The Chicago Cluster
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Those who appreciate and collect vintage bakelite cameras frequently make a curious discovery: First, a surprising number of simple plastic cameras seem to have originated from Chicago, Illinois, USA. And second, when compared closely, a number of these models (ostensibly coming from different manufacturers) have body styles which look practically identical.
Contents
The Chicago puzzle
In fact, several of these brand names can be linked directly to one particular address: 711–715 West Lake St., Chicago, as noted in period advertisements or the manuals included with cameras. But even where the address is unknown, it seems quite clear that many of the Chicago camera models emerged from exactly the same set of molds, casting doubt on the supposed separate identities of their makers.
Camera-wiki.org has listed several of these "companies" on their own pages. But this article is an effort to consolidate this bewildering swarm of brand and model names into a single page: and to cross-reference body styles with alleged company names, using examples that have been observed on Flickr, eBay and elsewhere. In all cases, these are simple "snapshot" cameras, with the greatest variety being the many models for 127 film in the eye-level "minicam" style which pays homage to the successful 35mm Argus A.
History
Many questions still require further research, but a few facts seem clear. Utility Manufacturing Co. originated several bakelite camera models under its brand Falcon in the 1930s. Utility gave its address as 40 West 25th St., New York City[1]. But certain camera models that were unquestionably made by Utility also appeared under other "company" names, the start of a practice that would explode in later years.
Already in 1940, cameras were being sold from 711 W. Lake Street, Chicago[2] by Monarck/Monarch (choose your spelling; the company used both). Many Monarch models have also been observed branded with names of other "manufacturers." Furthermore, by the mid 1940s, Falcon models were reappearing branded as Spartus—or, if even still under the Utility/Falcon name, now marked as made in Chicago—with the Spartus home address given as 711 (or 715) W. Lake St. Confusingly, some early advertisements give Spencer as the company name behind Spartus brand cameras[3].
Spartus Corp. was a successful Chicago manufacturer of clocks and razors. It was owned by Jack Galter, onetime Jazz drummer and serial entrepreneur. Eventually Galter accumulated significant real estate holdings, and in later years became a significant Chicago-area philanthropist. A Galter Products Co. also operated from 715 W. Lake St., including clocks and cameras in its offerings.
At some time in the early 1950s, Spartus was sold to Harold Rubin, who gave it the name to Herold Products Company, Inc., but continued using the Spartus brand on clocks and cameras[4]. And to tie this all into an impossible tangle, There is at least one printed manual for the Spartus Full-Vue which shows "Herold Manufacturing Co., Not Incorporated" as the company, 715 W. Lake as the address, whose cover shows a camera which is plainly labeled Galter Products under its taking lens[5].
By the 1960s Herold Products had reverted to Spartus as the company name, and it continued its clock production for many years (with later models showing Louisville, Mississippi as the company address).
It cannot be conclusively shown that all the camera brands listed here are products of the Falcon/Spartus/Herold group. But the many overlaps of body style between this group and the other "company" names is strongly suggestive.
The appearance of the Chicago cameras under a plethora of different names was facilitated by printing all the camera's identifying branding onto a single circular plate which was held to the front of the lens barrel by two screws. It is possible that the circular lens-shutter assemblies seen on so many of these cameras (with an instant/time selector at approximately the 4 o'clock position) were themselves provided by another subcontractor, and simply "bolted on" to molded bodies from different shops.
The motivations for creating so many quasi-fictional brands can only be guessed at. Perhaps it was to offer certain distributors a brand that was exclusively theirs. Perhaps it was to avoid negative word-of-mouth over what were, after all, very basic cameras with rudimentary optics. In any case, the same approach would one day be adopted by Hong Kong's manufacturers of cheapie cameras, giving us the many names of the Diana or the Bedfordflex.
Dual red windows
Many of the cameras here are designed to use 127 film, but in "half frames." This was an economy measure first seen in depression-era cameras. The backing paper of 127 film has rows of frame numbers printed onto it; these align with red frame-counting windows on the back of the camera. But rather than exposing eight standard frames per roll, many of the "minicams" here would split each frame in half: Every frame number would be advanced first to one, then to the other red window. This yielded 16 exposures per roll (although it made the orientation of the rectangular frame vertical rather than horizontal). The resulting frame size is roughly 3×4 cm.
Body styles
These groupings are based on the designs of body moldings: i.e. the decorative ribbing and other motifs; the film compartment locations, etc.
