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One of the easiest ways to take photographs is to go to your local store and buy a disposable camera. But what if you lived in 1901 instead of 2001? What if you were a kid and wanted to take some pictures of you and your friends at the beach?
Kodak recently celebrated the 101st year anniversary of the Brownie camera. The first Brownie camera debuted in February 1900 and cost a dollar! It was designed and marketed to children.
The name for the camera came from a popular children's culture character of the time named Brownie. The Brownie was the 1900's equivalent of today's Pokeman. Every child knew the Brownie characters by name just by looking at an illustration.
In order to promote the use of the Brownie camera for kids, Mr. George Eastman had boldly entered a new realm of marketing for photography. He focused his marketing efforts strictly towards children. He thought beyond the U.S. borders and encouraged kids around the world to join the "Brownie Photo Club."
The Brownie photo club encouraged children to participate in photo contests and win prizes. Kodak's marketing experiment paid off with a loyal audience of children thrilled at the idea of becoming ace photojournalists, secret agents and world-renowned photographers.
Within the first year of Kodak's introduction of the Brownie camera, 150,000 cameras were shipped out all over the world. Prior to the introduction of the Brownie camera, Kodak's best selling model had shipped only 50,000. Kodak continued to manufacture the Brownie for the next 70 years.
The first Brownie camera was a simply made camera. It was a box camera with a very basic lens structure and film retrieval system. However, the Brownie started to grow beyond its intended audience and wind up in the hands of adults as well. The design was kept simple so that everyone could use it with ease.
The most common Brownie cameras people can find for sale today are Brownie models 1, 2, 3, Hawkeye and junior Hawkeye. They run anywhere from $10-30 dollars. If you like to experiment with photography, the box models like the 1, 2 and 3 are abundant and make excellent pinhole cameras.
The more exotic Brownies that come up on the marketplace are the 1939 World's Fair model, the official Boy Scouts model, the Beau models and the Coca-Cola model. These Brownies are more unusual and run anywhere from $100-300 per camera.
If you have an old Brownie at home and wish to do a little research on your camera and its value, I strongly suggest visiting the Brownie Camera page at http://www.members.aol.com/Chuck02178/brownie.htm . Chuck runs an excellent site and is more than happy to answer any questions you might have.
If you just want a stroll down memory lane, check out Kodak's Brownie Anniversary page at http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/brownieCam/brownieCam.shtml .
I'd like to say, Happy Birthday to the Brownie camera. Thank you for all the smiles you gave millions of people young and old for 101 wonderful years.
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