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PHOTO BY: Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times

Exploding flashbulb

Posted By: Scott Harrison
Posted On: 12:29 a.m. | January 26, 2012

July 29, 1948: Doris Mae Normandine and attorney Werner O. Graf cringe as an Los Angeles Exmainer photograher’s flashbulb explodes. Normandine was a witness in court during divorce proceedings between Dr. J. Salem Rubin and Lorraine Rubin.

This photo by staff photographer Bruce Cox was published in the July 30, 1948, Los Angeles Times. In 1952, this photo was also published in Among Ourselves, a Times-Mirror employee newsletter. Cox reported he was trying to get a photo of Normandine when the flashbulb exploded.

The Los Angeles Examiner photographer was never identified. Both times this image was published with the photographer’s face cropped out. It is not known if this was deliberate or just the edge of the negative. The above image was scanned from a print found in the Los Angeles Times archive.

Meggaflash Technologies of Ireland, which still makes flashbulbs, includes this safety sheet on its website.

This image has been added to the Photojournalist on the Job photo gallery.

Tags: From the Archives :: Los Angeles :: Black & White :: News

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1 Comment

February 1, 2012, 2:09 pm

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years of working with Sylvania Press 25 blue dot flash bulbs had it's share of 'surprises'…i've had them go off in my pocket from friction getting in and out of my VW. and when you took the old one out, it was hot, really hot…ah those were the days…they were powerful though, you could light half a foot ball field with them

By: Todd Holden

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