A Brief History
On October 11, 2001, Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy and a year later went out of business. Polaroid brought us instant print photos and became a part of American culture when First Daughter Jenna Bush said her parents would “Shake it like a Polaroid picture!” referencing an Outkast song.
Digging Deeper
Other iconic American companies and brands have also become extinct, and we list a few of the most notable ones.
Airlines, such as Braniff, Eastern, Frontier, Northwest Orient, Pan Am, and TWA, among others.
Auto brands AMC, Checker, Mercury, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Plymouth, Saturn, and Studebaker, among others.
Retail giants A & P, Borders, Circuit City, and Radio Shack are all gone.
K Mart once had over 2,300 US stores, and now has a paltry three US stores!
Sears once boasted over 3,500 stores and now is down to only 11.
What major American brands will be the next to disappear?
Question for students (and subscribers): Which bygone American company or brand do you miss the most? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gandt, Robert. SKYGODS: The Fall of Pan Am. Black Star Productions, 2012.
Kiaps, Florian. Polaroid: The Magic Material. Frances Lincoln, 2016.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by WI-Photos of a Polaroid Camera, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
