More Altman's Last Day
As I recall, the last day was busy, but not gloomy. Ralph hired people who loved photography and wanted to help customers (and could pass the polygraph test). We didn't think much about the next day, and I don't remember that employees were upset with Ralph for closing the store.
The way I remember the story was that employees had been upset with schedules, benefits, and wages, and a few of them asked a union to come in and help. Ralph didn't want a union, and addressed the employee concerns on his own. By and large, I think employees were happy by the time I started in late 1973. I remember Ralph as no nonsense, but basically a good guy. Unfortunately, the union had been invited in, and the Government made sure that the election took place. I think that Ralph told employees before the election that he didn't want the union and that if employees voted to have one, he would close the store (by definition an unfair labor practice attempt to influence the outcome of a representation election). Lost in the bureaucracy is the fact that he told the truth. Ralph fought the case all the way up to the Circuit Court of Appeals (next stop Supreme Court), and when he lost there, he made a brief attempt to negotiate with the union, before deciding he's had enough. He was a fair, honest man, and I respected that he had acted on his principles.
The first of today's photos shows Ted Teotico and Bernie Delaney (our utility man - you'll see Bernie later working a lathe in the pro shop). Note the gallows humor hanging between them;
Next is Fred Hussey, RRfan himself, making sure that I was memorialized on that 36 shot roll of Tri-X;
The third shot is RRfan standing next to Deforest "Woody" Puckett at the phone order desk;
"Catwalk" follows. Somehow, I failed to note "Catwalk's" name. Maybe he'll see the post and provide it. Most of the cameras were stored on the catwalk. After you had sold the camera using the demo, you'd yell "catwalk" and tell him that you'd just sold an Olympus OM-1. He'd hand it down to you, and you'd take the customer's new camera out to him. You didn't just put it in the bag and yell "next". You opened the box, took the camera out, inserted the battery, mounted the lens, checked the functions, and then went through the use of the camera with the customer, including, most importantly, the rewind release button on the bottom of the camera body. I'd usually go over the concept of aperture and shutter speed and synchronizing the flash before I thanked the customer and yelled "next";
Last is Patel, writing up a mail order.
