This is a fairly old story, but one we had yet to cover here on Photobooth.net. On March 13, 2005, CBS News aired a segment about photobooths on their “Sunday Morning” show, featuring interviews with, among others, Babbette Hines, Brett Ratner, and Sonny Pham from Photo-Me. Host Bill Whitaker visited various photobooth locations in the Los Angeles area, and spoke with Ratner about his booth, his friends, and his book.

The online version of the story, titled “Fun and Freedom in the Photo Booth” is a transcription of the dialogue from the piece. Strangely, it did not appear online until July 31, 2005, for unknown reasons.

Host Charles Osgood and correspondent Bill Whitaker take a needlessly naive approach to the photobooth, with ‘aw shucks’ phrases like the opening line from the report: “Those cheesy, old photo booths from everybody’s past, you know, the ones from strip malls and bus stations? Those old things are making a comeback. Suddenly they’re trendy, they’re hot.” To their credit, though, the CBS team do manage to cover a number of recent appearances by photobooths in the mainstream media, and they talk to some key players in the recent resurgence of the booth. We also see many shots of people getting into and emerging from photobooths, one of which, after careful scrutiny, I’ve identified as the photobooth at Union Pool in Brooklyn.

Rightly or wrongly, Brett Ratner takes a lot of credit for the popularity of the photobooth — Whitaker tells him “Your idea is taking over the world” and he doesn’t argue — and he ends the piece with this bit of wisdom: “Nothing else could have afforded me the meaningful moments and more instant gratification than that simple, beaten up, magical booth” — the last line of the foreword to his book.

UPDATE: Contrary to the opening line of this entry, we had in fact covered this story before; Tim made a note of the fact that the story aired, but found no more than a quick sentence about the report on the CBS website. Three months later, a full story appeared online, and three months after that, I finally got around to mentioning it. All in good time.

In the last week, on my street alone, I’ve come across three interesting examples of advertisements featuring photobooth strips as an integral part of their message. Now, admittedly, I’m keeping my eye out for this, but it’s still a remarkable fact, proof that at least in the advertising world, the photobooth isn’t going anywhere.

The first example comes from a shop about a block away that sells everything from gourmet candy to housewares to high-end body products. Atop a tower holding Kiehl’s hair products, I spied a promotional pamphlet with four photobooth photos on the back. When I picked it up and looked at it, I found out that it held half a dozen cards inside, each with a different person modeling a different conditioner, mousse, or gel in a photobooth.

The second advertisement I spotted in Spin Magazine as I waited to get my hair cut a little further down the same street a few days later. An ad for Journeys, a clothing and shoe retailer, it showed a security tub full of a traveler’s possessions about to go through an airport x‑ray machine. Thrown in with some Adidas products and travel-related items was a strip of four black and white photobooth photos.

FInally. a more homegrown kind of ad: as I’ve walked out of my house to go to school every day this past week, I’ve spotted a handmade flyer for a show that happened in the area on September 24th. The Know-How, a Florida-based ska band (supported by a band with a simply great name, the Levar Burtones) use a strip of photobooth photos as the only image on the flyer, which is taped to a power pole on my street.

Kiehl’s, Journeys, and the Know How: great minds think alike?

An Auto-Photo Studio Model 20 black and white photobooth has been made available on eBay this week. We failed to see the item for a few days, but it’s up for another 36 hours or so, so if anyone is interested, the bidding is currently at $2150.

The photobooth, described as “works good,” is currently in Ocean City, Maryland, and is illustrated with a half-dozen haphazard photographs. Let’s hope this isn’t one of the few remaining Ocean City booths departing for good before we’d even had a chance to visit them.

In addition, the seller of this booth is also offering a rebuilt transmission for a model 14 photobooth, currently at $150, with no bids (and no photos or detailed description).

The Neiman Marcus Christmas Book (don’t be fooled, it’s a catalog) came out today, and the rumors we heard are true: for a mere $20,000 you could be the proud owner of a custom-designed vintage color photobooth. Based on the photograph in the catalog, it looks like they have done a nice job retro-fitting the outside of the booth, but to the careful observer, the handiwork of Tom Rockowski is still quite evident.

Though it is new to me, it looks like Neiman Marcus has a section in each year’s catalog (er… book) dubbed “Fantasy Gifts.” We are proud that the photobooth is getting the respect it deserves and is included in this year’s selection of gifts alongside such items as a private concert by Sir Elton John ($1.5 mil), a prototype of a personal flying machine ($3.5 mil), and a life-size Indy500 simulator ($65,000).

If any of you decide to fulfill said fantasy, let us know — we’d love to see what they did to the inside and get a better glimpse of the new side panels. And just so you know: Brian and I would prefer you not spend that much money on us for Christmas, but since it is for a good cause, we would be willing to make this one exception.

Update: The Neiman Marcus photobooth has been getting some press, including mentions in sources as varied as The Boston Herald (“…delivers classic strip of four photos, just like the one at the carney”) and Harlingen, Texas’ KGBT 4 News (“…a customized Neiman Marcus exterior and is high-tech enough to ensure I‑D quality color photographs”).

Photo-Me International is in the news again (see a previous story or two); this time, it’s their board of directors that is under scrutiny, described in the Guardian as an “old boy’s network.” The story concerns Conservative Member of Parliament Hugo Swire’s position on the board, something The PIRC Corporate Governance Service doesn’t look kindly on.

I was initially confused by the name “Pirc” as it’s written in the story, but then I realized it’s part of British (and other?) newspapers’ custom, as far as I can tell, of spelling out with upper and lower case letters acronyms that are pronounced as words. In UK papers it’s Aids and Nafta, but it’s still the BBC and the BFI. But that’s another story…

The photobooth owes much of its longevity (and perhaps more of its economic viability) to the various passport photo requirements throughout the world. We learned from a recent CBC news story that Canada’s photobooth boom was a direct result of the photo requirement to gain entry into Montreal’s World’s Fair in 1967. We are also aware of the frequent use of photobooths to procure international passports, driver’s licenses, gun licenses, and the like.

In a saddening announcement, the UK government issued new guidelines that prohibit smiling in your passport photos. Apparently this was done to aid security systems in their attempt at face recognition. (I can’t decide whether to be impressed or frightened)

All of that to say.… it is a sad day for the photobooth.

more…

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.