Scott's Studio

 Scott  Henry, owner of the Old Time Portrait Studio, is completing his 38th  year as an Old Time Portrait Photographer – photographing 1883 since  1983. You can take a step back in time to the era of …bad men and  bargirls, gangsters and gun molls, Winchesters and whiskey bottles, top  hats and crinolines, soldiers and southern belles. He has opened Old  Time Portrait studios in Lake Tahoe, CA and Fish Creek, WI and continues  to operate studios at major state fairs around the county. What started as a part time job in a  darkroom one summer has grown into ownership of the largest mobile Old Time Photo studio in the country. 

For Scott, a career in Old Time Photos began the summer of 1980, two years after graduating  from high school in the small town of Onalaska, Wisconsin and during his  second year at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. A full-time job as a  motel desk clerk was not making him enough summer income: he needed a  second job. His brother worked in Wisconsin Dells and told him about a  job opening at a local photography studio. Even though it was well into  the summer season, Scott was able to get an interview with owner, Dave  Jahnke, of Bennett Tintypes. He was offered a job in the studio’s  darkroom.

"I  actually worked in the same building H.H. Bennett used from 1875 until  he passed away in 1908," Scott recalls. Mr. Bennett was very famous for  his views of the scenic Dells area and the studio remained in his family  after his death. The studio was a museum for many years, before being  turned into a State Historic Landmark, and is well known today for  having the only working Victorian era darkroom in the world. "Back when I  worked there, the Old Time Photo studio sat in what is now the  recreated studio space."

Scott  grew to like Old Time Photography and soon moved out of the darkroom:  the second summer he became the studio’s manager and by the end of the  third he became its general manager.

After  his third summer season at the Bennett studio ended, Scott decided he  wanted to start his own studio. With equipment he rented from his boss,  Scott was able to set up a temporary studio in a shopping mall during  the Christmas season in Madison, Wisconsin. "I set up in the center of a  large discount store," Scott recalls, "right between the ladies  lingerie and the sporting goods! I was only able to be open on weekends  and evenings because I was still in graduate school at the time and I  would have had to hire help for the days, which I could not afford to  do." In 1983, Scott graduated, receiving a MBA degree. Dave Jahnke, his  boss at the Bennett studio (and a good friend by now), suggested he  travel and take Old Time Photos at special events. Accordingly, Scott  sent out letters and applications, and one of those that were answered  was from the Iowa State Fair— which also sent a contract. The life of a  traveling Old Time Photographer beckoned.

The  booth spaces he was offered were located in a stockade-like building  called International Place, a small attraction near the center of the  large Des Moines fairgrounds. He took portraits by shooting a Polaroid  proof in a view camera and enlarging the small print onto Agfa copy  proof materials and processing the prints in the darkroom while his  customers waited.

"I  didn’t have much of a studio," Scott recalls. "But I was sure busy!"  The Iowa State Fair, the largest family oriented agricultural fair in  the country, is considered a ‘rite of summer’ by many Iowa families  (many come for the full eleven days of the fair). For his second season,  Scott purchased a twelve year-old school bus to carry the studio and  house his help. When he traveled, he loaded the bus with the studio.  That second season, Scott got into the Tulsa State Fair in Oklahoma: his  second state fair. 

1985  was the last year Scott would work for Dave Jahnke in the Dells. That  same year, a relative of Dave’s hired Scott to train people for a studio  he was opening at Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada line. Little did  Scott know, as he trained these people, that two years later he would  buy this studio and have his first permanent studio

Colonel  Frank M. Colby’s Old Time Portraits was situated in what used to be a  carport, next to a t-shirt shop on the side of the busy highway one  block from the State Line Casinos. Outside, he parked his  attention-getting 1901 Olds replica. His short lease ran from Memorial  Day to Labor Day, when the space reverted to a ski shop.

For  the next five years, he operated the Tahoe studio and the summer fair  circuit at the same time. From 1985 to 1988, he would travel to several  small county fairs throughout the summer in Massachusetts, Indiana and  Wisconsin, and the Tahoe studio would be run by a manager. He continued  doing the Iowa and Tulsa State Fairs and added the Florida State Fair in  Tampa. This gave him three big fairs to anchor the traveling studio’s  season, while still maintaining the seasonal studio in Tahoe and a  temporary studio in a mall at Christmas.

