Speaking of drug store film processing, I had my first ever roll of film processed at Hook’s Dependable Drug Stores. This chain was an Indiana institution for many decades, until consolidation began to happen in the industry. It sold to Revco in the late 90s if I recall correctly, and Revco sold to CVS.
I found this commercial for Hook’s photo finishing online. It’s from 1980.
I love seeing anything related to photography from years ago and this commercial is a good find, but it’s so annoying to see the camera being held so badly.
It’s what happens when you pay an actor, not a photographer, to handle the camera!
I was three when this was made and I never shopped at Hooks but this made my day. Happy Monday, Jim!
And to think the day is young yet!
I fear this may have been the peak!
Jim, the Jim Gerard show was a staple at my house when I was a kid, lots of artists, and other guests, done live if I recall. I think his show was on the air for 20+ years.
I’d never heard of the man before I saw this commercial! I’m sure I saw him on Hook’s spots as a kid in South Bend, however.
I grew up in Central Indiana and I remember well The Jim Gerard Show, one of many locally-produced programs in the 1960s and ’70s. Even as a young boy, I admired Gerard’s wonderful broadcasting voice, secretly hoping that when I grew up my voice would sound like his. (I’m all grown up now. It doesn’t.)
However, as a teenager I began to take note of how professional broadcasters and well-trained public speakers enunciate their words, project their voices, and use various inflections to accentuate their speaking. I incorporated some of those mechanisms into my own speaking behavior, had a small amount of formal training over the years, and trained myself to speak in a manner that occasionally will result in someone asking, “Hey, have you ever worked in radio?” The answer to that, by the way, is “Yes, but it was only a part-time gig that lasted a year or so.” Thanks go to Jim Gerard for the seed of inspiration. He couldn’t have known it, but he helped me improve myself in a small, but meaningful way.
And thanks go to Jim Grey, too, for reminding us of Jim Gerard. An affable and friendly sort on camera, Gerard endeared himself to a generation or two of Hoosiers fortunate enough to live within the broadcasting range of Indianapolis’ Channel 6. This Hook’s Drug Store commercial proves that Gerard was somewhat more skilled at handling himself in front of a camera than he was at actually handling a camera!
Have you noticed how the well-enunciated and beautifully toned broadcast voices have become a thing of the past? Especially newscasters now – they all speak through their noses, and I find the deliver to sometimes border on condescending.
Until you all told me who Jim Gerard was today, I didn’t realize he was so important! I grew up in South Bend, well outside Channel 6’s reach.
What I love about this is the reminder that small, and small chain drug stores were many times also the neighborhood film, chemical, paper and processing photo center for the neighborhood. When I was a freshman in high-school, there was a little stand alone neighborhood drug store about 2 blocks from me, that had film, processing chemicals, and a small selection of paper, mostly all Kodak. There was another drug store biking distance away, that carried a similar stock, and some cheap “euro” papers, that I was actually very happy with using, much darker blacks than Kodak! Their section was called Camera Corner. I remember Kodak Tri-X 20 shot being 75 cents, and 36 shots being a dollar five! Verichrome Pan 620 for under a dollar. All do-able on a paperboys income!
Wow, I had no idea. Such things are not in my memory banks, which switch on in the late 1970s.
In the early 1980s I remember 620 Kodacolor II costing six bucks at the local independent drug store! A shocking price.
The idea of a local store chain using local talent and local production for advertising seems so foreign now.
So little is local-at-scale like this anymore!