The Autoload is the one that moved. While every other camera on the shelf froze a single moment, this one caught birthday candles being blown out, sprinklers in July, the dog running circles in a Super 8 kitchen. Bell & Howell built her between 1965 and 1970 with a chrome T-bar grip straight out of the space age — drop in a film cartridge, pull the trigger, and the whole family became a movie.
She still runs. Load AA batteries and the motor whirs to life, healthy and eager, like she’s been waiting for something worth filming. Battery compartment spotless, body remarkably clean, zoom and Focus-Matic ring turning smoothly. Super 8 cartridges are still made — she could genuinely shoot again — or she can hold the shelf as the best-looking thing on it.
Another one from Haley’s collecting years, back when she was the one behind the lens.
