Twin Peaks Publicity – AP Laserphoto of Dale Cooper and Sheriff Truman from Aug. 2, 1990

An auction lot of Twin Peaks publicity photos contained a unique artifact from obsolete technology – an Associated Press (AP) Laserphoto of Special Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman. This photo was shared via the AP news wire service on August 2, 1990 after it was announced that David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wonderful and strange show received 14 Emmy Award nominations.

WHAT IS AN ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) LASERPHOTO?

In 1935, the AP introduced Wirephotos which revolutionized the transmission of photos. With the growth in offset printing and demand for higher quality printed images, the AP needed a completely new system of transmitting pictured by wire.

Decades later on Sunday, April 22, 1973, Wes Gallagher, president and general manager of the Associated Press, shared details of a revolutionary photo transmission system using laser beams to organization members gathered at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He also shared plans for “electronic dark-rooms” where pictures would be stored in computers, edited on video screens and transmitted at high speeds.

Dr. William F. Schreiber with the Research Laboratory of Electronics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked with the AP Research and Development Department for more than two years to create the Laserphoto system.

Photos sent via digital transmission lines delivered pictures four times faster than the current delivery methods, meaning AP members would receive a standard 8-inch by 10-inch photograph in approximately two minutes.

“Two and a half years ago, the AP Board of Directors approved a research and development project to break out of the limitations imposed on picture quality by current facsimile methods,” said Gallagher from an article in The News Item from June 29, 1973 (which was a syndicated story first published on April 23, 1973).

“That research has paid off today with a revolutionary picture receiving device that delivers pure photographs,” he continued. “It uses a laser beam as a light source, and prints pictures on a specially developed photographic paper which requires no liquid chemicals for processing”

Gallagher promised to install Laserphoto equipment beginning in 1974 and that the AP “will replace every photo receiver and transmitter now in the United States during a production run lasting approximately two years.”

The Associated Press continued using Laserphotos until 1993 when the modern World Wide Web became the primary method for sharing digital images.

AP LASERPHOTO OF DALE COOPER AND SHERIFF TRUMAN FROM AUG. 2, 1990

The AP Laserphoto contained three different sheets with the same image of Special Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman on the set of the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. Each paper was printed in a different color – Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. The images sold at auction had yellowed with the passage of time so I made color corrections to show how the images may have appeared on August 2, 1990. The image above shows what would be sent to the Cyan printer.

Each photo contains the same caption:

(NY88-Aug. 2) – TWIN PEAK [SIC] TRIUMPH – The quirky ABC-TV drama “Twin Peaks” received a leading 14 nominations Thursday including a best actor nomination for Kyle Maclachlan, left, in the role of FBI agent Dale Cooper Michael Ontkean, right, plays sheriff Harry S. Truman dram which has been renewed for another season. (AP LaserColor) (jtm51515ho-abc) 90
Slug, Emmy Nomination
Eds: Browns predominate.

The code “jtm51515ho-abc” refers to the original press photo taken by Craig Sjodin from the ABC Television Network of Cooper and Truman. It’s what was used to transmit the photo via the wire.

The image is also labeled “AP Laserphoto II” was first introduced in 1982 according to a pixelated brochure I found on Ebay.com. The Laserphoto II satellite network was a “pivotal advancement in the rapid dissemination of news photography.” It transmit press photos to news outlets even faster with improved color fidelity.  It’s wild to think that only approximately three years after the Twin Peaks publicity photo was transmitted that this technology would become obsolete.

The Magenta printer image is the same as the Cyan one except there are visible crop marks.

This is the Yellow printer version of the Cooper and Truman photo. When all three were combined, it would create a more faithful representation of the colors found in the original publicity photo.

Using the crop marks from the Magenta photo, I cropped the image to see how it might appear in a newspaper.

This is the cropped Cyan image.

This is the cropped Yellow image.

But the most exciting thing I found is the Sarasota Herald Tribune ran this Laserphoto II image of Cooper and Truman in an article on August 3, 1990 about the Emmy Award nominations. You can see a black and white version of the photo complete with the “AP Laserphoto” credit and brief caption that reads: “Kyle MacLachlan, left, plays an FBI agent, and Michael Ontkean is a sheriff on “Twin Peaks,” the ABC show that received the most Emmy nominations Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif.”

This was the only newspaper I located that ran the cropped photo on August 3, 1990. Other papers reported on the Emmy Award nominations but used a different publicity image from May 1989 with Joan Chen, Michael Ontkean, Kyle MacLachlan and Piper Laurie.

The paper’s report reads:

“Twin Peaks,’ ABC’s critically acclaimed yet mind-boggling nighttime soap opera about a Pacific Northwest lumber town, led the list of nominations Thursday for the 42nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

A confounding, surreal saga of sex, violence and cherry pie, ‘Twin Peaks’ drew 14 nominations, in categories including outstanding drama series and drama directing, for eclectic filmmaker David Lynch. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences made its nominations in Beverly Hills, Calif.

‘The Simpsons,’ the alienated cartoon family of the Fox Broadcasting Co., collected five nominations, three for the animated series itself and two for its high-rated Christmas special.

The richly produced, but mediocre-rated ‘Twin Peaks’ helped bring 95 nominations to ABC, tying it for first with NBC. ABC finished last in the 1989 nominations, a position held this year by CBS, with 73 selections.”