The person who really solidified our reputation was my grandfather [Louis Fabian Bachrach], though, who made it his goal to record all the important people he could think of in his lifetime," said Bachrach. "He though it was a thrill." Before the ubiquitous paparazzi was around to hound movie stars and political figures alike, he wrote letters to personages like Charles Lindburgh and Calvin Coolidge asking to take their photo. And it worked.
"Then once you have a bunch of people, you can say, 'Well, I photographed Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, I'd like to photograph you,' and most people say, 'Great!'"