Finding A Good Production Still - Do Over

Among the documents that Nancy Vale sent, is this great still photo of Michael Vale as Sam Breakstone.

The picture is undated, but judging by the materials it was sent with, is probably circa 1985.

The original is in color.  That's coming as soon as I figure out how to do that.  I assume I need some sort of equipment.

Note the anachronisms that mark this as marketing for a product.  The microphone is most likely a Calrad 500C, circa the 1950's.  They're supposedly terrible for sound.  They "pill" style followed the success of the RCA 77, which could never be confused with the Calrad 500.  As one website puts it, "These are great for photos, display, prop or loading in a modern element and using on-stage."  In fact, at least one website has devoted a page to finding Calrad 500C's on TV and in print.

Kim Basinger is pretending to sing in front of one in this poster from The Marrying Man.  There's a year in their life I bet they wish they could take back.

So, Breakstone is behind a microphone invented roughly seventy years after he is supposed to have started in the dairy industry in 1882; years after both Joseph and Isaac Breakstone had passed away.

Also note that Breakstone is holding a plastic container of cottage cheese.

This type of polyethylene container did not come into use until the 1970's.  It was the modern product at the time the photo was taken.

Breakstone's hat is a men's straw boater.  They were worn (unironically) from the 1890's to the 1920's.

That's some bad hat, Harry.

One more thing bothers me about the picture:  the head of lettuce.  They are implying a connection between freshness of the produce and a milk product that is, by its very nature, partially spoiled.  They are also implying that Sam Breakstone sold vegetables.  There is little truth to the associations that the marketers are asking us to make.

In all, Sam Breakstone stands before us, representing the goodness of the past, as he passes on the Breakstone's products to a new generation.

Even so, one thing remains clear, this is the highest resolution image of Kraft Foods's Sam Breakstone currently available on the internet.  And that makes me a real journalist.

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