A ten day road trip from Seattle to Rochester, NY, was filled with visits with friends and family, great road food, bizarre attractions, and more than a few photobooths. In this first of two posts about the trip, I’ll cover the booth locations I found in Seattle, Denver, and Kansas City. 

I had a list of photobooths that had been in Seattle at one time or another, and whether or not they were still there or, if so, if they were dip and dunk or digital, I didn’t know. Before a visit to the EMP, we headed over to the Seattle Center, only to find that both reported booths were digital. Afterwards, we headed to the Fun Forest, where we found one color photobooth in the indoor arcade area. 

After lunch, I decided to check out the Pacific Science Center complex, despite the $10 entry fee. I also managed to leave my debit card in the ATM getting money to use in the booths, but that’s another story… I asked the ticket sellers where the photobooths were, and found two traditional booths among a host of digital offerings. The first photobooth, in Building 4, had a nice red and black exterior and the island scene inside. The second photobooth, inside Building 3, was surrounded by kids and parents waiting in line to try out some new Nintendo games, I think. It was also, unfortunately, out of order.

We left the Seattle Center area and headed to Capitol Hill to walk around, and happened to park right next to a sign on the sidewalk advertising a photobooth inside a store called Galore. I hadn’t had any idea there was a photobooth there, so I’m happy they advertised it. Apparently the store has been around since March, 2005 or so, and the photobooth has been there since the beginning. 

We walked up Broadway a bit to Broadway Market, another location I’d noted from some internet research. Up on the second floor, next to Gold’s Gym, we found the photobooth, a color model. All of the photobooths we came across in Seattle were managed by Photobooth Services.

After leaving Seattle and passing through northern Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, we stopped off to stay with friends in Denver. By chance, we walked by the only bar I knew of in Denver with a photobooth, Sputnik. We hopped in Sputnik’s photobooth with our friends and marveled at the $2 price — go Denver!

The long drive across eastern Colorado and Kansas brought us to Kansas City, where I’d heard word of a photobooth in an underwear boutique. The rumors were true, though the booth wasn’t actually in the store; instead, Birdies’ photobooth was outside the store in an alley, with its own metal roof and customized “Birdies” glass sign. The booth wasn’t working because the shop wasn’t open, but we’ll try it out on a return visit. 

Next up, the great Chicago Photobooth Marathon.

In the August 27 edition of the Asbury Park Press, reporter Shannon Mullen writes about the way the traditional photobooth “quietly endures” despite the passage of time in an article titled “Summer memories are just a snapshot away.”

Mullen interviews kids using the photobooth at Jenkinson’s South Arcade in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey (a location we haven’t yet visited — contributions, anyone?) as well as Photo-Me’s Gary Gulley. She also provides a brief history of the machine, and interviews some older folks with photobooth memories of their own. The article features a larger-than-life-size scan of a photostrip, as well. It’s never too late for a trip to the Jersey Shore, I say.

The article is archived here.

Two recent pieces by writer Joe Bolger in the London Times look at Photo-Me. One, an analysis titled “Brand needs more exposure,” states that the Photo-Me brand, whose “French brand name Photomaton has practically become the generic name for automatic photo booths,” has not succeeded in making Photo-Me a “strong ingredient brand” along the lines of Kodak. Included in the article are ratings given to Photo-Me by FutureBrand, the global brand consulting company, the highest of which was a nine out of ten for both “Innovation” and “Pricing power,” with the lowest, a four out of ten, coming for “Investment returns.”

In the second article, a description of the history of Photo-Me titled “Company working hard to erase image of its not-so-rosy history,” Bolger looks back at the somewhat tumultuous recent history of Photo-Me. Some mis-steps in the switch to digital and some questionable business decisions led to a fall in profits a few years ago. The article concludes with a brief history of the company and its acquisitions:

Photo-Me traces its creation back to 1958, 12 years after the first photo booth was developed. In 1962 it floated on the stock market as Photo-Me International. After its acquisition of KIS, the group went on to buy, in 1998, its rivals Prontophot and Photomaton.

Bolger seems to imply that that the first photobooth was developed in 1946, twenty years after they were first introduced, but the history of the Photo-Me lineage is an interesting story.

As the week comes to a close we’ve got a few tidbits of photobooth news from around the country. First, from the various boroughs of the City of New York, some photobooth-spotting. In a review of L.I.C., Joshua Bernstein of the New York Press reports, “In the overlooked borough, a photo booth makes a fine bedfellow.” We visited L.I.C. and tested out the photobooth there last month; unfortunately, it was out of order, though the bartenders were nice enough to provide an unsolicited refund. 

Mr. Bernstein seems to have a nose for photobooths in the City; earlier this month, he reviewed the Williamsburg watering hole The Bushwick Country Club, and described a walk through the bar: “Cradling my beer, I shuffle past dusty golf clubs and a three-dollar photo booth. It’s ideal for R‑rated pics, but licentiousness must wait.” We have yet to visit the Bushwick, but thanks to the review, it’s on our list for the next visit.

