Kodak Magazines

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First I scanned a small Kodak magazine. It is Photo Spotlight; Vol. 6, no. 8 from Feb. 1928. This is a magazine for professional photographers.  It has some tips for those professionals. But mostly it has ads for Kodak and related photography products.

The I scanned 10 issues of Kodak, the employee magazine for US Kodak employees. All of these issues are. from during World War II. So most of the articles show how Kodak and other organizations are supporting the war effort. Kodak made some products especially for the military. I think the best thing in 8 of these issues are the pages of pictures of Kodak employees that are serving in the military. As you would expect they are mostly men but a few women also joined up.

Hit Songs of 1976 – #12

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“Dream Weaver” was a song written and performed by Gary Wright. He had studied medicine but never finished his education. From 1967 to 1970 he was  he was in the group Spooky Tooth. In 1970 he played piano on George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass. The song was inspired by Autobiography of a Yogi, which was given to him by Harrison. In the video he is just playing an electric piano. On the recording he also played a Mini-Moog synthesizer which gave the song an unusual effect.

The song sat at #2 on the Billboard chart for 3 weeks (March 21 – April 10). It managed to be at the top of the Cash Box chart for the week of March 21 – 27.

Gary Wright continued to record albums until 1981, with only limited commercial success. Then he focused on film soundtracks and forays into international style music. He continued making music with various other artists including your with Ringo Starr.

Gary Wright died in September 2023.

NY Vital Records – 2026

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Last year there was a Bill in the NY Legislature that would have all the old vital records filmed for free and put online. It passed in both the House and the Senate and then sat on the Governor’s desk for a few months until she finally vetoed it.

A new version of the Bill has has been offered as Senate Bill S9200. The wording is either the same as last year or really close. Next step is to be approved by the Health Committee. That committee met on St. Patrick’s Day but the Bill wasn’t mentioned.

Meanwhile in NY 2026-27 Proposed budget is the following: “The Executive Budget includes $7 million annually in FY 2027 and FY 2028 to modernize the State’s vital records system. Funding supports technological upgrades, digitization of archival records for genealogical and historical requests, and staffing enhancements to reduce backlogs for birth and death certificate processing.”.

The New York  Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) sent this letter in February in support for the additional $7 million in the budget.

But I noticed that the budget doesn’t appear to increase the number of full time employees in the Vital Record office. The State could be using contract help or maybe that money is going to a third party organization. Right now the Vital Records office is 4 years behind in filling genealogy requests. It is going to take at least a couple of years to catch up after the budget has passed. The budget is supposed to be passed by April first but is almost always a week or two late before being passed..

Kodacolor film

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Kodacolor film was one of many film types that was sold at one time by Eastman Kodak. It was discontinued in 1986. But last year the type (or at least that name) was brought back again. What is interesting is that it is being marketed by Kodak itself while other Kodak film types are being marketed by Kodak Alaris.

Kodak Alaris was formed in 2012 as Eastman Kodak was going through bankruptcy. Kodak Alaris was originally the British Pension Plan that Eastman Kodak owed money to.

As it stood since 2012 Eastman Kodak would make the film and Kodak Alaris would market it all over the world.

This article on Digital Camera World speculates that it is possible that Eastman Kodak could be taking back the marketing of some other of their film types.

Kodak Alaris was sold in 2024 to a private equity firm based in Los Angeles. Maybe they no longer want to market film. Only time will tell what will happen related to film.