The Foley Guide

Foley made guides forever and they were chock full of good information, great photos and advertising. Our ad was always right there. (See scan of the Pillsbury page from the booklet.)

In 1912 I helped Uncle invent something rather wonderful. It was the first lapse-time camera to show the dance of flowers waking up to the sun. I sat with a stop watch one almost morning in Bridal Veil Meadow, down low in the grasses, and watched a flower get up and arch its face to the sun. The Uncle took the timing I wrote down and made the mechanism we used to build the camera. I was 7 or 8 then. Because of the film the Park Service stopped mowing the meadows and that saved the wild flowers.

Then we showed the film at the Studio for tourists. Some of them came back over and over to see it. Then they bought postcards, photos and specimen cards. (photo of a specimen card)

Over the years Uncle made many films for us to show. Running the projector became another one of my jobs sometimes when my brother went off to World War I.