PapaTango

PapaTango   

Thanks, PapaTango for the complement regarding silver-based photography. I am 84 and reside with my wife in Anaheim, California. 

As a boy, I worked for a local Photofinisher in Montgomery, Alabama. We processed and printed about 100 rolls of film a day. This was a mix of black&white and color negative and slide film. The developing machines and printers were made by Pako in Minneapolis. I often went to Minneapolis for short courses on color print and processing.  

At 17 I joined the US Air Force. I ran a small reconnaissance photo lab in Korea (1957-60). Discharged in 1960, on my way home, I was told to report to Kodak, Rochester, New York. Kodak had lost a monopoly suite. Seems they sold Kodachrome with a return bag in the box. You must ship the film to Kodak for processing. Kodak lost the suite. They were required to teach how to make and process Kodachrome. After graduating, off to 3M, worked in Auora, Illinois, we Scotch film and a Kodachrome knock-off Dynachrome. 

Next for me, Eckard Drugs in Tampa Bay. Eckerd was a small drugstore chain. In my 15 years at Eckerd, we grew to 3000 stores. Eckerd was sold to CVS. I had built 7 large photofinishing plants. Each sized to do 20,000 rolls of film a day. I began to put one-hour labs in select stores. Got to 200 and Noritsu hired me away. 

Moved to Buena Park, California for the next 15 years. Was Technical Manager North America. Noritsu makes about 80% of the one-hour labs. Makes for Fuji, Konica, Manalta and Kodak.  

Some summers, I worked teaching for the Professional Photographers of America school teaching color print and process. 

Thanks again, 

Alan Marcus 

Alanmaxinemarcus@att.net