Jack Chanin. The man who started it all.
From Brooklyn to Las Vegas. From the Air Force to a print shop on Valley View Blvd. Three generations of Chanins, one trade, one family-owned shop. This is Jack's story.
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Jack Chanin.
Brooklyn, NY
Jack was born in Brooklyn on October 24, 1930. His parents, George and Hilda, were born in Riga, Latvia. He had three older siblings: Bella, Edith, and Meyer. He grew up as the baby of a family that had crossed an ocean to find him.
In 1922 his father George left Latvia for the United States to make a better life. He was gone seven years before he had earned enough to bring the rest of the family by ship.
Jack was born a year after they arrived. His sister Bella, ten years older, mothered him through childhood.
At Metric High School he took photography and printing courses, the trade he'd carry the rest of his life. He graduated in June 1948.
In 1950 he enlisted in the US Air Force and was assigned to the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, trained as a Gun Camera Technician.
In 1954 he was honorably discharged.
In 1955 he was hired as a messenger boy at Plymouth Photographers in New York City. He rose to Production Manager. In 1966 Plymouth became Visual Promotions, Inc., and Jack opened a sister operation. Kordet Color, Inc. A modern printing plant running three shifts, 24 hours a day.
In 1962 he met Elaine Althoff, thirteen years his junior. Family worried about the age difference. They married June 1, 1963.
Three children followed: Nancy (1964), Jerry (1967), Greta (1968).
In August 1988 Jack said his "fond farewell" to Visual Promotions, relocated the family to Las Vegas, and bought a tiny print shop on Valley View Blvd. He said professionally he had "went backwards 20 years." He "wouldn't have traded his newfound company for the world."
The Chanin family moves west.
August 1988. Jack, Elaine, Nancy, Jerry, and Greta drive to Las Vegas. Jack buys a tiny print shop on Valley View Boulevard. Greta, twenty years old, joins her father from the first day.
He trains her from the ground up. Runner, developing, plating, sales. No special treatment for the boss's daughter. That was the deal.
Greta's story.
"It all started when I was 8 years old. We lived on Long Island, New York, and my father Jack built a darkroom in the basement of our home where I grew up. I knew from that moment in the darkroom that photography or something along that line of creativity would be my destiny."
As a kid she went with Jack into Manhattan to Visual Promotions, and out to Oceanside to Kordet Graphics. Watching the modern presses run, asking what every drum and roller did, falling in love with the rhythm of a plant on second shift.
In 1988 the family moved to Las Vegas. Jack bought the Valley View Blvd shop. Greta started day one. Runner, developer, plate-maker, salesperson. She learned the business the way Jack had learned it. From the bottom of the floor up.
38 years later, still just as passionate as she was as a teenager.
Energy. Commitment. Integrity.
Rachel was originally from Texas. She moved to Las Vegas in 1990 from the San Francisco Bay area. She joined VPILV after Jack famously said, "If you want a good assistant, grab Rachel Souza from any print shop she is at when the time comes." She was an expert in promotional items: pens, mugs, mouse pads. She will be missed by many.