Season's Greeting from Hal Pichler

Hal Pichler who briefly worked in Yonkers and then in Germany now lives in Germany sent in his Season's Greeting.      I believe his feeling about good old Polychrome resonate very much with our own.        With his permission I am sharing his note as he wrote.       Wishing you the best in 2019.
          
                                                                                                                         

Dear Ken,

is not only the season what makes me thinking about Yonkers, is the friendship too and

the hard and excellent work you've done to keep the members in contact. Without you I

could not forward my condolances to Anneliese. Was Gregory even a best friend and I

had been seeking him for more then 30years.

I think so many often of what I've could had given more to Polychrome. It was time ahead 

when I was thinking to make a platine with a high defined film out of the CKP (aluminium

ased, cupperiesed and subtractiv positiv working. Years later it could have been used for

cellphones. Krainer, he's now feeding dove's came in my office overhanded me a letter

from Polychrome GmbH and show to me with fingers a no go.

In Germany I overworked a poor working positive working deletion fluid # 230 as was working poor. After I involved myself with a new chemist I had it with 1/2 hour perfect

working as 230/002  2nd test and it was perfect against all resistence.

I importet plates from Lastra/Italy on private label  and wonder I say Guenther Aurich and VanLinden on the booth of Lastra at a fair. Please forgive me, but all my live was printing and Polychrome. I even respected and not compaire Polychrome when I was selfimployed

for 15 years. 6 patents I delveloped in that time even the first sleeves combind cotton with

plastic to get the benefit of both. 4 patents in chemistry worldwide the best developer for

positive plates. Even when 3M changed their coates to avoid that that others put hand on their plates. A replanisher to replanish 4 ml instead of 400 ml  and made a much more better reading of peaks. the first pefect working wahing liquid was part of the developement of the dampners. I was proud to be a Polychromer and was always going my way, I need not advise and Krainer was a dumb - he was the reason why I left PC

Mr Halpern and Jim ask for me to change to switch from GmbH to Corp. Mr Halpern in person, he told me "You are going your own way, but you always did a good job." When I

know where he is barried I am going to his grave to say good bye, he was unvisible always on my side and inspired me. And I have to say I owned him a lot for my later carrrier.

Vorgive me please when my heart is overboarding it comes from heart into my brains and typing fingers. Then also a great homesichness is coming up, and am sure you'll understand what that means.

I strongly believe you meanwhile in Tokio Japan because I was late with my letter to you,

and unforgotten am typing now to wish you and your family

​     A merry Christmas and A Happy New Year​ 

​My very best greetings to you and your family,

Hal

RIP Mr. Bob Gumbinner

FYI RE:     Robert Gumbinner Passing                                                               10/22/18

Dear Friends, Relatives, ColleaguesMy father, Robert Gumbinner, passed away last night.  He died peacefully after a number of recent medical issues.  About 3 months ago he broke his hip and had a hip replacement done.  As a fighter and never a complainer, he battled back from that only to be hit last week with a UTI and sepsis.  Ultimately, it all proved to be just too much.
Dad was 99 years young.  He was an incredibly kind, determined, thoughtful and humble man – a husband, a boss, a giver and a father and a grandfather.  If I had to choose one word to describe my father, he was a real mensch. 
Services are scheduled to be held at the Riverside Memorial (21 West Broad Street, Mt Vernon, NY 10552:  tel. 914-664-6800) on Thursday, October 25, 2018 @ 10:00 AM, burial to follow at Mt Zion Cemetery in Queens, NY (59-63 54th Avenue, Maspeth, NY 11378:   tel. 718-335-2500); followed by a luncheon somewhere close.

Also, there might be a short memorial service in the coming weeks at Greenspring Village in Springfield, VA, where my Dad lived since 2001.
Annie and I will be driving up to New York on Tuesday and staying at the Hyatt Place, 7000 Mall Walk, Yonkers, NY 10704.
My cell phone # is 703-577-6696.  Annie’s is 301-252-2977.
NOTE:  If one were inclined to send something, as opposed to flowers, donations to the MVS Greg A. Gumbinner Scholarship Fund would be appreciate (if so, please mention Greg Gumbinner):  https://www.merrimackvalleystriders.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=629580&module_id=197886.
Best Wishes to all.
Fred

J. Piot and Aladdin info from Al wierling

Hello Ken,

Hope you are well, I am enjoying your updates on the Polychrome archives blog.

