Business 1949: New Products: Polaroid Land Camera

NEW PRODUCTS Pictures In a Minute

Nobody but nobody was biting its nails like Gimbels. The Polaroid Land camera, which takes and prints a finished picture in one minute, was about to go on sale in Manhattan, and R. H. Macy & Co. had wangled a month's exclusive department-store rights. At its wit's end, Gimbels stealthily bought up a stock of the cameras from out-of-town stores where Polaroid was running test sales, and put in a classy window display. But as soon as Gimbels put the cameras on sale (at $89.75), Macy's sent a flying squad of shoppers across the street and bought out most of Gimbels' stock. As Gimbels hastily took out its window display, Macy's plugged the camera in big ads.

The two behemoths were not fighting over peanuts. Last week, the first week of big-city sales, some 4,000 cameras were sold in the Manhattan area alone. Though Polaroid was making 10,000 cameras a month, it was forced to ration them, as well as its special film, to retail outlets. For the first time since the war, Polaroid expected a profit this year.

Dr. Edwin H. Land, 40, Polaroid's black haired, bright-eyed president, could thank his ten-year-old daughter Jennifer for the idea for his new camera. Several years ago, when he took a snapshot of Jeffie, she demanded to know why she couldn't have a print right away. That got him thinking about a camera that would have a "built-in darkroom," and he developed one that printed 3 by 5 photos that were simply peeled off the negative.