A visit from country singer Kacey Musgraves reverses the fortunes of an LA photo shop
Tom’s One Hour Photo & Lab, long a fixture in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood, appeared to be going the way of the Polaroid. Then, country superstar, Kacey Musgraves stopped by.
And now, business is booming.
The Grammy-Award winning singer was in Los Angeles on her “Oh, What a World” tour earlier this week for two sold-out concerts at the Greek Theater, and it all started when Musgraves and her sister needed to quickly develop some film.
“My sister randomly found this place on Beverly Blvd in Korea Town called Tom’s One Hour Photo & Lab. It’s one of those rare mom-&-pop gems…” Musgraves wrote in an Instagram caption underneath a photo of the singer posing in front of a black-and-white floral background.
Tom Tuong opened the shop on Beverly Boulevard nearly three decades ago and specialized in developing film, taking passport photos and photo restoration. In Musgraves’ Instagram post, she said that, according to Tuong, the shop was busy when it first opened in the 1990s but that business “has slowed way down since the digital wave.”
“He does same day services and at a reasonable cost,” according to Michelle S., a reviewer on Yelp. “Many of my family members go to him for his services.”
He also offered nostalgic glamour portraits where customers can choose between 30 unique hand-made pull-down backdrops -- and that's what caught Musgraves' eye.
“Pick the backdrop of ur dreams,” she wrote, showing off the displays.
In the 1990s, glamour shots studios could be found in many malls and were especially popular for special occasions, like graduations or the prom. But as the New York Times wrote earlier this year, many of those shops disappeared with the rise of digital photos.
The country singer’s post has garnered over 100,000 likes on both Twitter and Instagram with over 17,000 retweets.
Musgraves and her sister even created an Instagram fan page for Tom: @TomsOneHourPhotoLab, which now has over 40,000 followers and posts of some of their portraits taken by Tom.
And all that attention has been great for business.
The photo shop “has come back around again without even realizing it,” she wrote on Instagram.
“We’re booked through the weekend,” Tuong's daughter, Tisha Tuong, told ABC News. “We saw a lot of our competitors have to close shops, but my dad held on. We’ve been getting calls from people who didn’t even know that photo labs existed, so they were excited.”
Tisha, who has helped her dad at the shop when she was younger in high school, shared her excitement for her dad’s newfound fame in an Instagram story post earlier this week calling her dad a “legend.”
“His story is a classic immigration story,” she told ABC News. “He immigrated from Vietnam and did several odd jobs before photography. It was a situation where he learned the ropes.”
At a recent concert in New Mexico, Musgraves shared her story about Tom on stage.
“Our country is built on the backbone of these small businesses," she told her fans. "My parents are small business owners… So I know what it’s like.”
As for Tuong, his daughter Tisha said he’s thrilled about the attention his small shop has received over the past few days.
“He loves people,” she said.
