The old is now the new
Polaroid cameras, once nearly forgotten, have come back into style.
It seems Frankenstein is not the only thing that has been shocked back to life. Vinyl records, polaroids and drive-ins, at one point close to death, are alive once again.
According to billboard.com, in 2005 vinyl sales shrank 30% and remained flat in 2006. But sales did go up 15% in 2007; this was a small foreshadow of what was to come. Record Store Day, a project uniting and publicizing record stores across the globe, was established in hopes of boosting up sales, and it did just that. Record Store Day debuted in 2008 and vinyl sales skyrocketed to 90% that year. This was the largest single-year unit gain, until 2013 at least (as of 2014). And in 2013, vinyl sales increased 223% to 6.06 million units.
According to npr.org, Polaroid was most popular in the 60s and 70s. When the digital camera came out, Polaroid found it difficult to keep up with this new technology. And in 2001, Polaroid went bankrupt. The company was then sold, but soon went bankrupt for the second time. Then in 2008, Polaroid stopped making instant film. A group of ex-employees and fans of Polaroid formed a company called “The Impossible Project.” This group took over an old Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. There they started to make instant film using their own process. They first came out with black and white film, and then moved on to color film. Now polaroids are making a comeback, thanks to the younger generation.
While drive-ins have yet to have a huge comeback, they are still around. According to Braid and their interactive drive-in map of the U.S., of the 4,644 shown on their map, only a mere 336 remain open and active. There seems to be only one active drive-in in all of Arizona, West Wind Glendale Drive-In.This drive-in, located at 5650 N 55th Avenue, is making huge efforts to stay in business. General admission is only $7.50, kids’ admission is $1.25 and children under 4 are free. On Tuesdays they host a “Family Fun Night” – the general admission price goes down to $5.25 per person, and the children’s admission prices remain the same.
