For those PBasers who have followed my "quest" to find a 'copy' of my original first
"proper" camera which I purchased back in the early 1960s, you will know that after
a long search (several years) I eventually found one.

But this is not a story about the C-35 camera I found last year. This is better!

This is a 'feel good' story ! Recently, a kind lady in Sydney, Australia had read of my
search for the Hanimex C35, and about me finding one. (The wonders of the Internet).
However, she still contacted me via PBase just to let me know that she had a C-35
which belonged to her mother. To make a long story a little shorter, we agreed that
the camera would come to me for basically a little more than the cost of postage.

But here's where the story becomes really 'feel good' to me.

First, the lady, Jeannie M. sent me the camera before she got my personal check. I loved that.

Second, the camera is in extremely good condition (except for a 'lazy' rangefinder
mechanism which I know I can fix with a little 'surgery') and as you see, also has the leather case.

Now, THIRD! Jeannie's mother, Joyce Thompson (1915-2005) also from Sydney, WON this
camera on TV's WHEEL OF FORTUNE in 1960, along with every other prize on
the TV show. And on that first day, when she went to the TV studio, it was her friend who
had the 'lucky seat prize' to audition for the show - but she was not keen to do it
'on camera', so Joyce Thompson was the 'walk on' who eventually won it all.

I salute Jeannie M. for her kindness to me, and I honour Joyce Thompson for being
a Wheel of Fortune 'complete prize' winner who just happened to win a Hanimex
C-35 - which was destined to end up with an Australian 'collector' who was living
in Sydney in the 1960s but who now lives in the US.


P.S. The picture in the background is a print from one of my original black
and white transparencies which I exposed in the early 1960s with my beloved
first 'real' camera ... an identical model to the one you see here.

Thank you Jeannie! And thank you, Joyce.