Submitted by Al …
The Encore Camera Company made the Hollywood cardboard camera in the 1940s and 1950s. It is a disposable camera measuring 5” long x 2.5” wide x 3.5” high, with a two piece press-type viewfinder with a metal tongue that has a ¼” hole in it for your eye on the back, and a metal wire frame for the front of the camera.
You push both parts of the viewfinder back into the camera when not in use.
The camera was factory loaded with 12 - 6x9 cm film exposures, and after the user exposed them, they would mail the whole camera back to the Encore Camera Company for processing.
The instructions prompt you to use a coin or blunt instrument to open a slot in the camera bottom, indicated by a dotted line on the bottom of the camera. You would then insert your $1.25 payment in the slot (suggested is a quarter wrapped in a dollar bill), and write your return address where indicated, also on the bottom of the camera.
You are then instructed to drop the whole camera into the mailbox after you place a (then 1950s) 9 cent stamp on it. This camera was additionally rubber-stamped that the postage required was now 14 cents. The camera is pre-addressed to Encore Camera CO., P.O. Box 222, Delano, California.
The Hollywood Camera was also sometimes used as an advertising premium. Since these were disposable cameras, they are hard to find.
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