Altman Camera Company

williamkazak · May 17, 2013

I remember Shutans. A friend of mine from my town in Lansing who I went to grade school with worked there as a salesman. His name was Paul Bork.

smke54 · Aug 5, 2013

Hey all---1st post here

Was surfing around doing some research on a possible new camera(digital!) purchase when I just decided to google "Altman Camera"
to see what might pop-up and ended up here.

I was there at the end! Worked in 1st floor camera sales and up in the "catwalk" Don't even remember how long I was there.Probably 2-3 years. Went on to work at both Helix and Lion Photo in Schamburg--both gone also. All the union stuff happened before I got there.

Don't remember too many names, it has been nearly 40 years! "Cherly" does ring a bell--tall, slender, short hair?
Also Urban Faber, son of White Sox Hall of Famer(?). Roomed with him while at Helix.

For now photography is just a casual, less than part-time hobby, but like I said am thinking of getting my first DSLR
(started out with a Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic)

From the Chicago south suburbs,
Scott

fotch · Aug 5, 2013

Hello Scott and welcome to APUG. While this forum is strictly analog, you can try DPUG.ORG for digital stuff.

SafetyBob · Aug 7, 2013

Can someone tell me when Altman's was open? My dad can't remember where he got the Realistic Stereo camera (that I have now) from, but it was downtown Chicago. He thinks he got it in 1960. They lived in Oak Park in the late 50's and moved way out west by Peru in the early 60's.

The last couple of times I have been back to Chicago I always try and make a point to go to Calumet since I bought a used body from them 10 years ago, but the wife and kids don't seem to share my enthusiasm to go visit a photography store.

Was there two weeks ago!!

Bob E.

IBMJunkman · Jan 27, 2014

Not sure what possessed me to Google Altman but I did. I worked at 35 E. Wacker so the store was a popular lunchtime trip. I could not afford Nikon and Canon at the time so I 'settled' for Olympus. Bought, and still have, my OM-1 and OM-2 at the store. Also bought my enlarger there. I never felt rushed when shopping. I am under the impression the sales staff did not work on commission.

Shutan was the choice after Altman closed. Just recently went through a couple of boxes of photos looking for things to scan and upload and there were many Shutan envelopes. Take a peek at www.myimagecollection.com if you want.

I did visit Helix a few times but their location was not convenient.

williamkazak · Jan 27, 2014

I remember Shutan. Was that the store right next door to Altmans or was Shutan on Washington St? I knew Paul Bork, from my town, who worked at Shutan, not the one next door to Altmans.

irvd2x · Jan 28, 2014

williamkazak said:
I remember Shutan. Was that the store right next door to Altmans or was Shutan on Washington St? I knew Paul Bork, from my town, who worked at Shutan, not the one next door to Altmans.

The store next to Altmans was Wolks.I bought my first camera there,1971...a Canon Ftb w/50 1.8 lens.The salesman threw in a roll of ektachrome x and High Speed Ektachrome.
I worked at a warehouse during the week and on Sat mornings take the westline CNW train into the city,shoot some street photography,have some breakfast at one of the greasy spoons then head over to East Wabash and wander through Altmans,one floor at a time.Just inside the main entrance was a wall sized display with the longest lenses I had ever seen.It was Mecca for everything photographic.I bought two more Ftbs when the store closed.A different time.

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williamkazak · Jan 28, 2014

Now I remember. Wolk Camera was just North of Altman. I always wondered about that store placement being right next door. Where was Shutan? Franklin Street?? Like I said, Paul Bork worked there. Paul Schrantsz, later to become my teacher at GSU, worked at Altmans. Standard Photo was on Chicago Ave? And on Lasalle Street, the group from the defunct Altmans had a store named...? I had to go to all of them to get what I wanted and to look around at the gear. It is the same old story.; "we don't have it but we can order it".

IBMJunkman · Apr 9, 2014

Shutan was on Wacker about 2 blocks west of State St.

altman6668 · Apr 23, 2014

I started in 16 S Wabash store in 1966 and went to the 129 N location when it opened and stayed till fall
of 68 when I went to work for Interstate Photo Supply (AIC Photo). Wolk Camera was one door north of the 129 location. Sometimes Ralph would have me run our new price lists over to them. I worked with a great group of professionals, Al Zoot, Tony Link, S. Schwartzer and Russ Kirk are a few I remember. I thought some photos might be enjoyed.

irvd2x · Apr 23, 2014

altman6668 said:
View attachment 86743 View attachment 86744 View attachment 86745 View attachment 86746

I started in 16 S Wabash store in 1966 and went to the 129 N location when it opened and stayed till fall
of 68 when I went to work for Interstate Photo Supply (AIC Photo). Wolk Camera was one door north of the 129 location. Sometimes Ralph would have me run our new price lists over to them. I worked with a great group of professionals, Al Zoot, Tony Link, S. Schwartzer and Russ Kirk are a few I remember. I thought some photos might be enjoyed.

