I found a few other slides in this box, some from 1941, few later dates. Few of them are clearly not Kodachrome quality.
It’s clear he made these on local trips, although Santa Cruz and Carmel are not necessarily “local” in 1941. Road conditions were definitely not the same in these days.
Here is the beach in Santa Cruz, June 1941, with a single shot of 3 men fishing.
The next slide is equally a beach related scene, from Carmel this time.
“For Emergency Use Only”, Dated June 25, 1941.
The next two Kodachromes are flowers, no longer a surprise as subject matter. Dated August 1941, from Santa Cruz.
The last Kodachrome in this particular box was taken in Stockton, August 28, 1941. It appears to be a scene out of a parade of sorts. The black border left and right are deliberate. Whatever was there is cropped out by Joel with tape in between the glass covers.
The three next images didn’t fare well, or are no Kodachromes at all. I include them so you can see the difference in quality. Kodachromes are renowned for keeping a quality image over time with little to no fading when shielded from bright light. Yes, fading is always possible, there’s such a thing as “dark fading” and “light fading”, but that’s mostly because of poor third party processing after 1954.
I simple believe the last slides were made with a film that is not “Kodachrome. Since these are dated 1948, there were plenty of attempts by film manufacturers to come up with something that was easier to develop and not as costly. Quite frankly, the majority of these developments didn’t pan out.
Although the last slide is not dated, I believe there’s a good chance this one is from the same vintage. It’s a roller coaster scene from Stockton, there are no further specifics. I’m sure the experts on local Stockton History will be able to point out there this slide was captured.’
Next blog post we’ll be looking at some B&W negatives from the early days.
Cheers !
Finding Joel Pahl Dardis 