By  1990, Scott had tired of the Tahoe studio. The long commutes, the short  season and the limited income from the studio had him looking around  for another, closer location. While at Fox River Mall in Appleton,  Wisconsin, where he had set up for the Christmas season, he heard of  Fish Creek, a small picturesque tourist town in Door County Here, among  the fruit orchards and rugged lakeside towns, Fish Creek was a popular  tourist destination. "I drove up there to check it out in the dead of  winter," Scott recalls, "and I found an empty, locked up town- but I was  able to secure a 20 x 30 foot studio space in the end store of a small  newly built three-store complex in town." 

Since  the space was new, the owner allowed Scott to modify the shop to his  needs-and he took advantage of the freedom. Out in front of the  "Professor H.H. Scott’s" studio, he parked a 1930 Model A Ford Roadster  beside an old restored gas pump for a gangster set. On either side of  the double front doors, he hung huge enlarged Old Time Portraits in  elaborate frames. A dress form displayed a dress, the windows were  filled with sample portraits, and potential customers could view people  as they posed. Inside the lobby, several low counters, covered with  matted and framed samples, separated the lobby from the studio posing  area. Hats were arranged on long boards above the costumes, which  spanned the entire far wall of the studio. An old bathtub on casters sat  under the costumes, ready to be used. A single painted canvas backdrop,  framed by curtains, was placed on the back wall.

By  1991, Scott now owned two permanent, very seasonal, studios thousands  of miles apart, as well as a traveling studio operation that traveled  thousands of more miles. With three studios operating at the same time,  Scott found himself racing back and forth to deal with the constant  problems of each studio. Eventually, something had to be done: the Tahoe  studio was sold in 1993 to his manager." In 2000, he also sold the Fish  Creek studio to concentrate more on the mobile old time portrait  studio.

In  1985, the Iowa State Fair demolished International Place, forcing Scott  to buy a tent to put the studio into. For the next three seasons, his  studio’s new home was a yellow and white striped enclosure measuring  twenty feet square with nine- foot sidewalls. 1985 also saw Scott using a  16-foot cargo trailer, which he parked at the back of the tent and  divided into a darkroom and storage area. "We processed our prints in a  five foot by six foot section at the front of the trailer," he says.

Scott  spent a great deal of time thinking of ways to improve his traveling  operation. He decided the biggest improvement he could make was to find a  trailer for his traveling studio to operate out of, not be stored in.  "Nothing was set up to suit Old Time Photography," he recalls. "The  ceilings were too low, the depth too narrow or they sat too high off the  ground. So I listed my needs and designed a trailer to fit those  needs." The trailer would have to fold, drop, swing and slide from an  eight by twenty-one foot traveling unit into a twenty by twenty foot  marvel of trailer making. It would need running water, air conditioning,  fans and lights galore. It had to have changing rooms, a darkroom and  ten-foot high ceilings inside. The body would fold out into a large  stage area that would be protected from the elements and able to be  lowered close to the ground. Of course, all of this would have to travel  safely and yet be easy to setup and teardown.

Building  such a trailer would not be easy. Scott found a company in Tampa,  Florida willing to attempt to build his unusual design. Scott took  delivery of his extraordinary trailer in 1988. 

When  the trailer was built, Scott was using Agfa copy proof materials.  Today, the darkroom is no longer needed and serves as an office and  air-conditioned break room. In the center of the trailer stage,  separating the posing area from the costuming area, sits a large cabinet  housing the electronic computer equipment for the digital studio Scott  purchased in 2000. The Ashley’s Nostalgia digital studio system uses a  digital camera and computer software to produce Old Time portraits in  sepia-tone, antique color or modern colors. Customers can preview the  images immediately, orders taken, and then the prints made while the  customer changes back to their street clothes. The prints are made using  a four DNP roll dye-sublimation printers in about fifty-five seconds.  At the sales area, all portraits are shown in custom oak 11 x 14 inch  frames Scott has manufactured for him. 

In  1996, Scott got into the Minnesota State Fair, held during the eleven  days before Labor Day-his largest fair. Unfortunately, it starts just  three days after the Iowa State Fair ends, making for a very quick move.  The large Minnesota State Fairgrounds are situated between the two  biggest cities in Minnesota. The studio is located near The West End  Marketplace: a collection of historical buildings and nostalgic venues  in one corner of the fairgrounds. 

Today,  Old Time Portraits travels to four large fairs: the Iowa State Fair,  the Minnesota State Fair, the Eastern States Exposition and the  Miami-Dade County Youth Fair in Miami, Florida. Scott also continues to  set up a temporary studio at a shopping mall for the Christmas season,  as he has every year, but three, since 1982. Twelve of those years have  been at the Fox River Mall in Appleton WI. Since 2001, Scott’s customers  have been able to place orders for extra prints, posters and frames at  www.mobileoldtimeportraits.com or www.extracopies.com.