Something Extra: From Making Memories to Becoming a Memory?

MIAMI (CBS4) - "Share moments... share life."

That slogan captures what Eastman Kodak used to sell: memories.  Even today, when we share the times of our lives, the old pictures we look at were almost surely taken on Kodak film with Kodak cameras.  That's because twenty-five years ago, ninety per cent of all film and eighty-five per cent of cameras sold in the U.S. were made by Kodak.

Now, the iconic company that helped invent the movie industry, mostly sells printers.  And today comes news it's preparing to seek bankruptcy protection.

It's an incredible fall for a company that, at it's peak, was one of the biggest in the world, employing one hundred forty five thousand people.

What a cautionary tale it is.

Kodak invented the digital camera in nineteen seventy five, but failed to take advantage of the new technology, caught like a deer in headlights, blinded by the profits coming from its virtual monopoly on traditional cameras and film.

When the company was founded a hundred-thirty-one years ago... Rutherford B. Hayes was in the White House.

Let's hope these aren't the final days of a true American institution whose products helped chronicle our lives.