Oh my! I'm 19 again.Too much!! Wow.Thats the place.

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williamkazak · Apr 24, 2014

Awesome. Thank you for posting the pics. I remember Wolk next door. I always wondered why Wolk existed. I mean, right next door to Altmans? I remember the escalator in the back going up to the second floor at Altmans. The down below basement level, the large format lenses were there. I graduated high school in 1966. Altmans was the best. Central camera was way down the same street southward. Then, there was that one down by the watertower. Standard Photo, I think it was. I bought my Gitzo tripod over there. I still have it. I got the pan head over at Helix and a case for it to keep it all looking fresh, without scratches. Good times. Lots of stores and gear to lust after but so little pocket money. In addition,there were the photo magazines where I could read about all the cameras and lenses but to actually see the gear in these stores was so great.

resummerfield · Apr 24, 2014

Such memories.... Thanks for posting those images!

Ph0t0_man · Apr 28, 2014

The pictures are great. You can somewhat see the catwalk. Everyone who worked cameras had to put their time in on the catwalk. I don't remember having to wear a tie. Looking at those escalators reminded me of the (I believe it was the Minolta rep.) who had a heart attack on the way down and later died

pen s · Apr 28, 2014

Ph0t0_man said:
The pictures are great. You can somewhat see the catwalk. Everyone who worked cameras had to put their time in on the catwalk. I don't remember having to wear a tie. Looking at those escalators reminded me of the (I believe it was the Minolta rep.) who had a heart attack on the way down and later died

I was there that day also. Jerry Woorm (sp) was the Minolta rep. If I remember one of the sales people, Dave Blocker? was trying to do CPR on him when the paramedics arrived. Very sad day.

Ralph was a really nice regular guy. Most of the folks were nice and easy to work with. There were one or two smart aleck know-it-all sales people but I just ignored them. In the 2+ years I worked there I don't remember having to work the catwalk but that was almost 40 years ago now so my memory is dim.

When I was on the first floor I was the 'gear geek'. During slow times I'd check the drawers with adapters and stuff in them to see what wonders were there. One day a customer walked in with a Pentax Spotmatic and a 240mm f4.5 LTM mount lens head, for use on a visoflex with a focusing mount. He wanted to use it on his Spotmatic. I overheard one salesman telling him it couldn't be done but before he walked out the door I intercepted him and showed him just how it could indeed be mounted on his Spotmatic. I wound up selling him a Pentax helical extention tube, a combo of 2 or 3 manual M42 extention tubes and a LTM to M42 adapter. Worked fine and settled back to *just* past infinity. Quite a contraption but it worked.

JohnnyJr · May 22, 2014

What a great thread to find, this brings back memories for me. Wondering if anyone remembers the camera/camera parts store that was run by a guy named Ed on Honore st. in the Wicker Park area. I think it closed some time in the early 90s. I recall that he had parts for just about anything you could imagine, particularly large format gear. Does anyone recall who I'm talking about? I learned about him from Ken Josephson who was one of my photography instructors at SAIC from 1988-92.

fotch · May 23, 2014

Hello JohnnyJr and welcome to APUG.

Mike F · Jun 11, 2014

I worked at Altman's from '73-75 when Ralph closed the store. I can remember some names and personalities very clearly. I first worked the catwalk to get to know the inventory and then worked in Purchasing and the first floor still camera counter. And yes, I can confirm a prior poster's recollection that Ralph required a polygraph prior to hire. He probably made me pay for it. Lillian, Ralph's wife, worked the back office upstairs and they would hail each other, very loudly, over the intercom: "Mrs. A, dial 1-0! Mrs. A., 1-0!" Some of the people I remember are Urban Faber, Steve Berkowitz, Ed Wills, Don Winkler, Gus at photo finishing, Manny, an extremely nice older German man named Harry who went on photo safaris to Africa, Selwyn Schwartz, Bob Moy, an older guy named Bob who was a WWII vet who was present at the liberation of Nazi death camps, Don Tomer who probably knew more about large format gear than anyone else on earth, Don Berberich, and poor Jack Patri. I, too was there when Jere, the Minolta rep, suffered his fatal heart attack. I waited on several celebrity photo people, including Alfred Eisenstaedt, who would come into the store. I still own a black paint Leica M-4 that I bought from Ralph while I worked there. I worked there days while attending law school at night, and moved to Helix when Altman's closed.