If I may, the correct company for Joe Piot before his PC days was Aladdin  Industries, a Nashville based manufacturer of thermal cups, trays and some industrial equipment.

At that time, mid 80’s Aladdin was a DIC company and Mr. Piot often visited our branch in Nashville and I suspect at the  same time a visit to Aladdin which was near our office. I believe he had a home in the Green Hills area. We found him to be very pleasant and kind, however I was too far down the food chain to determine his competence. Now under new ownership (Pacific Marketing Inc) Aladdin is still in Nashville albeit with only 19 employees.

Regards

Al wierling

Management of Polychrome under DIC ...from Mr. Iwata's book

DIC faced departure of Polychrome top managements right after the take over.       Mr. Halpern, fearing his stake would not be marketable once take over is complete and the company is delisted, tendered his 20% share to TOB.         Mr. Levy who was then president of Polychrome came out of film background and did not have enough experience to lead presensitized plate focused company.       Thus two left the company and S. Kawamura turned to his friend J. Piot who was a salesman with the Aradin company with which S Kawamura built a relationship earlier.        H. Iwata became North American Manager of DIC to assist him.       J. Piot and Iwata visited an Arthur Andersen partner to ask his opinion, he told JP that the role of leading Polychrome would be difficult for him.
But S.Kawamura did not have alternative and Polychrome was run by J Piot.     But as Arthur Andersen partner predicted Polychrome management was in disarray within one year.       J Piot did not have graphic arts experience and did not try to learn the business either.         The competition in the presensitized plate at that time was the competition in run length.        Even thought Polychrome introduced high run length plates, there were many complaints from customers.       Technical group would say customer education is insufficient,  production would say that the poor quality of sensitizer resulted in high coating loss, sales would say production is not up to par,        Thus everyone was blaming others.        This type of situation happens in  a typical American company without an able leader; just as also happened  in Kohl and Madden Co. which DIC purchased earlier.
H Iwata proposed S Kawamura to remove J Piot.       His answer was to send Iwata back to Japan and replace him with H Irie who was considered to be the most able manager within DIC then.                 S Kawamura must have had concern that if he dismissed his appointee his reputation would suffer and thus ended up  not able to replace J Piot right away.

PQX Team

This signature collection was sent in by Rob Middleton who was a research chemist in Clark involved in various film product.         When I was first involved as the temporary and part time research director of film research laboratory, the first major project was to convert "random grain" film emulsion (which came from du Pont) to "cubic crystal" emulsion which became the mainstream technology of the industry for its more stable performance.         The first product, Rapid Access film was code named as PQX in the laboratory and when it became a product the code name itself became the product name.            The product launch was organized by Mike Adelman then the Film Product marketing manager very successfully and the PQX product became one of the major line of Polychrome products.           The success came in my humble opinion not by the outstanding quality of the product but by the excellent cross departmental launch team essential in modern product launch.      You will recognize many familiar names in the list from all the departments concerned, R&D, QC, production, marketing and sales.          Rob was able to decode the difficult handwritings and added typed note which was not in the original signature assembly.       Hope someone can recognize the last signature yet to be decoded! 

P

1997 Telephone Directory

We received internal telephone directory from time to time.      They were usually pasted on the wall of office or neatly filed for easy access.       In my case these were pasted on a note book and was carried around.       Some scribbles are my own handwriting.            How many names do you recognize?

Integration of Polychrome into Sun Chemical . ... from Mr. Iwata's book

DIC’s plan to integrate Polychrome into Sun Chemical was very complicated.      Polychrome produced more plates in Europe than in US.     When president Piot showed his plan to bring European technical staff to US and concentrate R&D effort, DIC technical staff stationed in Polychrome GmbH R&D loudly opposed his plan and accused him of his amateurish management.       Given this S Kawamura had to decide to retire J Piot.        Don Wheeler who came from McKinsey was picked to be the next president to ensure smooth  integration into Sun Chemical run by E. Barr.
At around that time there was an overture from Kodak, but DIC did not trust J Piot to be able to handle such a delicate issue.          In addition there was another issue of disposal of resin company Polychrome owned and it was run by a self promotiing "next president of Polychrome".      It was considered rather difficult to remove him.      And S.Kawamura himself needed to persuade him to go along with J Piot.

