The Polaroid Road Trip Mystery

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Polaroid Demonstration Center Road Trip Truck

I have a mystery on my hands regarding Polaroid in the 1980s

In the March 1987 issue of Popular Photography, there is a brief mention of Polaroid going on an epic cross-country promotion with a semi-truck and trailer, written by George Schaub.

Directly Quoted From Pop Photo

“The Polaroid Corporation will take to the streets this spring with its new 60-foot long, mobile Demonstration Center. Doubling as a giant rolling billboard ad for Polaroid products, the 18-wheel rig contains interchangeable display modules to be used as product demonstration rooms, filled with audiovisual equipment and the latest Polaroid products. Included in the collection are the Polaroid MP-4 camera; the Model 710 Identification System; the new Freezeframe Video Recorder; the Palette Plus Computer Image Recorder; special-interest cameras, including the SX-70 with a microscope adapter; and the full line of Polaroid 35mm-to-8 x 10-inch sensitized materials. The Demonstration Center will tour the country throughout this year, stopping at corporations, hospitals, universities, and Polaroid dealerships. (For details of the route, call Polaroid’s public relations office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at [XXX] XXX-XXXX.) With plans for additional rigs in the works, can a Polajet be far behind?”

I’ve done a lot of photography history research over the years and many materials have been lost to the digital age. I’ve got an extensive magazine database scanned and it’s OCR’ed. Still, I could not find a single other mention of this road trip using multiple search types.

This is a huge deal, with serious expenses. The featured image is the only photo used in this 144-word mention. Perhaps I just don’t own the materials where a more comprehensive review of Polaroid’s endeavors is laid out. I would love to know more. To see photos of the inside, or better yet, video, would be amazing…maybe I’m asking too much.

Let’s break down what we know.

  • The truck is called “The Demonstration Center.” May also be called the “Mobile Demonstration Center.”
  • It was set to roll out in the spring of 1987 and tour the United States making stops at institutions and dealerships.
  • It was used as a promotional vessel for numerous Polaroid products including the MP-4, Model 710 Identification System, Freezeframe Video Recorder, Palette Plus Computer Image Recorder and an adapter for, or variant of the SX-70 for microscopy.
  • This was a prototype concept. Meaning there may have been more than one Center made.

I haven’t ruled out the possibility that the idea was scraped shortly after the announcement. That would explain the lack of coverage, but I know full well that there are a lot of you out there who’s Google-Fu is much stronger than mine. So if anyone can find information on this, I’d love to hear from you.

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