A few months ago, I obtained the worst cheap film camera I've ever used to document junkyard cars: the early-1960s Brumberger Thunderbird. That camera is a hilariously crappy Bakelite unit from the infamous "Chicago Cluster" of fly-by-night camera manufacturers, its design ripped off from who-knows-where and its name appropriated from a then-hot-selling Ford model. After that, I decided to take a related Chicago Cluster camera (with its manufacturer and model names both lifted from Detroit vehicles) out for more junkyard adventures.
The Imperial brand name went on cameras made in Chicago from about the end of World War II until some time in the middle 1960s, and—as far as I can tell—every one of them was of notably low quality. We saw the results of an Imperial Satellite hitting the car graveyards a couple of years back (which were similar to those of the Imperial Mark 27), but would a camera named after a mid-range Plymouth model of the 1954-1964 period do any better?
I have a family connection with the Plymouth Savoy: My uncle, the legendary Dirty Duck, used his 1957 Savoy Club Sedan (equipped with secret door-panel compartments) to import cannabis products from Mexico into the penumbral economy of Southern California during the early 1960s. Should this make me more or less happy that a Chicago Cluster company appropriated the name of the Savoy for one of its products? ¿Quién sabe?
The Imperial Savoy ended up working pretty well when loaded with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 120 film (which had to be respooled onto a 620 reel, thanks to the film-format wars of the first half of the 20th century).
Doomed Vintage Cars Shot with 1950s Camera Named After Two Chryslers
