The Seymour Flash Master Bakelite viewfinder camera was just one of the cameras in the manufacturing debacle created by the sale of the Utility Manufacturing Company’s Falcon brand. The buyer then moved it and its product to 711/715 West Lake Street, Chicago, home of the Monarck manufacturing Company and Spartus Corporation. This started the complicated Company naming game. Some of the branding names were Falcon, Monarck, Seymour, Herold, Spartus, Galter, and Spencer, Cinex, Photo Master, plus more. This business model was repeated in Taiwan years later and continues today throughout the globe (cheap product with many names and brand names).
The Flash Master camera was marketed by the Seymour Products company in 1942. Designed as a simple candid camera that was capable of shooting under any lighting condition. The photoflash unit had a 4 1/8 inch diameter plated reflector, used two penlight batteries (AA), was electronically operated (synchronized), and used the G.E. Mazda Flash bulbs (the biggest flash bulb on the market with 183,000 lumens)(this same unit is used on Pho-Tak cameras). The camera was constructed of plastic bakelite with a built-in open viewfinder. It was fitted with a genuine Graf meniscus 50mm lens and flash-synchronized time and instantaneous shutter. The shutter lens combination was used on many cameras and if you remove the lens plate you will find the words Photo Master embossed on the plastic. This is a half frame camera with two red windows in the back cover for frame counting and for capturing sixteen exposures on no. 127 or A8 film. The exact camera (Flash Master) can be found with the Herold Products Company Inc. name. The Photo Master Company’s Photo Master Camera with the Bakelite face is the same camera without the two flash posts.