Langtry's Pharmacy- Cinema Advertising Slide

Description

Kodacolor was one of the first colour print films- meaning that the finished photos were put into an album or picture frame instead of being projected onto a wall (i.e. slide film). Kodacolor was introduced in 1942, but the war meant that it wasn't widely available until the 1950s.

Unlike slide film, print film tends to be a bit more tolerant of mistakes in exposure- hence why the ad promoted that 'any camera' could use it- even the simple snapshot models which didn't have the controls to cope with slide film. But, because making prints from negatives cost a lot of money, most colour film photographers still used slide film.

All this was only relevant if you could afford colour film at all- up until the late 1950s many snapshooters stuck with black and white. However, by the mid 1970s over 90% of snapshots taken in Western Countries were in colour. Cheaper processing meant that at lots of these were now print films.

The original Kodacolour print film was discontinued in 1963, so we know that this slide was made before then. The 'Kodacolour' name was still being used for colour films right up until the end of the 1980s.

A 1950s advertisement for Langtry's Pharmacy boasts of their photo developing service which could return your film in twenty four hours. Online records suggest that Langtry's shop was demolished in 1975, but this is to be confirmed.

Identification

Object type

Image

Date

1950s