| March 19, 2008 Look back at 60 years of Polaroid
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(NECN) - For 60 years, they gave us photographs that developed in 60 seconds. So, it was bad news for shutterbugs when Polaroid stopped making its famous instant cameras. Now, they've stopped making film for those old cameras.
Polaroid produced a miracle box that churned out pictures that developed themselves. Memories in a minute that you could hold in your hand. Polaroids used to be the life of the party.
Remember those wise-cracking ads with James Garner and Mariette Hartley? A while back, the group Outkast had a bunch of folks shaking their polaroids -- and singing about it.
Shake it or just set it on the kitchen counter -- it was always fun watching your picture slowly swim up out of a sea of white. It was magic.
Cambridge, Massachusetts photographer Elsa Dorfman still makes supersized group Polaroids against a big white backdrop. Her giant instant camera is one of only six monster Polaroids in the world.
But, in our hurry-up age, instant photos have been deemed too slow by consumers. Polaroid stopped making instant cameras a year ago and now, it's discontinuing the instant film. So, Dorfman has hoarded a year's supply and mourns the end of the Polaroid era.
The first Polaroid instant camera came out in 1948. It was the model 95 and it weighed four pounds and sold for $89.75. This one rests at Harvard's Baker Library.
Polarcolor and the light and handy model SX-70 came along in the 60s and 70s. The 90s marked the start
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