1
00:00:05,605 --> 00:00:11,111
♪ ♪

2
00:00:11,111 --> 00:00:14,948
(seagulls squawking, 
waves lapping)

3
00:00:14,948 --> 00:00:16,349
(people calling and talking 
in background)

4
00:00:16,349 --> 00:00:20,587
NARRATOR: 
Miami, Florida, 1972.

5
00:00:20,587 --> 00:00:23,289
The cars, fabulous.

6
00:00:23,289 --> 00:00:26,259
The Dolphins, undefeated.

7
00:00:26,259 --> 00:00:30,163
The Democratic and Republican 
conventions had come to town.

8
00:00:30,163 --> 00:00:34,067
But the biggest game around 
was a product launch party,

9
00:00:34,067 --> 00:00:38,638
and the thing up for sale 
was a camera.

10
00:00:38,638 --> 00:00:41,441
RHIANNON ADAM: 
This tiny little pocket-sized 
camera

11
00:00:41,441 --> 00:00:44,778
which folded up, and this 
perfect image that came out,

12
00:00:44,778 --> 00:00:47,047
the perfection of that system

13
00:00:47,047 --> 00:00:49,883
and how that made photography 
accessible and portable--

14
00:00:49,883 --> 00:00:51,584
that is groundbreaking.

15
00:00:51,584 --> 00:00:52,986
(shutter clicks, flash bursts, 
camera whirs)

16
00:00:52,986 --> 00:00:56,356
NARRATOR: 
The SX-70 instant camera 
was unlike anything

17
00:00:56,356 --> 00:00:58,291
anyone had ever seen,

18
00:00:58,291 --> 00:01:01,928
and it was every inch the kind 
of revolutionary device

19
00:01:01,928 --> 00:01:05,398
that Polaroid 
was already famous for.

20
00:01:05,398 --> 00:01:07,634
I can't imagine a world 
without the Polaroid.

21
00:01:07,634 --> 00:01:10,503
AINISSA RAMIREZ: 
Many of my early milestones 
in my life

22
00:01:10,503 --> 00:01:12,472
were taken 
with a Polaroid camera.

23
00:01:12,472 --> 00:01:15,175
First Communion, 
loss of a first tooth,

24
00:01:15,175 --> 00:01:16,943
all are in that white frame.

25
00:01:16,943 --> 00:01:20,080
CHRIS BONANOS: Polaroid 
at its peak was enabling people

26
00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,283
to make about a billion pictures 
a year.

27
00:01:23,283 --> 00:01:25,685
No one didn't know 
what a Polaroid photograph was.

28
00:01:25,685 --> 00:01:29,923
It's one of the most instantly 
recognizable brands ever.

29
00:01:29,923 --> 00:01:31,758
That sense of playfulness

30
00:01:31,758 --> 00:01:34,294
was really at the kind of 
heart of the brand.

31
00:01:34,294 --> 00:01:38,465
NARRATOR: 
Behind the magic was the genius 
of a man named Edwin Land,

32
00:01:38,465 --> 00:01:42,402
an inventor who'd been chasing 
the dream of instant photography

33
00:01:42,402 --> 00:01:45,271
since way back in the 1940s.

34
00:01:45,271 --> 00:01:47,774
Land is an icon, 
in his time and today.

35
00:01:47,774 --> 00:01:51,778
He grasped the way 
that we take pictures now.

36
00:01:51,778 --> 00:01:55,715
Take a wallet out of my pocket

37
00:01:55,715 --> 00:01:58,751
and perhaps open the wallet, 
press a button,

38
00:01:58,751 --> 00:02:01,621
close the wallet, 
and have the picture.

39
00:02:01,621 --> 00:02:03,423
Steve Jobs would tell you

40
00:02:03,423 --> 00:02:05,992
that Land was his idol 
in many, many ways,

41
00:02:05,992 --> 00:02:08,228
because he created 
this technology company

42
00:02:08,228 --> 00:02:11,397
that made products that people 
didn't even know they wanted.

43
00:02:11,397 --> 00:02:16,169
LAND: 
A camera which you would use not 
on the occasion of parties only

44
00:02:16,169 --> 00:02:18,872
or of trips only,

45
00:02:18,872 --> 00:02:20,440
but a camera that you would use

46
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:22,809
as often as your pencil 
or your eyeglasses.