Moving down the coast to the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Maryland, Julie Greene writes an article about unique proposals, including the story of Rob Slocum, who proposed (and showed proof of the father-of-the-bride’s permission) in a photobooth. Slocum apparently “suggested in December 1996 that they get their picture taken in a photo booth for their Christmas card,” and then proposed to his girlfriend, Kelly Boyer.

And finally, from the police blotter of the Lufkin (Texas) Daily News, a report of some photobooth indiscretion, though you have to give it a close read; the incidents are not separated from one another on the page, so it looks like one big, confusing crime:

A security officer at Lufkin Mall reported that two people were in a photo booth, and the girl was partially clothed and the boy was holding her breast. Police officers located the couple and found a photograph depicting what the security officer had described.

The boy was 19 years old and the girl 16. The incident is still under investigation, according to a police report.

Shades of the Kentucky amusement park affair of 2000…

Photostrips are interesting for many reasons; one important reason is their one-of-a-kind nature. No negative means no duplicates can be made without scanning and re-printing, making a photostrip a unique item. If they are indeed authentic, then the nine photos of B‑grade celebrities being offered on eBay mark a mildly interesting find. The names read like a ‘who’s who’ of afternoon TV reruns: Barbara Eden, immortalized in a cut-off shirt and parachute pants in “I Dream of Jeannie”; Erik Estrada, “the brown-haired one” from “CHiPs”; Tina Louise, Ginger from “Gilligan’s Island”; and six others. The seller reports that the photos were taken in a photobooth at a “private studio in Los Angeles” in 2002.

The seller somehow manages to spell nearly every name wrong, but the point is there. The other six whose photos are up for auction are Drew Carey (not “Cary”), Dylan (not “Dillon”) McDermott, Shannen Doherty (not “Shannon Dougherty”), Jean-Claude van Damme (“Dame”?), Howie (not “Harvey”) Mandel, and John Mahoney (well done, though he was on “Frasier,” not “Fraiser.” Damn). These “CELEBERTIY” photos have an opening bid of $25 — let’s see how high they go.

Out in San Diego this weekend for a wedding, we had a little free time to see what four-photo magic San Diego has to offer. The verdict? Not too shabby, actually.

My first stop was the The Museum of Photographic Arts, located where every other museum in San Diego lives, in Balboa Park. Next to the San Diego Historical Society and above the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the MoPA is an interesting, if small, museum dedicated to photography. The gift shop features a wide array of photography books, picture frames, gifts, and not one but two photobooths. Side by side near the front entrance, a generic black and gray striped color booth and a beautiful rounded-end Model 11 B&W booth provide museum-goers with the opportunity to take both black-and-white and color photos, each for only $2. The photos aren’t perfect, but they’re certainly unique, and the price and convenience of these two booths in one place makes the MoPA a photobooth haven. On the outside of the black-and-white booth, a plaque tells users that the booth is similar to ones that they may have seen at a variety of California five-and-dime stores years ago. On the outside of the color booth hangs a photocopy of a San Diego paper article mentioning the booths (the article that had clued me in to their presence in the first place), as well as a mention from a school magazine about a photography class that took a field trip to the museum (and the booth).

Next up on the list was the Corvette Diner in Hillcrest. The only diner I’ve seen with valet parking, the Corvette was by far the busiest business around at 11am on a Saturday. Decorated with everything ’50s, neon, and retro, the diner is more than just a dining experience: a waiter throws a handful of straws at a table of children as a way of saying “hello,” waitresses in poodle skirts wear vests covered in flair, and portraits of every ’50s and ’60s icon from Sinatra to Buddy Holly to the Beatles, rendered a la Warhol, hang from the walls. In the lunch counter area in the front of the restaurant, just to the left of the stairs up to the main eating area, sits another gorgeous rounded-end Model 11. It takes crisp black-and-white photos, and looks to have been serviced a little more recently than the similar booth at the MoPA.

The next stop was Belmont Park, an amusement park in Mission Bay, just north of downtown San Diego. Home to an 80 year-old roller coast named the Giant Dipper, Belmont Park is a small amusement park with perhaps three rides in addition to the coaster. An indoor arcade features a digital photobooth, and I found two traditional booths located outside as I walked closer to the beach itself. The first booth is located in front of Waves Beach and Sportwear, and though it sounded like it was working, the green light wasn’t on, and the bill acceptor wasn’t accepting any bills. The booth was open on both sides, and a nice breeze blew through, brushing the curtains against me as I sat and unwisely dropped a quarter in the slot, just to see.

On the other side of the boardwalk, in front of the Krazy Kars building and under the shadow of the spinning pendulum ride, I found another outdoor color booth, with its little peaked roof and curtains on both sides. This booth was working, and came with the bonus of an abandoned strip in the drying slot. I took a few strips as the wind blew the curtain into the frame — not a problem you usually have to deal with — and called in the broken booth to Photo-Me.

The next day, I followed up on a rumor about a photobooth in a Kmart on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in San Diego; unfortunately, the Kmart has become a “Sears Essentials” store, and I didn’t bother going in to check whether they’d retained their booth.