New Condo at old PC HQ

Ron Muzillo sent me his recent scouting report on the progress of old Polychrome HQ conversion to residential complex.        Appears to be a pretty big building covering both HQ ground and the next door (used to be someone's parking lot) .          Thanks Ron for sending the info and the photo.


I was in Yonkers this AM and stopped by the Polychrome Corp Offices and

the plate mfg facilities-I'm sending your pictures of the condo's that have

been built-you have to love waterfront property:

Ron M

Aug, 2018

And Ron writes further

You have no idea how big this is! I would guess at least 2500 condo's

from the Polychrome site down pass the Yonkers pier:

Ron M

PC Film Division old photo from Joe Broshowitz

Joe Broshowitz unearthed another photo ca. 1992 from gathering of film division.

He writes "Hello Ken-

I hope this email finds you and yours well. Found another old picture, circa 1992 of PC film division people. I’m sure you already recognize many. They include; Jack Weithoff, Bert Waxman, Viktor Tkaczenko (my mentor), Ed Wisniewski, John Raglione, Don Pollack. Al Garcia, Bob Burslem, Bill Meise, Bob Pierce, Doug Benham, CoreyMeitchik, Ed campanella and myself.

Wishing you the best-

Joe Broschowitz

Thank you Joe very much for your contribution.

How DIC came to bid for Polychrome (from Mr. Iwata's book)

In 1978, Mr. Shigekuni Kawamura was made new president of DIC with a mandate from his father-in-law and former president Kattsumi Kawamura to increase sales 13% annually and reach approx 1000 mil yen within 10 years.        He identified overseas expansion as the mean to answer  the challenge.        One product DIC had their eye on was the presensitized printing plate to supplement their ink business.        A several years back they had discussion with Hoechst to build joint venture company for production of presensitized plate in Japan.         The discussion crumbled as Hoechst wanted leadership in overall management of the joint venture company.        Just at this moment they learned that a French company Rhone Poulanc was interested in disposing their 40% holding of Polychrome shares.       DIC initiated conversation with Polychrome and agreed with Mr. Halpern that DIC would be a good partner to acquire this 40% share.           Rhone Poulanc, however,  tried to delay the discussion and then not only changed their initial plan to sell Polychrome shares but started to have a TOB (take over bid) to obtain majority of Polychrome shares.          In the TOB, Rhone Poulanc had advantage of already owning 40% but was unfriendly to the management.    On the other hand for DIC the situation was completely opposite.    TOB ended successfully for DIC at the price of $26 / share.         Mr. Iwata's note says that there was a secret meeting between Rhone Poulanc and DIC management in which only K and S Kawamura were present.         Mr. Iwata speculates the meeting may have been to discuss amicable settlement but he also suggests that this was part of Rhone Poulanc delaying tactics until they have developed their own strategy.

Mr. Hideshi Iwata, DIC

I first met Mr. Iwata right after the successful bid by DIC to buy most of the Polychrome share on the market and when members of Polychrome management visited DIC in Tokyo.

The president Shigekuni Kawamura was of course right in the center of bidding activity and was very visible to us.         But once we were in Japan, we were impressed by Mr. Iwata's behind the scene hard work.         I was very impressed to see him 7 am at the hotel with minutes of conference we had one day before with agenda for the day he prepared early in the morning.        This is of course after the customary sake-drinking at the official reception and follow up night expedition hosted by Mr. Kawamura into very late at night to which Mr. Iwata was present.         As the manager of oversea development department with the experience in financing he was the right hand man for Mr. Kawamura and supported him in expansion into overseas market.           Just prior to Polychrome, DIC bought Kohl and Madden, an American ink manufacturer, and afterwards Sun Chemical and Reichold Chemical and Mr. Iwata was right in the middle of financial arrangement.     He was made Vice President and director when he was 52, youngest ever at DIC and he quickly rose to Executive Vice President.

As Dr. Oe who built DIC's PS plant in Gunma and later became President of DIC often said, Mr. Iwata understood the need for speed in business and made a decision for his Gunma plant building needs without usual red tape ever present in large corporation like DIC. 

After his retirement he was diagnosed to have cancer of intestine and prostate.       Nursing his illness, he wrote his "letter from Hakone" in his Hakone retreat and sent out to his friends.        I was one of many, I believe, to suggest to publish it and he completed his manuscript shortly his death in 2005.

In his book, "Two presidents and I", he described background stories during Polychrome purchase.

I will translate some of them to upload in future.

 Mr. Hideshi Iwata

Two Presidents and I

Joe Moutal

Joe and Kay Moutal, brother and sister, joined Polychrome early on.           By the time I arrived Polychrome in 1965, Kay was already Mrs. Robert Gumbinner and busy at home raising two boys.      Joe continued to work for quite some time and the best I remember him is as the trade show manager of  shows such as Grahpexpo, traveling shows, etc.         This photo unearthed recently  says 1967 in the back and must have been at the Dec. 1967 Christmas party with Mrs. Moutal, me and my boss together with Joe.

from left, Ken and Teruko Shimazu, Carmen and Joe Moutal

Polychrome Backgrounder Jan '94

This is another contribution from Al Wierling of Florida.         A document I have not seen before.      A brief summery of Polychrome history and product offerings during the time of Thomas Bittner as our CEO.      I can imagine this was well used during his and his staff's numerous presentations to our major and important clients.           One of the most viewed pages of this blog is the company history and I am sure this will be viewed by many.         Thank you Al again for your continued effort to dig out interesting Polychrome memorabilia.

mail from Lew Cohen

From time to time i receive mail from ex-employee, family member of employee and those interested in Polychrome history.         Since this blog accumulated enough material simply Googling "Polychrome Corporation" brings them to this blog.          I am always delighted to hear their thoughts on Polychrome which invariably remain positive after so many years.        Here is the latest I received from Mr. Lew Cohen.

Mr. Shimazu,
I stumbled onto the blog you have about Polychrome. I was an employee back in the late 1970' to the mid 1980's.

I was 2 shift manufacturing supervisor in Offset manufacturing running C,D, and F lines. It was my first "Real job after college" I d fondly remember it.
 They are correct forget what you learn in college and learn at a Great Job. I learnt so much about people and how they interact with each other and how the Pride factor will surface. 

 Seeing all the pictures and stories of the plant and the people brought back a flood of memories that I have forgotten about. What I found so fascinating that many of the people that I supervised were still there at the shutdown of operations. A lot of them look the same just a little older.

 I always viewed my time at Polychrome as a positive influence in my others jobs, I would ask myself if a issue came up what would I do at Polychrome.

I do remember talk about when Kodak bought them and figured they would close the plant. But I had relocated to California and lost track of it.

I did return to the New York area a few years ago and did drive to the plant and saw it gone. Felt like a part of me was gone.


I do thank you for keeping a part of the story alive.

Thank You,
Lew Cohen

Polychrome building via Google map

Google has been taking street pictures throughout the world and we can now see various buildings so long as we know the address.       They update from time to time so that there are some time delays in what it really look like right now.        We now know that the Polychrome HQ is gone but we can still see the building and the surroundings via Google Map.     

Polychrome HQ 137 Alexander Street Yonkers, NY.     HERE   (As of this writing 6/1/2018, the contents are photographed on Aug. 2017)

Although there will be a time delay we could watch transformation of old HQ site to whatever is coming up for the future.           I expect the above link will update automatically as Google update their Street views.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 26 Change of ownership

Through the years a number of companies tried to acquire Polychrome.  Among them were Itek, Fairchild Semi- conductor and a company in Queens which made auxiliary equipment for photographic films.  The owner may misunderstood Mr. Halpern and bought 11% of the Polychrome stock.  He wanted to put a director on the board.  Mr. Halpern rejected this and arranged for Rhone Polunec to buy this 11%.  When Mr. Halpern was ready to sell Polychrome  Rhone Polunec offered $22 a share.  Mr. Halpern declined and Raymond Piccard. although representing Rhone Polunec, backed him.  Mr. Piani did not vote.  Polychrome was sold to Dai Nippon Ink and Chemical for $29 a share.  Mr. Halpern pressured Mr. Gold, the financial vice president to resign.  He appointed Henry Levy President,

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 25 Polychrome Columbus

We finally decided to move the plate making  lines to a building near the old North Philadelphia airport for which we put up an option.  I was to be in charge and I looked for a nearby house.  Mr. Halpern insisted that we make the emulsifier that was used for the subtractive plate developer.  To do this we needed a zoning variance.  We were told this should not be a problem.  But a man running for assembly man was opposed.  He won the election and since Mr. Halpern would not change his mind.  We dropped the option.  After Polychrome was acquired by Dai  Nippon Ink and Chemical, A building for the plate lines was erected in an industrial park in Columbus, Georgia. 

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 24 New plate plant sites

Mr. Halpern started to look for a site which to move the plate lines.  I went with him to various paces in Sullivan county.  We met a builder in Newburgh who showed us possible sites.  We also saw a  farm on 200 acres , a house and a large cow barn  near Poughkeepsie that I liked.  We also went to Hazelton Penn. Where they made a strong pitch for us to locate there.  We sent our plant manager Leo Golusinski, who had been a foreman at the Alexander Smith Carpet works, to investigate Hazelton. He told us do not move there.  The workers were bitter coal miners and we would have labor troubles.  We went to Raleigh North Carolina and met the man in charge of industrial development.  He took us to Asheville where we saw several possible sites, one along the Swanannona  river.  He took us to Grove Park hotel we had lunch on the terrace overlooking a nine hole golf course.  He said there were sites in Winston Salem but our staff would not be comfortable there.  He then showed us places near Raleigh.  We sent Leo Golusinski to Asheville.  He reported favorably. He said there had been a police strike but it was not a labor union problem. The only other Alexander Smith worker who I know worked at Polychrome was Jack Roberts who ran the multigraph press in the lab to test the plates.  

RIP Polychrome Corporation HQ

Ron Muzillo sent in the newest update on Yonkers HQ of Polychorme site.   

Thanks Ron for keeping up the survaeilance.

I passed by the Polychrome Building in Yonkers yesterday and to

my complete surprise ---no more building --- the entire Polychrome building

and lot has been leveled as well as the property next to Polychrome on

the south side.

AVAVAION construction is building water front Condo's on all of the two

properties.

Yonkers is no more! Tough to digest.

Ron Muzzillo

Clark lab photo

Rob Middleton used to work in our film group in Clark.    This is his recent contribution showing familiar faces and names.      Thanks Rob!

I (Rob) captioned all of the Lab People in this photo.

     Cheryl Scher (10)  became quite a good distance runner. I met her at a 4-mile race some years ago. A day or two later she was flying out to run in a 26-mile Marathon in Maine, I believe.

     Ross Derose (4) made terrific CAKES for our special occasions.

     Glenn Simonsen (3) is a Facilities Engineer for Trane Corp. in Alpharetta, GA.

1967 Japan trip

Fuji Photo Film  licensed Plate technology from Polychrome Corporation and started to manufacture and sell products in Japan but faced difficulties from Japanese market accustomed to handmade deep etch process.        In 1967 they have decided to make a marketing effort with lecture series inviting Mr. Halpern as the speaker to let customers know how the PS plates were used in US.        Dr. Ooba was then in charge of new product development section of Fuji and planned and hosted the event.

The lectures were given in three major cities, Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.       Major printers sent their executives and managers to hear what Mr. Halpern as the founder and the expert in US graphic arts industry.        Presentations were shared by Mr. Halpern and Simon Chu while I was charged to translate the presentations into Japanese as well as give my understanding of prepress color proofing system in US.        (Prepress color proofing never took hold in Japan relying strictly on press-proof for a long time.)         These pictures came from Simon Chu's file and came to me thanks to his son Doug.        

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 23 Polychrome Clark

Mr. Halpern met Henry Levy and Gene Wilkerson who worked for the Dupont silver halide photograph division.  They had left Dupont but kept the process manuals. Mr. Halpern hired them to start to make graphic arts photographic films.  We bought a building in Clark, New Jersey from a chemical company.  It had several labs with hoods. Next to it was L’oreal. In order to install the spiral coater which they said was needed we had toad a three story annex.  Mr. Halpern thought we would be able to install some of the aluminum plate lines; but when made the plans for the silver halide films there was not enough room. We did install the solution making equipment in one corner. I believe we acquired a small company that made solutions for the graphic arts.  After we started to coat the film, the Hunt brothers of Texas tried to corner the market for silver and the price of silver went from 5.00 dollars an ounce to 50.00.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 22 Berwick personnel

A supervisor of the plant told me about a bar in Berwick where I could get Poached salmon .  By poached he meant caught on the property of an estate.  Usually we would take the train to Edinburgh from London to get there.  Several times we hired a private plane. As the pilot started to land he pulled up suddenly.  Somebody had erected a fence.  The only hotel in Berwick was a musty old one.  Mr. Halpern, when he visited Berwick either stayed in a motel several miles or in Edinburgh.  Our Yonkers employee,  who was a lead stencil coater resigned saying he had inherited a bar in Peebles, Scotland from his uncle.  About three years later he returned.  Once when Mr. Halpern was in Edinburgh instead of taking the shortest way from Berwick along the coast, I took the road along the Tweed.  It was an attractive drive.  At a point I made a right turn to drive north to Edinburgh through Peebles.  When I reached Peebles I stopped at a gas station and said I am from Polychrome one of our employees inherited a bar.  A man in the station immediately said you mean Archie Anderson.  When I said yes.  He told me it wasn’t a bar it was fish and chips restaurant and now it sold old bottles and he told me where it was.  I stopped there briefly and went on to Edinburgh.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 21 Polychrome Berwick

At that time the European common market did not exist.  It was decided to erect a plant in England to make the presensitized plates.  Tom Heckles  (who may have come from Ilford) was the manager of our England office.  He rented the lower floor of a building in Watford, a northern  suburb of London.  Watford is served by both the Underground and regular trains from Euston station.  We sent rolls of the paper plates and Polychrome Gmbh sent the aluminum plates.  Heckles sheeted the rolls and made the various solutions.  Mr, Halpern decided to open a lithographic plate making facility under the auspices of the Osterode plant.  Tom Heckles was asked to find a place to make the presensitized plates.  He choose Berwick.  A city on the south side of the Tweed River.  Across the river was Scotland.  We acquired a site and installed a 30 inch wide line.  I went there a number of times. 

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 20 Rhone Poulanc

  At some point Ilford was not interested in being involved with the aluminum plates.  Mr. Halpern arranged for Rhone Polunec, the leading French chemical company to purchase the Ilford shares.  To represent Rhone Poulanc they chose Mr. Piani who was the president of their cellophane division.  Mr. Halpern appointed Mr. Piani  and another man to  be Polychrome directors.  As the sales of the plates acceded the capacity of the former furniture factory plant, Polychromre Gmbh acquired a  former mushroom producing buildings in a suburb of Osterode, Katzenstein.  Because my wife Kay had brain surgery,  I could not stay in Osterode for enough time, therefore Simon Chu was put in charge of the  European operations.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 19 Polychrome GmbH

When we started to make the aluminum plates, we found there was not a sufficient flow of water.  Apparently the pipes were corroded.  We installed two 500 gallon tanks which were filled at night to have enough water to run the tanks line rinses.  Mr. Halpern hired a man in America from Germany to be the president of Poychrome Gmbh .  After a number of months we found the sales manager which Polychrome Gmbh  had hired was keeping some of the money the dealers paid and he was discharged.  A Mr, Richter was hired as the plant manager and Mr. Mintel as the company chemist.  

Polychrome Gmbh acquired an empty building In downtown Osterode which had been a furniture factory.  The  company then made the offset plates there and left Freiheiit.  I do not know if the tank line was moved there but they  built a copy of our C line.  Most of the line was built by Deprieux  which had experience building metal plate lines.  The anodizing section was obtained from Langbein.  We bought  from Deprieux two position unwind stands and heat seal units which enabled us to connect a finished roll of aluminum to a new one using a special two sided tape made by 3M.                 

