The Fotomat

[spatch]

Kodak Fotomat, 1960's, originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures.
Can you believe this was the only picture of a "real live" Fotomat booth I could find online?

" I can see it all now, this is gonna be just like last summer. You fell in love with that girl at the Fotomat,
you bought forty dollars worth of fuckin' film, and you never even talked to her. You don't even own a camera."
- Mike Damone, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

I believe it is only a matter of time before every piece of American culture that ends in "-mat" will disappear from the public consciousness: The Automat is gone, and so is the Fotomat. Laundromats still have a long way to go, however, unless they invent some kind of magic Febreze that actually cleans your clothes rather than play Bachelor Pretend.

The Fotomat, first opened in 1965, combined two American loves: amateur photography and the drive-thru. What could be easier? Simply pull up to that distinctive Fotomat booth and drop your film off. The film would then travel to a central processing facility and the prints sent back to the Fotomat for you to pick up at your leisure. How long would a process like this take, you may ask? Well, check the ad banner in the photo above: They're offering One Day Photo Finishing. Drop it off today, get it back tomorrow. Now that's American progress at work for you!

These darned little kiosks were everywhere, but the only one I really remember was the one at the Caldor/Big Y Plaza in Northampton, roughly where the CVS used to be (I think it's now a mattress store or something.) Most of these kiosks are long-gone, but some have gone on to live new and productive lives as drive-up espresso joints or somesuch. Fotomat lives on, however, in the form of online photo software. Just no more drive-up yellow huts.

I'd always thought it must've been a terribly lonely job to be a Fotomat clerk, but apparently some folks loved the solitude. Probably brought along a bunch of good books, too. I bet in the summer them things got hot though.

Comments

[alphacygni]

The Fotomat in Lewiston, New York, was converted into a very cute independant drive-through coffee hut. But they changed the color scheme completely.

fotomat booth in Lewiston, NY

[(Anonymous)]

I used to work in the Fotomat booth on Center Street in Lewiston, NY back in the late 1980s. I loved working in there. On cold snowy days it would be toasty warm inside. And in the spring and summer months it had a great airconditioning unit so it was cool inside. I used to order subs and pizza and ask them to deliver it to the booth, and I would sit in there eating and looking at all the townsfolks weddings, graduation parties, etc. The cash register served as a phone as well...the numbers were used to dial out. It was small inside, but cozy. Everyday a truck would pull up to the booth and I would give him all the photo envelopes that contained the customers film. He would drive to Ohio to process them at a lab and then bring them back the next day. He had to stop at dozens of booths on his way. Ahh those were the days. People used to wonder where we went to the bathroom. We would just put up a clock on the window that said "be back at....." and you would put the hands of the clock ahead ten minutes. I used to pretend to my friends that the seat I sat on in the booth was also a toilet. Also I used to pretend that there was a basement and I would pretend to go down and check to see if we had any more film.

The regional manager would visit the booth once every couple of weeks. I told her that customers would pull up to the booth and ask why they should drop their film off at fotomat when they can go to the store and get it done in an hour and for cheaper. She told me to tell them that "we offer drive through convenience." As if that was compelling enough reason. LOL!

The booth now sells coffee and there is even a small electric grill where they make egg sandwiches. The coffee is good, but how do they clean the grill? We never had any water in the booth.