The last day of my trip to San Diego, I had a half hour to kill before brunch, and stopped in a used cd store to look around. A cd caught my eye: both the front and back covers were made up of a grid of old photobooth photos. Cool, I thought, and I held onto it while I browsed some more. Five minutes later, another album caught my eye: this one had five strips of photos, assembled together as a grid forming a single image. Same only different on the back cover, and more inside. What are the chances? I looked around for another, and came close with a few images on a Best of Everclear disc, but it only had one or two images, not enough for my newly-high standards. The DJ Shitbird and Wannadies albums will be posted in the Music section as soon as we create one. Well done San Diego!

CNN reports on an interesting feature of the latest “Dead” film from director George Romero. Edgar Wright and Shaun Pegg, the director/co-writer and star/co-writer, respectively, of last year’s zombie homage Shaun of the Dead, have cameo roles in Romero’s new film Land of the Dead. Carrying on the long tradition of the “photo booth cameo,” Wright and Pegg have a brief moment on screen as zombies at a photo booth. The IMDb entry for the film helpfully lists their official credited character names, both “Photo Booth Zombie.” We’ll be looking for the DVD release for screen captures.

Photobooth.net was on a mission this weekend, hitting four photobooth locations in three boroughs in one long afternoon, with a net result of twelve dollars spent, nine dollars refunded, three broken photobooths, one threat of arrest, and one photostrip. Not a bad haul, but not exactly what we were looking for.

Having met Bill from Photo-Me a few weeks ago, I called him up and asked him to leave me a message with some photobooth locations in the City, which he kindly did. I’d been to a few before, but most were unfamiliar, and I headed out to Long Island City in Queens to tackle the bar known, coincidentally, as L.I.C.. Great bar, well-placed photobooth, but no luck getting a strip of photos to come out. I went through everything twice, heard the blow-dryer come on, but no photos came out. The bartender was nice enough to give me my money back, without me even asking, and I think they’ll be getting someone in there to take a look at it for future bar-goers.

From L.I.C., I walked to the G line station and hopped the train down to the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn, in search of a color booth I’d heard they had. I passed a digital booth near the entrance, and came upon a traditional booth in the center food area at the base of the escalators. The booth itself was broken, and I snapped a photo of its ‘out of order’ sign. When I stepped back to take a photo of the booth itself, a security guard approached and asked me what I was doing. He told me it was “against the mall” for me to take photos, and even after I dropped the “Photo-Me” name and showed him my list (albeit scrawled on the back of a grocery list) he didn’t budge, but even went so far as to warn me I could be arrested for taking photos of mall property. Oh well.

From Brooklyn, I headed back into Manhattan and stopped off in the West Village to check out the booth at The Fat Black Pussycat. The bar was open but the lounge area wasn’t, but when I asked the bartender if the photobooth was still around, he let me into the lounge to take some photos. Like a bad case of déjà vu, the booth went through the motions but produced no photos. Rather than throw more money at it, I let the bartender know it wasn’t working, and felt around on the top of the booth, where I came up with some discarded strips from an evening sometime in the past. The bartender kindly refunded my money, again un-solicited, and I stayed to drink a Yuengling’s and watch Derek Jeter’s first career grand slam in an otherwise empty bar.

Up the West Side I went, heading for location number four, The Door Lounge. I had a little time to kill before it opened, and enjoyed watching traffic for the Lincoln Tunnel go absolutely nowhere for ten minutes on 9th Avenue in front of the bar. I also watched the legendary Wallace Shawn get unceremoniously honked at by some clod in an SUV before getting into a taxi. He looked like any other somewhat old New York guy clutching a plastic bag and minding his own business. It was a moment.

Once I got in The Door, so to speak, the booth worked fine, nice crisp color, and I had my first legitimate success of the day. The other booths in clubs and bars around the City will have to wait until the next trip; if any of our readers would care to visit Crobar, Lot 61, or Southpaw, take a photo of the booth and some photos of yourselves and send it our way.

American Amusement Co. seems to be selling a color photo booth again.

We reported on the sale of the booth in April, and the auction ended successfully with a winning price of $872.55, but for whatever reason, the booth is back on the market. Hopefully, the sellers aren’t selling a different booth but using an old set of photos.

Once again, the sellers have set a five day auction, beginning with an opening bid of one dollar, and featuring no reserve price. Bargain photobooth hunters could get a real prize with this one, unless there’s something we don’t know. The other stuff featured in the photos doesn’t seem to be included, but it might be worth asking.

We have often lamented the lack of simple, properly-sized frames for photobooth strips. Someone could make a killing with a nice, clean frame that perfectly fits the traditional four-pose strip.

So it was with some interest this week that we came across a raft of frames on eBay, purpose-made for individual photos from photobooths. These classic designs, featuring reverse-painted glass and printed messages above and below the photos, date from the 1940s. The frames, many of which feature a period photo still inside, are made of glass and metal, and measure approximately 3″ x 4″. The items for sale include a frame with a floral theme, and frames with messages that include “Remember Me,” “Thinking of You,” “Long May It Wave,” “For Victory,” and “Victory” (at right). With a starting bid of $9.99 each, these unique, striking frames are sure to go.