Wednesday Walk: Parking Lot Photography
What happened to a giant of film processing, Michael Moore's Midterm predictions, and my favorite Angela Lansbury role
Welcome to the Quarantine Creatives newsletter, a companion to my podcast of the same name, which explores creativity, art, and big ideas as we continue to live through this pandemic.
Every Wednesday, I share random thoughts and tidbits with links to let you do some exploring. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods- the topics are free flowing, sometimes related, sometimes not.
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Fotomat
I wanted to start this week with a quirky story that I happened across recently on YouTube. It follows the story of Fotomat, the drive through photo processing business that grew to prominence in the 1970s.
My older readers may have distinct memories of this chain (I don’t, so I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments). My younger readers are probably barely familiar with the process of taking pictures with film and having it developed at all. It’s so interesting how quickly technology has shifted!
Fotomat buildings were prefabricated and cheap to erect, taking up only about two parking spaces. They were designed with bright gold roofs and became ubiquitous features of shopping center parking lots across the country, with nearly 4,000 locations at the peak of the business.
This YouTube video from Address Unknown not only looks at how Fotomat rose to prominence and the factors that caused it to fade, but it also touches on some of the eccentricities of one of the chain’s founders. Clifford Graham was ousted from the company early on for some questionable business practices, but he had a long history of running cons. He disappeared in 1985 when his scams started to be uncovered and he has not been heard from since.
Beyond the true crime podcast waiting to be made about Clifford Graham, what’s equally as interesting to me is what happened to all of these little outbuildings in the middle of plazas. Most were simply demolished, but many still live on as other businesses that are able to operate in such a small footprint. This blog post from Messy Nessy Chic has a great collection of repurposed Fotomats if you’re interested in learning more.
Michael Moore’s Election Predictions
I will admit that I’ve been a Michael Moore fan for a long time. I remember going to see Bowling for Columbine in theaters and appreciating his willingness to speak truth to power, even if some of his approach felt a little stunty.
Moore publishes a newsletter on the same platform that I do (Substack) and he is currently writing an issue every day about why he expects the Midterms to turn out very differently than how the press is predicting.
To Moore, the media is relying too heavily on conventional wisdom that says the party in power tends to lose the Midterms. He sees factors like a weak slate of candidates on the Republican ticket (Dr. Oz, Herschel Walker) and overturning Roe vs. Wade as a few of the reasons that there will be what he describes as a Democratic “Tsunami” this November.
Moore was one of the few pundits to correctly predict Trump’s election in 2016. We’ll see in less than a month if his predictions this time around hold true, but for now, his daily newsletter is an interesting read and is a nice counterbalance to some of the other takes out there.
If you’re looking to start at the beginning, this is his first post in Mike’s Midterm Tsunami of Truth from about 2 weeks ago and they continue daily from there.
Remembering Angela Lansbury
Finally, I wanted to commemorate the life of Angela Lansbury, who passed away at the age of 96 yesterday. Tributes have been pouring in on social media, but I was especially moved watching this video which Rex Chapman shared:
The video of Lansbury performing the title song from Beauty and the Beast was taken in 2016 when Lansbury was 90 years old, and yet she still sounds as good here as she did in her prime. I got a little emotional watching it.
One of my favorite roles she played was actually her first ever acting job as a maid in the 1944 classic film Gaslight. The role was a minor character part that Lansbury makes jump off the screen. She was nominated for an Oscar for the part and it also helped her land a contract with MGM. Variety has the story of how she was discovered.
If you haven’t seen Gaslight, it’s worth a watch (it’s available to rent on most streaming platforms). It also stars Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. The clip above highlights Lansbury’s talent at the age of 17. She was one of a kind and will be missed.
Other Wednesday Walks
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Stay Safe!
Heath
Fotomat! We must be on the same wavelength because I have something on this very subject coming soon!