47
00:02:22,809 --> 00:02:25,645
PARKER SARGENT: 
That Polaroid camera helped

48
00:02:25,645 --> 00:02:27,780
expand our knowledge 
of ourselves,

49
00:02:27,780 --> 00:02:29,883
knowledge of our community,

50
00:02:29,883 --> 00:02:33,653
and also what we can become.

51
00:02:33,653 --> 00:02:36,823
NARRATOR: 
Never before had anything 
so completely

52
00:02:36,823 --> 00:02:39,993
incarnated the idea 
that a single machine

53
00:02:39,993 --> 00:02:41,761
really could change the world.

54
00:02:41,761 --> 00:02:46,065
For years, Land seemed able 
to divine what people wanted.

55
00:02:46,065 --> 00:02:50,570
It was a unique, 
intoxicating position of power.

56
00:02:50,570 --> 00:02:53,573
And making the impossible 
possible?

57
00:02:53,573 --> 00:02:56,142
That was better than any drug 
on the planet.

58
00:02:56,142 --> 00:02:57,577
RON FIERSTEIN: 
He was a bit of an egotist.

59
00:02:57,577 --> 00:02:59,546
You might even say a narcissist.

60
00:02:59,546 --> 00:03:03,116
This person who has been 
almost hero-worshipped

61
00:03:03,116 --> 00:03:06,252
suddenly feels 
that the brand is him

62
00:03:06,252 --> 00:03:07,720
and he is the brand.

63
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:09,889
That it cannot, somehow, 
exist without him.

64
00:03:09,889 --> 00:03:12,759
SARGENT: 
For him, the Polaroid camera is

65
00:03:12,759 --> 00:03:16,262
something that society needs 
and he must deliver.

66
00:03:16,262 --> 00:03:18,298
LAND: 
Every significant invention

67
00:03:18,298 --> 00:03:21,100
must come to a world 
that is not prepared for it.

68
00:03:21,100 --> 00:03:24,037
SARGENT: 
And so failure for someone 
like Edwin Land

69
00:03:24,037 --> 00:03:27,073
must seem like death.

70
00:03:31,844 --> 00:03:37,884
(crickets chirping, 
owls hooting)

71
00:03:37,884 --> 00:03:42,088
♪ ♪

72
00:03:53,099 --> 00:03:57,770
♪ ♪

73
00:04:05,578 --> 00:04:07,914
NARRATOR: 
Late one summer night 
in Connecticut,

74
00:04:07,914 --> 00:04:10,383
on a back road in the deep dark,

75
00:04:10,383 --> 00:04:13,186
two vehicles were speeding 
towards disaster.

76
00:04:13,186 --> 00:04:17,457
♪ ♪

77
00:04:17,457 --> 00:04:20,026
The glare from the headlights 
was so blinding,

78
00:04:20,026 --> 00:04:22,195
there was barely time to swerve.

79
00:04:23,296 --> 00:04:25,598
(tires screeching)

80
00:04:25,598 --> 00:04:27,734
A crash would have been fatal.

81
00:04:27,734 --> 00:04:31,137
But in one car, one passenger 
was more interested

82
00:04:31,137 --> 00:04:34,007
in the physics 
of what had just transpired

83
00:04:34,007 --> 00:04:36,042
than the danger.

84
00:04:36,042 --> 00:04:41,547
His name was Edwin Land, 
and he was 14 years old.

85
00:04:41,547 --> 00:04:44,517
♪ ♪

86
00:04:44,517 --> 00:04:47,153
BONANOS: 
Edwin Land was born 
in Connecticut in 1909.

87
00:04:47,153 --> 00:04:49,389
He didn't come from 
a family of intellectuals.

88
00:04:49,389 --> 00:04:51,758
His father 
was a scrap metal dealer.

89
00:04:51,758 --> 00:04:54,627
Land, though, was, you know, 
the classic image

90
00:04:54,627 --> 00:04:56,729
of the, like, overachieving 
brainy kid.

91
00:04:56,729 --> 00:04:58,898
You're talking about 
the World War I era.

92
00:04:58,898 --> 00:05:00,266
Obviously, there were 
no computers

93
00:05:00,266 --> 00:05:02,135
and there were no TV screens.

94
00:05:02,135 --> 00:05:06,272
Entertainment really consisted 
of things like the kaleidoscope.

95
00:05:06,272 --> 00:05:08,574
And he used 
to love those things.

96
00:05:08,574 --> 00:05:10,076
He became fascinated 
with optics,

97
00:05:10,076 --> 00:05:12,045
and this is as a very young boy.