These groups may be further subdivided according to variations of viewfinders, knobs, lenses, plastic colors, etc.
| Camera image | Lens name | Model names ("Company") | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Minivar | Falcon Miniature (Utility) Falcon Deluxe (Utility) Girl Scout Falcon (Utility) Minifoto Junior (Candid Camera Supply) Rex (Utility) | ||
|
Graf | Acro-Flash (Herold) Beauta Miniature Candid Besta Brenda Starr Cub Reporter (Seymour) Churchill Dasco Dick Tracy (Seymour) Falcon Miniature (Falcon) Falcon Minicam Senior (Falcon) Falcon Minette (Falcon) Flash-Master (Seymour) Hopalong Cassidy (Galter) Mar-Crest (Mar-Crest Mfg.) Photo Craft (March) Photo Master Pickwik Remington Sunbeam Minicam (Sunbeam) Waldorf | ||
|
Graf | Falcon Miniature (Utility) | ||
|
Minivar | Falcon Minicam Junior (Utility) Oxford Minicam (H.E. Shaw) Packard Minicam (Packard) Waldorf Minicam (Waldorf) | ||
|
Graf Rollax |
Acro Acro-Flash (Herold) Beauta Miniature Candid Cinex (King Sales) Da-Brite Falcon Miniature (Falcon) Flash-Master (Herold) Flash-Master (Seymour) Photo Master Regal (Galter) Remington Miniature Camera Wit-Eez (Wittie) | ||
|
Graf | Candex Miniature (General Products Co.) Candex Junior (General Products Co.) Monark Pickwik | ||
|
Graf | Candid Flash Camera (Flash Camera Co.) Fleetwood (Monarch) Vogue (Monarch) | ||
|
? | Champion (Camera Man) Drexel Junior (Drexel) Leecrest (Lee) The President (Camera Man) | ||
|
Graf | Carlton (Utility) Falcon Rocket (Falcon) Majestic (Spencer) Rocket by Weimet (Weimet) Spartus 127 Sunbeam | ||
|
Maestar | Barry (Barry) Capitol Cinéx (Craftsmen) Clix Deluxe (Metropolitan) Five Star Candid (Five Star) Metro-Cam (Metropolitan) Photo-Craft (Altheimer Baer) Regal Miniature Super Foto (Consolidated Ind.) | ||
|
Maestar | Clix-O-Flex (Metropolitan) Hamilton Super-Flex Metro-Flex (Metropolitan) Mirro-Flex (Metropolitan) | ||
|
Graf | Dasco Faultless Miniature (Bernard)[6] Flex-Master (Monarch) Kandõ Reflex (Monarch) Longchamp (Boumsell—France) Namco Multi-Flex (North American) Pickwik Remington Flex-Master (Monarch) Royal Reflex (Monarch) | ||
|
Graf Graf Achromat Minivar |
Color-Flex (Monroe) Falcon-Flex (Utility) Flex-Master (Monarch) |
Company names
To be included here, a company must have offered at least one model that also appeared under a completely different "company" name. Most of the names in this list seem to have been pure marketing fictions. It is possible a few real, independent manufacturers have been inadvertently included here.
- Acro[7]
- Allied Camera Supply (=Utility)
- Altheimer and Baer Inc.
- Barry Products Co.
- Beauta (might be read as company rather than model)
- Bernard Products
- Bournsell (France)
- The Camera Man
- Cinex (might be read as company rather than model)
- Consolidated Industries
- Da-Brite (might be read as company rather than model)
- Drexel Camera Co.
- Elgin Laboratories
- Falcon Camera Co.
- Five Star Camera Co.
- Flash Camera Co.
- Fotax (Sweden)
- Galter Products Co.
- General Products Co.
- Hamilton (might be read as company rather than model)
- Herold Mfg. Co.
- King Sales Co.
- Lee Industries
- Mar-Crest Mfg. Corp.
- The March Corp.
- Marvel Products
- Metropolitan Industries
- Monarch/Monark
- Monroe Sales
- National Silver
- North American Mfg. Co.
- Packard
- Photo Laboratories
- Photo Master (might be read as company rather than model)
- Pickwik (might be read as company rather than model)
- Remington (might be read as company rather than model)
- Rolls Camera Mfg. Co.
- Seymour Products Co. (Seymour Sales Co.; Seymore Products Co.)
- H. E. Shaw & Co
- Spartus Camera Corp.
- Spencer Co.
- Sterling (might be read as company rather than model)
- Sunbeam (might be read as company rather than model)
- Utility Mfg. Co. (New York, then Chicago; many models stradle both cities)
- Waldorf Camera Co.
- Weimet Photo Products (New York)
- Wholesale Photo Supply
- Wittie Mfg. & Sales Co.
Camera models
(Followed by "company" names)
A–E
- Acro (Acro)
- Acro-Flash (Herold)
- Barry (Barry)
- Besta
- Beauta Miniature Candid multiple styles
- Brenda Starr Cub Reporter (Seymour)
- Candex Junior (General Prods.)
- Candex Miniature (General Prods.)
- Candid Flash Camera (Flash Camera Co.)
