You'd be familiar with the double shutter arrangement of the Speed Graf, then, which allowed an action-stopping shot at the then-impressive shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second using the front shutter. Unlike the similar Crown Graphic and Century Graphic models, similar full-size press cameras that shared many of the same features of their Speed Graphic cousin, that extra shutter feature made the Speed Graf the choice for those newsies covering action sports or events requiring greater control of the camera's shutter speed for available light or flash photography, one reason the things are so commonly seen with a flashgun attatched; Industrial photogs covering railroads and aviation loved 'em. Some of the final *Super Graphics* of the 1970s lacked the front shutter, as did some lower cost units with fewer features, and they could be a nice unit for starting a photo cub out with.
Shutter speeds of 1/1000 may not be so *speedy* in a day of 1/6000 of a second shutterspeeds on motor-drive 35mm cameras that can zip through a 36-exposure roll [or a 250 or 600-frame bulk pack with special accessory back] at a rate of 4 to 6 frames per second. And you're not the first person to ask about that; I've had newspaper cubs and interns ask as well, since I was the *old guy* photog who was working in the picturegetter business when the Graflex company ended production in 1973.
And if they snickered or laughed, I chased them off to the foul-smelling laboratories of the fine arts photogs, who sometimes worked with glass plates and hand-applied gum bichromate emulsions. After such exposure, the old Speed Graph seemed pretty up-to-date, with both rollfilm and cut film holders available.
There's a pretty good website on the old beasties *here*.
-archy-/-