The Times of Kodak’s Life

By  |  Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 1:51 am

So Eastman Kodak has declared bankruptcy. Right now, Twitter is like a wake for this most beloved of American companies. I refuse to speak of Kodak in the past tense, though: bankruptcy protection is not a death sentence, and when it says, as it does in its press release, that it intends to “emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company,” I’m rooting for it to do exactly that.

But like everyone else who grew up shooting Kodak film–often in a Kodak camera–I’m feeling wistful about the brand and what it’s meant to me and the world. How about watching a few vintage commercials, including two versions of the once-famous tear-jerker “Turn Around” and ones starring the Nelsons, the cast of Bewitched, Michael Landon, and Bill Cosby?

If you’re in the mood for even more Kodak moments, check out some of the ads which the company ran in Life magazine for decades.

 
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  1. Richard Smith Says:
    January 19th, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    Good point about bankruptcy not being a death sentence, but instead a strategy (still, not a great one). I'm optimistic Kodak will emerge from this, although the Twitter-wake sad factor will likely continue for a while.

    My first digital camera was a Kodak, and before that my first camera ever was a Kodak Disc. I came here in doing research for my own post about the Disc camera from an evolution-of-technology angle, spurred by Kodak’s recent bankruptcy announcement:

    A Snapshot in Time: The Kodak Disc Camera

    I link to your post in my post, and I’d especially appreciate your thoughts in the comments there if you’d care to share. Thanks!