On this date in 1932, George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak committed suicide. This is one of those events about which I say “Did I know that?? The answer, I think, is no! Anyway, over the last years of his life Eastman suffered from chronic pain in this back. He could hardly stand and walked in a slow shuffle. So, on March 14, 1932, Eastman committed suicide with a single gunshot to the heart, leaving a note which read, “To my friends: my work is done. Why wait
His work was impressive and important to us all – everyone whose had a Kodak camera raise their hands! From Wikipedia:
George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and popularized the use of roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream. Roll film was also the basis for the invention of motion picture film in 1888 by the world’s first film-makers Eadward Muybridge and Louis Le Prince, and a few years later by their followers Léon Bouly, Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers, and Georges Méliès.
U.S. patent no. 388,850, issued to George Eastman, September 4, 1888
In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove practicable; he had been tinkering at home to develop it. In 1888, he perfected the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film. In 1892, he established the Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, New York. It was one of the first firms to mass-produce standardized photography equipment. The company also manufactured the flexible transparent film, devised by Eastman in 1889, which proved vital to the subsequent development of the motion picture industry. Complete biography
Now part of the reason that the event caught my eye was Linda Eastman McCartney. If George dies in 1932 who is Linda related to.
Then I read this:
George Eastman never married,because he carried on a long platonic relationship with Josephine Dickman, a trained singer and the wife of business associate George Dickman, and he became especially close to her after the death of his mother, Maria Eastman, in 1907. He was also an avid traveler and music lover.[
So then I went to Linda’s page on Wikipedia where I read:
…She grew up in the Scarsdale area of Westchester County, New York and Scarsdale High School graduated her in 1959.[3] Her father was born Leopold Vail Epstein, the son of Jewish Russian immigrants, who later changed his name to Lee Eastman. It is an often-repeated urban myth that Linda was related to the George Eastman family of Eastman Kodak fame: this is not the case
Did I know that? Not being a Wings fan or paying a whole lot of detailed attention to McCartney’s life I think not!
Not to be overlooked was the fact that Eastman was a major philanthropist. From Wikipedia:
He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman School of Music, and schools of dentistry and medicine at the University of Rochester and in London; contributing to RIT and the construction of MIT’s second campus on the Charles River; and donating to Tuskegee and Hampton universities. In addition, he provided funds for clinics in London and other European cities to serve low-income residents.
