DASCO bakelite and the Langoliers

DASCO was (and the one above still is) a bakelite toy camera from 40s.
It is, in essence, a cheap piece of pressed plastic with few little metal and glass pieces.
It was made for 127 roll film.
The roll I found inside is Kodak Verichrome Pan. Kodak VP came out in mid-50s.
After the development, a few frames emerged: people, trees, automobiles.
Ah, 50s indeed (look at the cars and the hat):

Boy scouts from Brownie Six-20 flash

I found this camera on *bay in 2010. I have the record somewhere. I know I received it from Springfield, Oregon. It had exposed roll of 620 Kodak film in it; I bought it because of this forgotten, never developed film. I thought I developed it long time ago, there in 2010, and that it was empty. It was clear case of a false memory: while recently giving the camera to a friend as a present, I checked what's inside (good habit!) and presto! It was sitting there, red roll of 620 Kodak Verichrome Pan.
Verichrome Pan is relatively new film, it went on sale in 1956. So these are late 50s or 60s:

Curious case of double exposure

Here, pictured in the uncut grass of my backyard, sits Brownie camera I received last February from *bay seller. It is ancient No 2A model from the early 20s. This very simple box camera has one speed rotary-type shutter and 3 Waterstop apertures...that's it. I bought is because there was a roll of exposed film inside. The film turned out to be a 116 Kodak Verichrome Pan. Now, Verichrome Pan is later film, went on sale in mid-50s. It is also known for preserving the latent image very well. So, 4 minutes in very cold and very active developer and...

Belser's archive

Here is another dig into old vernacular photography: I started developing the unusually large (about 40 rolls) archive of film found on eBay few month back. The archive starts in late 40s, about 15 rolls are from 50s, and the rest is from 60s and few are from early 70s. The last 35mm Ektachrome 400 roll looks relatively modern. Many of the rolls are in the original boxes/wrapping paper; nevertheless,  all but 2 are exposed and none had been developed.

There is a letter; I received it with the archive. The letter is addressed to Mike Belser. It is a touching birthday writing from his dad Jack. Jack is sending new boots to his son and he is worried about the size, asking Mike to send it back for the exchange if the size is wrong. He is also mentioning the names: Patty and Brian. These two could be Mike's wife and son. The letter has a date: 12-17-57. It was in an envelope, addressed from J.Belser, Oklahoma City (General Delivery, Main P.O.) to Newkirk, OK, also General Delivery. The letter clearly was sent, received and opened by Mike. Also one of the rolls I developed today has a hand-written note with a date and Mike's name. So I assume at least part of the archive at one point was Mike Belser's.

Here are my findings so far...

Found film photography: Moscow and Muscovites

Few years back I have started my "found film" project. It has started from the old folding "Life-O-Rama" camera with the roll of film forgotten inside by the previous owner. There were few pictures on the roll, dated probably late 90s, i.e. not very old, but I started looking for the old cameras with film inside. Now, after hundreds of cameras/developed rolls of film I still can't stop doing this.

The pictures from these rolls are often related to each other, they form stories, they can be explained, speculated on, dated, placed on the map etc.

The most intriguing part of course is who took them, who was the photographer, why they were not developed and all this story of camera with film sleeping for so long in some mystic fold of Times.

From now on, I will be publishing some of my findings here. Just look for the 'found film stories' tag. Here is the last one: