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.