98
00:05:12,045 --> 00:05:14,514
NARRATOR: 
By the time he was a senior 
in high school,

99
00:05:14,514 --> 00:05:16,249
his science teacher confessed

100
00:05:16,249 --> 00:05:18,217
that he had nothing left 
to teach him.

101
00:05:18,217 --> 00:05:21,888
So, at the age of 17, 
Land enrolled at Harvard--

102
00:05:21,888 --> 00:05:25,358
only to drop out after a single 
semester.

103
00:05:25,358 --> 00:05:27,126
(chuckling): 
He's bored with Harvard. 
He's bored with school.

104
00:05:27,126 --> 00:05:29,796
He's bored with 
the normal physics courses.

105
00:05:29,796 --> 00:05:32,465
He wasn't shy of doing things

106
00:05:32,465 --> 00:05:33,900
in an unorthodox manner.

107
00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:36,002
And dropping out of Harvard, 
I mean,

108
00:05:36,002 --> 00:05:38,204
that seems like, 
like such a crazy thing to do.

109
00:05:38,204 --> 00:05:42,408
NARRATOR: 
In 1927, Land moved 
to New York City,

110
00:05:42,408 --> 00:05:44,711
where he hoped to develop 
a filter

111
00:05:44,711 --> 00:05:47,113
to solve the problem 
of headlight glare.

112
00:05:47,113 --> 00:05:49,749
And whenever the young inventor 
needed help,

113
00:05:49,749 --> 00:05:52,885
he enlisted his girlfriend, 
Terre Maislen.

114
00:05:54,721 --> 00:05:56,356
Late at night,

115
00:05:56,356 --> 00:05:58,057
the pair would sneak into 
the physics laboratory

116
00:05:58,057 --> 00:06:00,860
at Columbia University 
to conduct experiments

117
00:06:00,860 --> 00:06:03,363
with different 
glare-reducing materials.

118
00:06:03,363 --> 00:06:05,064
Land described it

119
00:06:05,064 --> 00:06:09,035
as a "transient, violent need 
to create."

120
00:06:09,035 --> 00:06:11,003
The urge was so strong, 
he explained,

121
00:06:11,003 --> 00:06:15,174
"you have a feeling 
of almost divine guidance."

122
00:06:15,174 --> 00:06:17,410
The solution 
to the glare problem

123
00:06:17,410 --> 00:06:19,712
on America's roads, 
Land now believed,

124
00:06:19,712 --> 00:06:24,117
lay in a physics phenomenon 
known as polarization.

125
00:06:24,117 --> 00:06:26,185
I will preface this by saying

126
00:06:26,185 --> 00:06:29,322
this is a very coarse 
approximation of the science,

127
00:06:29,322 --> 00:06:34,160
but: light rays coming at you 
are actually quite scattered.

128
00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:38,164
NEWSCASTER: 
It is evident that water waves 
have an up and down motion,

129
00:06:38,164 --> 00:06:40,500
as well as a direction 
of travel.

130
00:06:40,500 --> 00:06:43,603
And so it is with light waves.

131
00:06:43,603 --> 00:06:44,871
BONANOS: 
A polarizing filter,

132
00:06:44,871 --> 00:06:47,874
it has, at the microscopic 
level, slats.

133
00:06:47,874 --> 00:06:50,276
Some light comes in, some light 
doesn't come in.

134
00:06:50,276 --> 00:06:52,245
You have one polarizing filter.

135
00:06:52,245 --> 00:06:53,713
You see, you can see through it.

136
00:06:53,713 --> 00:06:57,383
Second one goes behind it, 
doesn't change the color much.

137
00:06:57,383 --> 00:07:00,319
Turn it 90 degrees, 
and it goes to black.

138
00:07:00,319 --> 00:07:02,054
NEWSCASTER: 
It was not until the invention

139
00:07:02,054 --> 00:07:04,123
of a synthetic polarizing 
material

140
00:07:04,123 --> 00:07:06,459
by the scientist Edwin H. Land

141
00:07:06,459 --> 00:07:08,828
that polarized light 
could be put to work

142
00:07:08,828 --> 00:07:10,530
outside the laboratory.

143
00:07:10,530 --> 00:07:14,000
NARRATOR: 
By 1932, Land had founded 
his own lab

144
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,470
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
to refine the manufacturing

145
00:07:17,470 --> 00:07:20,640
of thin plastic 
polarized sheets.

