When was viewmaster introduced

A bakelite View-Master with reel and promotional material promising pictures that "come to life. Keeping ahead of the competition, View-Master purchased the assets of its main rival, Tru-Vue, in This acquisition resulted in obtaining the license to use Disney characters, previously held by Tru-Vue.

Since that time, the company has produced many Disney and other cartoon and character favorites. Some of these were as clay figures, others as stereo cells, and still, others use actual products in the reel set up, as was the case with Barbie and G.

Sawyer's and GAF. With approximately 73 reels. Image courtesy of Auction Team Breker. All reels since the company began are viewable in any viewer. Newer reels from the last few years have a colorful sticker over the center hole but still, work in any viewer. In , Fisher-Price came forth with a new viewer where the reel enters horizontally rather than vertically, but that design was the subject of a dismiss. In the late s and early s, View-Master brought forth character viewers Mickey Mouse, Big Bird, Batman, Casper, etc , but these were short-lived and abandoned in favor of colorful versions of regular production viewers.

Today viewers and reels are produced by Basic Fun under an agreement with Fisher-Price. There is a wide variety of gift sets and reels with colorful graphics. These new titles can be found online and in many retail stores. Inspiration came in , when Graves met photographer William Gruber while vacationing at Oregon Caves. Gruber was taking photographs with two cameras taped together and Graves inquired about the contraption. Gruber explained that he was attempting to find a new way to create stereograph images and described a machine he had invented using multiple stereograph images on a small viewing reel.

The invention also incorporated the newly developed Kodachrome color photography. Gruber and Graves met with Mayer soon after the chance encounter and the three men formed a partnership. They began development work on the new invention, and Mayer came up with a name: View-Master. The U. Early subjects of the reels were mainly tourist destinations such as the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns, and adults were the main audience for the device.

As the popularity of View-Master increased, the space soon became too small and, in , it moved to a larger factory near Beaverton, Oregon. Around this time, the focus of their business changed as well.

Although the company still produced reels of tourist attractions and scenery, many of its subjects had evolved into more child-friendly fare. See our privacy policy. Collections Search Search for Show only items with images. Show only items with no use restrictions. Sign up for Monthly E-newsletter. Search Google Appliance Enter the terms you wish to search for. Smithsonian Website. The little ones the 3 yr olds really enjoyed this gift and their parents my first cousins appreciated the nostalgia.

The 5 yr. I purchased just the ViewMaster itself and then found reels at an online specialty toy company that had a huge selection and the reels were slightly less expensive too. The ViewMaster seems smaller than I remember, but it could be that my head got bigger since I last used mine! They all arrived nicely boxed and were all in good working order. Sales have dropped off and some estimate that the product only brings in 10 million per year, causing the arm devoted to scenic reels to be amputated Whiteman.

But this isn't the end of the iconic toy. There exists a large secondary market for older models of the cameras, personalized reels, and what appears to be a movement to 3-D porn. The University of Missouri recently bought 2, Viewfinders in their black and gold to promote their football team.

Reels are being circulated for star players who might be up for awards such as the Heisman Trophy Miller. The Viewmaster is a unique marketing technique that could latch onto the recent 3-D movement in film. While the Viewmaster may no longer be the flavor of the week, it has established a following of enthusiasts and drawn on the nostalgia of a user-base that is now in their adulthood.

Its release date is tentatively set for Kit, Fernandez. Baum, Josh. Distefano, Anne Marie. The Portland Tribune, 02 July Happy Gifter. Inventors of the Viewmaster. Kit, Borys, and Jay A. The Hollywood Reporter, 06 July Sell, Wolfgang, and Mary Ann Sell. May Viewmaster "Stereo-matic " 3-D Projector. Digital image. Whiteman, Doug. Jump to: navigation , search. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination.