.........not the same........so it goes.