Monarch MFG Co. / Utility MFG Co. / Spartus Corp., 711-15 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL
The Churchill mini-cam is merely one of dozens of brand names slapped on the lens plates of this and other similar 1940s bakelite molds. Known as the “Chicago Cluster,” the cameras patented and mass-produced by Jack Galter at his 711 W. Lake Street factory were famously marketed under numerous brand AND manufacturer names.
Elgin Laboratories / Utility MFG Co. / Spartus Corp., 711-15 W. Lake Street, Chicago, IL
The Elgin Miniature Camera is part of the infamous family of bakelite minicams produced out of the same Lake Street factory in the late ’30s and 1940s. These cheap-o “candid type” cameras were marketed under literally dozens of different brand names AND manufacturer names, with no rhyme or reason as to which name would appear on which model type.
Monarch MFG Co. / Utility MFG Co / Spartus Corp, 711-15 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL
DeLuxe Products Co. / Utilty MFG Co / Spartus Corp., 711-715 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL
Rolls Camera MFG Co. / Utility MFG / Spartus Corp., 711-715 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL
Pelouze Manufacturing Company, 232 E. Ohio St., Chicago, IL
Here it is. The one that started it all.
This was the faded green Pelouze “Family Scale” that caught my eye at a junk shop in the first week of 2015. As explained on the About Us page, for whatever reason, this finding lit the proverbial fuse of discovery / obsessive compulsiveness within me, and eventually laid the imaginary foundation for my imaginary museum.