146
00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:22,508
Just five years later,

147
00:07:22,508 --> 00:07:24,677
it had become a proper company--

148
00:07:24,677 --> 00:07:26,078
Polaroid.

149
00:07:26,078 --> 00:07:28,714
Land's new polarizing film 
worked perfectly

150
00:07:28,714 --> 00:07:30,383
to reduce headlight glare,

151
00:07:30,383 --> 00:07:35,154
but, as it turned out, 
Detroit would never go for it.

152
00:07:35,154 --> 00:07:36,789
RAMIREZ: 
The automotive industry 
decided

153
00:07:36,789 --> 00:07:38,691
that too much work was required 
in order

154
00:07:38,691 --> 00:07:41,694
to put special films 
on the headlights

155
00:07:41,694 --> 00:07:44,096
and then also retrofit 
all the other automobiles,

156
00:07:44,096 --> 00:07:45,932
so they weren't 
really interested.

157
00:07:45,932 --> 00:07:47,567
BONANOS (chuckles): 
It was a great idea,

158
00:07:47,567 --> 00:07:49,702
and still has not been...

159
00:07:49,702 --> 00:07:52,605
(laughing): 
...been, been worked out 
80 years later.

160
00:07:52,605 --> 00:07:54,707
NARRATOR: 
Land was undeterred.

161
00:07:54,707 --> 00:07:58,611
He had already dreamed up other 
uses for his plastic polarizers.

162
00:07:58,611 --> 00:08:01,380
FILM NARRATOR: 
Polaroid light control materials

163
00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:04,083
will affect the lives 
of increasing millions

164
00:08:04,083 --> 00:08:05,551
in the new world ahead.

165
00:08:05,551 --> 00:08:07,286
FIERSTEIN: 
He used it to make 
Polaroid sunglasses.

166
00:08:07,286 --> 00:08:09,255
Camera lenses.

167
00:08:09,255 --> 00:08:12,225
RAMIREZ: 
He made the polarizing films 
that went into 3D glasses,

168
00:08:12,225 --> 00:08:14,327
special desk lamps 
that didn't have glare.

169
00:08:14,327 --> 00:08:16,462
BONANOS: 
In the 1930s, Polaroid got

170
00:08:16,462 --> 00:08:20,199
licensed to make a window 
for a railcar.

171
00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:22,235
(train whistle blows)

172
00:08:22,235 --> 00:08:24,370
FILM NARRATOR: 
If the sun is directly on you,

173
00:08:24,370 --> 00:08:26,372
you can rotate 
the inner window pane

174
00:08:26,372 --> 00:08:28,808
and cut down the incoming light.

175
00:08:28,808 --> 00:08:31,444
RAMIREZ: 
So Land is looking at every way 
that he can use this product.

176
00:08:31,444 --> 00:08:32,612
The war starts.

177
00:08:32,612 --> 00:08:34,380
(engine roaring)

178
00:08:34,380 --> 00:08:35,982
The armies and the military 
are trying

179
00:08:35,982 --> 00:08:37,617
to find every advantage 
that they can have.

180
00:08:37,617 --> 00:08:38,951
And one of them 
is to block light.

181
00:08:38,951 --> 00:08:40,620
BONANOS: 
Very quickly became clear

182
00:08:40,620 --> 00:08:42,922
during the Second World War 
that using polarizing filters

183
00:08:42,922 --> 00:08:44,790
could make gunsights 
and bombsights

184
00:08:44,790 --> 00:08:47,260
and goggles for pilots.

185
00:08:47,260 --> 00:08:50,463
The war effort 
was a big boost to Polaroid.

186
00:08:50,463 --> 00:08:52,598
The company grew like crazy 
during the war.

187
00:08:52,598 --> 00:08:56,502
FIERSTEIN: 
But Land could see that the war 
was not going to last forever.

188
00:08:56,502 --> 00:08:58,571
BONANOS: 
And he knew that when 
those contracts came to an end,

189
00:08:58,571 --> 00:09:01,007
that he was going to have 
to shrink way down again.

190
00:09:01,007 --> 00:09:02,808
And he didn't like that idea.

191
00:09:02,808 --> 00:09:04,243
So he was trying to figure out, 
you know,

192
00:09:04,243 --> 00:09:06,078
"What's the future going to be 
for my company?"

193
00:09:06,078 --> 00:09:07,980
Said, "We're going 
to have to do something else."

194
00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:11,980
And he was sort of fishing 
for what that other thing was.