Olden Camera, 1265 Broadway between 31st & 32nd Sts. (1986)

Considerably clearer than this image taken 17 years later (2003), is this sign for Olden Camera. This sign appears clearly in a Rudy Burckhardt photograph titled 34th St and Broadway and dated 1939. If this date is accurate, it must have been taken within the first year Olden was in existence. The first listing in the Manhattan telephone directory for Olden Camera & Lens Co. is dated 1940.

Olden Camera was founded by William Olden (1908/09-1970). Olden had a short obituary in The New York Times 12 Sep. 1970, which read in part: "Mr. Olden was born in Berlin and came to this country in 1938. He established a small camera business, which he developed into one of the most successful retail and mail-order camera concerns in the country."

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