sly · Jun 11, 2014

Hey! I was there once! I was living outside Toronto, a photography student, tired of using the school darkrooms, juggling the crowded sign up schedule with my classes and part time job. I heard this huge store was closing down, everything was on sale. Time to buy my own darkroom. I drove down with my boyfriend and his pickup truck and bought a D2V, lenses, easel, cutting board, contact printer, timers, trays, tongs, etc, etc, etc. Spent $800. A lot of money for a student back then, but an amazing deal for the equipment I was getting. At that time there was no duty on professional equipment, defined as anything large format. We spent hours at the border. First the customs guys had to FIND the ruling that said there was no duty, then we had to unpack EVERYTHING, and explain it's purpose, and why it was "professional". Some of that was kinda fudged - the 35mm and 120 neg carriers and enlarging lenses are not large format, but I just snowed them under with all the "professional" sounding photographic terms I could think of - just kept talking til their eyes glazed over. Given the time, and my boyfriend's choice of beard and hairstyle (complete with headband) and my long droopy hair and skirt, I think they expected to find some greenery tucked into one of those boxes.

Sadly I sold all that great gear a few years later - my time was taken up with babies, and we were broke. Always regretted that we didn't sell his truck instead!

fotch · Jun 11, 2014

sly said:
..........................

Sadly I sold all that great gear a few years later - my time was taken up with babies, and we were broke. Always regretted that we didn't sell his truck instead!

filmboard · Jul 4, 2014

Joined the group just to keep this post going; what a great walk down memory lane. I appreciate the pictures. Wow.

In the early 60s, the inimitable poet and camera salesman at Altman's Camera, Selwyn Schwartz, put this poor college student onto a new Konica Autoreflex T with a 57mm Hexanon AR f1.4 lens. At the time I liked my results, but envied my UofChicago photographer friends, who all had more money than I did, and were shooting the Nikons and Leicas I aspired to get, and eventually did (the Leicas that is). Having never heard of the Konica before that, I thought I had settled for an inferior kit. I have just begun culling and reorganizing my personal chromes and negs from those early days and will now admit something I would never have done at any time before now. I have discovered those early negs have a quality that holds up against anything I've since shot with any other 35mm format lens, with my Noctilux the possible only exception. I now wish I'd not been so anxious to replace that gear and had a longer history of negatives from that lens. Selwyn steered me right. I followed him as a customer when he moved to Helix. Every encounter with Selwyn began with him asking me what I was reading, and him quoting some lines from one of his poems in progress.

RRfan · Jul 25, 2014

Last Day of Sales

I was visiting in Chicago last week (I moved to New England in 1975 after Altman's closed). I Googled Altman's camera because I couldn't remember the address, and thought I'd swing by to see what was in the storefront these days, and found this thread. I couldn't believe how well people remembered the store, and had to join the group so that I could help tell the story.

I worked for Altman's for a couple of years up until closing. I started in repairs with Harry Hirsh, then Ralph moved me upstairs to work the camera counter and do mail orders with Cheryl Kooiker. On the last day of sales, a few of us "borrowed" a camera and ran a roll or two of film through to document the occasion. As I recall, I shot a roll of Tri-X using a Leica M5. The only time I have ever used a Leica (when was I going to have another chance?)

I have uploaded a few of the photos of people who were named in this thread. The first, of course, is Ralph himself. Next is Jon Sienkiewicz and Dave Feinman at the counter. Bob Moy at his desk. Cheryl Kooiker is in the double exposure. Don Tomer and Ed Wills from the Pro Dept. are last. There are more if people are interested.

resummerfield · Jul 25, 2014

Great pictures, RRfan! I bought from Altman mail-order, so I never saw "behind the counter". Thanks for posting these! And please post more!

williamkazak · Jul 25, 2014

Nice pitures. I certainly would like to see more of them.

RRfan · Jul 25, 2014

Altman's Last Day

Glad you liked the snapshots. As requested, here are a few more from behind the counter.

In the long shot, Wayne Soderquist is at the adding machine (there were some amazing tabs run up), Raphael Villagomes is at the register, and Urban Faber is leaning on the back counter;
The guy in the plaid jacket is Bob Moy, who was the manager, and Sven Johnsen is behind him;
Norm Kucera is in the denim jacket with the bead necklace;
Evelyn Ruth is the greeter, who kept the hordes at bay until a salesman was available;
In "please take a number", we have John Robison with his back to us, Harry Nygard with his hand on the back counter, Steve Havenstrite at the register, Marge Thomas, and Bob Oliver (over John's shoulder)

Altman Camera Company

williamkazak

smke54

fotch

SafetyBob

IBMJunkman

williamkazak

irvd2x

williamkazak

IBMJunkman

altman6668

irvd2x

williamkazak

resummerfield

Ph0t0_man

pen s

JohnnyJr

fotch

Mike F

sly

fotch

filmboard

RRfan

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