Here's Tom Thompson on the left at his shop when he was in Eagle Rock. He passed away about 25 years ago at the age of 103.
He took photos until he was in his 80's. He never went on a job without a suit and tie...EVER, no matter the weather.
The was one of the masters of the "cirkut" cameras, the ones that took panoramic photos. They had a focal plane shutter and the film travels as the camera turned on it's radius via a spring loaded shutter device. Kind of hard to explain in print...He threw away thousands and thousands of 10X30" panorama negatives. Kodak made the film on special order.
That summer of 1972 was when Mr. Thompson was moving his company to Glendale.
He threw away hundreds of pounds of negatives dating from the late 1920's-late 60's.
He was a wonderful mentor to me as a 21 year old photographer.
The other mentor was J. Allen Hawkins of Pasadena. He was the Rose Bowl, Tournament of Roses photographer.
Al died in 1986 and I believe all of his negs were given to UCLA.
I got this out of Google images...no idea who the fella is