Dr. Ken Kuhn

Dr. Ken Kuhn appeared to Polychrome suddenly in 1979 soon after the DIC takeover  as the head of research laboratory but without any background in graphic arts industry.          His effort was centered around organizing thick reports on every projects we had.          Since Polychrome laboratory had been more focused on results rather than writing reports, I must admit our record keeping was less than ideal.      So we reluctantly (perhaps) started to prepare thick reports which he brought to the management meetings to show the "progress".           But the combination of his lack of understanding of our business and his interest in following rigid structure made him not the most liked R&D director in our history.        Since I was still the Assistant Research Director I had an opportunity to hear his view of our staff and his interest in getting rid of one particular senior person who made considerable contribution to Polychrome but simply showed his dislike of Dr. K.           Possibly as the result of my complaint to Mr. Iwata of DIC, Dr. K was abruptly dismissed right in the middle of DRUPA in Dusseldorf when Mr. Kawamura came to meet us on the boat hotel we rented for the duration of the show.
Clearly Dr. K was a successful businessman judging from his bio    HERE  but we were simply not ready for the "big company" operation he (and Joe Piot) tried to bring in.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 18 Germany

In Germany there was a large printing fair called Drupa held every five years in Dusseldorf.  There were many buildings on several acres.  To get a room in Dusseldorf it was necessary to reserve for the next fair.  Mr. Halpern met at the fair two men who were making electrolytic etched aluminum offset plates.  In Germany positive working plates were widely used.  Mr. Halpern arranged to buy their company.  I believe it was called Alpha.  At the same time he asked Gestetner to be part owners.  Mr Gestetner was not intererested in offset.  He then made an arrangement with Ilford which was the equivalent of Kodak in England to invest.  The owner of Alpha (I believe his name was Aurich was asked to find a site for a plant to make the negative working aluminum lithographic plates.  He told me he needed a large amount of water.  He chose Osterode, a city in the Harz mountains, a few miles from the East German border where there was a large reservoir.  I t was fairly near Berlin where he lived.    He picked part of an industrial building in Freiheit a suburb.  Ilford sent two or three of their employees to help set up the tank line. 

Film Tech managers in front of Clark Tech Center

Joe Broschowitz contributed the following rare photo of  Film Tech Managers.      Since I do not have an extensive film business library, this is a very welcome addition.      Thanks Joe.

From left to right: Dave Maxey, Joe Broschowitz, John Raglione, Doug Benham, Mike Adelman (Director/Film Marketing), Don Pollack, Bob Pierce, Jim Fino (Film Marketing). This photo is circa 1987.

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 17 Speidel and Sales

Until Polychrome was acquired,  Mr. Halpern's wife, Freda Bonime was the secretary of Polychrome. The two direct image paper coaters were moved to the Speidel plant in Fernwood. This also became the Philadelphia Polychrome office.  There was only a small market for our direct image paper plates.  One was for telephone directories .  Eastman Kodak had invented a gelatin and silver halide coated paper Verifax to compete with the diffusion transfer paper, which was at that time popular.  About ten copies could be made directly from the verifax master.  However the image could be transferred to the Polychrome direct image paper plate.  Because it contained gelatin it was difficult to pick up ink.  I invented a solution which made the image more ink receptive.  I then designed a desk top unit to enable the image to be transferred to the offset plate.  Polychrome arranged for this transfer unit to be manufactured by a company in Connecticut.  About this time Mr. Halpern hired  a man to be the Polychrome sales manager.  I was in Mr. Halpern’s living room when he hired him.  I believe his name was Horton.  Mr. Halpern said he would have free rein.  However, shortly after he started at Polychrome Mr. Halpern told him what to do.  Mr. Horton then resigned.  I do not know who were the sales managers between then and  time Elmer Crabbs left.  After that James Graves who had been the manager of our Baltimore office which was in Towson was hired as a vice president and sales manager.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 16 Speidel

Louis  Esposito was hired as the financial vice president.  He, Cohen and Mike Vasaliko (one of Fred Hozeny’s assistants) formed a company and set up a plant in Mount  Vernon which copied the Polychrome tank line. We hired a lawyer Jerry Wanshell to get an injunction against them. He was not successful.  Poychrome acquired a company in Fernwood Penn., a suburb of Philadelphia which made blueprint, brown print and diazo coated papers similar to Ozalid.  The directors were Ellington Beavers, who had been a vice president of Rohm and Hass, General LeBron, and Bruce Baldwin,  who had been an officer of a Philadelphia ice cream company  and was one of the managers of the agency that ran the housing development group. I do not remember the names of the Speidel president and vice-president.  One of their directors, Bruce Baldwin., Mr. Halpern put on the Board of directors of Polychrome.