- Capitol
- Carlton Reflex (Allied)
- Champion (Camera Man)
- Churchill
- Cinéx (Craftsman, King, Spartus—also models from Cardinal and Imperial—baffling! ) multiple styles
- Clix Deluxe (Metropolitan)
- Clix-O-Flex (Metropolitan) multiple styles
- Clix Master (Metropolitan
- Clix Miniature (Metropolitan)
- Clix Supreme (Metropolitan)
- Color-Flex (Monroe, Photo Laboratories)
- Congress
- Da-Brite
- Dasco
- Davy Crockett
- Dick Tracy (Seymour) multiple faceplates
- Drexel Junior (Drexel)
F–L
- Falcon Deluxe (Falcon)
- Falcon Deluxe Miniature (Falcon)
- Falcon-Flex (Utility)
- Falcon Miniature (Falcon, Utility) multiple styles
- Falcon Minicam Junior (Falcon, Utility)
- Falcon Minicam Senior (Utility) metal and bakelite styles
- Falcon Minette (Falcon, Utility)
- Falcon-Abbey Electricamera (Utility)
- Falcon Press Flash (Utility)
- Falcon Rocket (Falcon)
- Faultless Miniature (Bernard)[6]
- Five Star Candid (Five Star)
- Flash-Master (Herold, Seymour)
- Fleetwood (Monarch)
- Flex-Master (Monarch) multiple styles
- Fowell Cinefilm
- Full-Vue (Spartus, Galter)
- Girl Scout Falcon (Utility)
- Hamilton Super-Flex
- Hopalong Cassidy (Galter) multiple styles
- Kandõ Reflex (Monarch)
- Leecrest (Lee)
- Longchamp (Bournsell—France)
M-P
- Majestic (Spencer)
- Mar-Crest (Mar-Crest)
- Marvette (Marvel Products)
- Metrocam (Metropolitan)
- Minifoto Junior (Candid Camera Supply)
- Mirro-Flex (Metropolitan)
- Monarch (Monarch)
- Monarch 620 (Monarch)
- Monarck (Monarch) multiple styles
- Multi-Flex Mirro (North American)
- Namco Multi-Flex (North American)
- National Miniature (National Silver)
- Oxford Minicam Junior (H.E. Shaw)
- Packard Minicam (Packard)
- Photo Master multiple styles
- Photo Master Super 16 Twin 620 (Photo Master)
- Pickwik multiple styles
- Picta Twin 620 (Rolls)
- President (Camera Man)
Q-Z
- Regal (Galter)
- Regal Flash Master
- Regal Miniature multiple styles
- Remington (Deluxe Prods., or unlabeled) multiple styles
- Rex (Utility)
- Rocket by Weimet (Weimet)
- Rolls (Rolls)
- Rolls Twin 620 (Rolls)
- Royal Reflex (Monarch)
- Silver King (Camera Man) multiple faceplates
- Spartus 127
- Spartus Full-Vue (Spartus, Galter)
- Spartus Miniature (Wholesale Photo Supply)
- Spartus Press Flash (Spartus, Galter) multiple faceplates
- Spartus Six Twenty multiple styles
- Sterling Miniature
- Sunbeam (Harold, or unlabeled) multiple styles
- Sunbeam 127
- Super Foto (Consolidated)
- Vogue (Monarch)
- Waldorf Minicam (Waldorf)
- Wit-Eez (Wittie)
Notes
- ↑ A May 1940 advertisement from Popular Photography (Vol. 6, No. 5; page 57) shows this address.
- ↑ This June 1940 advertisement for Monarck gives 711 W. Lake Street as the company address (Popular Photography magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6; page 107). It must be noted that the "Flexmaster" looks suspiciously like the Falcon-Flex and the "Lincoln" like a Falcon Miniature.
- ↑ In this 1947 ad for Spartus cameras, note "The Spencer Company" at 715 West Lake Street is shown as the company name at the bottom of the page.
- ↑ An advertisement from December 1955 promotes the Spartus Full-Vue camera, a Spartus clock, and an electric razor (Life magazine Dec 12, 1955; Vol. 39, No. 24; page 56). The address given for Herold Products is 2110 W. Walnut St, Chicago, which is a couple of miles west of 711–715 W Lake St.
- ↑ Spartus Full-Vue manual from Mike Butkus' OrphanCameras.com
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bernard Products Co. was a real company. However the Faultless Miniature resembles other Chicago pseudo TLRs (e.g. the Monarch Royal Reflex) but turned 90° and omitting the brilliant finder.
- ↑ Acro Scientific Company was located at 1414 South Wabash in Chicago. In 1940 they offered the Acro Model R, which was a fairly sophisticated rangefinder camera. It is possible that the "minicam" Acro is a coincidental (or deliberate) reuse of the name by unrelated parties.
