Remember Polaroid? The company that made the first instant camera, way back in 1947? The same company that strangely couldn't see the digital revolution coming and thus went belly up, only to be bought out by Toronto's Hilco Consumer Capital Group two months ago? Ah yes, Polaroid... just point your camera, snap the picture, then shake the photo until the image magically materializes a minute later.One thing the Massachusetts-based company never liked talking about publicly was how much its success depended on customers taking nude photos of each other with its cameras. It's true - in the fifties, sixties and seventies, many couples wanted to shoot their own Playboy spreads, but trying to develop film from a regular camera at the local photo mart might have got them arrested for obscenity. The Polaroid was thus the perfect do-it-yourself photo lab, for all your carnal pleasures. The company tacitly acknowledged this use though - its 1965 "Swinger" model conjures images of Austin Powers, yeah baby! Here's a vintage ad for the Swinger from 1966:
Speaking of Playboy, I spoke with some of the magazine's veteran photo editors last week and they told me that the Polaroid was invaluable to them in the days before digital for setting up shots. Models were photographed on Polaroid to test composition and lighting before the real cameras were brought in. Neat, huh?
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2 comments:
I don't beleive Polaroid was tacitly acknowledging anything of the sort though. Mainly because Swinger didn't mean "someone who swaps sexual partners" in 1966. It meant "Someone who's hip, cool, fashionable and sexy" It was in the 1970's when swinger started to mean what it does now due largely to the "Swinger's Clubs" that retained use of the term when it's common slang use wasn't popular anymore...and of course the video conjures Austin Powers like images...it is from the 60's, which AP directly paradies.
The Oxford Century of New Words says "swinging," or behaviour that was "uninhibited, ignoring conventions" was commonly in use by 1958. The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang by Tony Thorne agrees, saying that "swinging," in use by the 60s, meant "to behave in an uninhibited hedonistic way." A "swinger" was a "fashionable pleasure lover." With the sexual revolution in full swing by the mid-60s, pardon the pun, this would have included sex. So the term "swinger" certainly did apply to fun-loving blokes in the mid-60s. Just like Austin Powers, that would have included a healthy dose of snagging. You're right though - "swinger" took on its current meaning - ie partner swapping, bisexuality and general promiscuity - only in the 70s.
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