Thriller Viewmaster- How Did I MIss This One?

2009-04-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Saw this last night and found it not only cool but slightly amusing. A Michael Jackson Thriller ViewMaster! Better yet, a Michale Jackson Thriller ViewMaster still in the box. Very nice.

Viewmaster - A History

2009-04-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Who didn't have a Viewmaster as a kid? Since the late 1930s they have been making viewers for looking at 3-d images on a paper and film disk. Now thought of as a "toy" it was originally marketed as a way to view sterograms of tourist sites.

In 1939 William Gruber came up with the idea of updating the Steroscope using Kodachrome 16mm film and a stereo camera made from two Kodak cameras mounted on a tripod. The result was a steroscopic image, two slides viewed at the same time one with each eye simulating realistic depth perception. Later in the same year Gruber partnered with Harold Graves leading to the sales of the ViewMaster viewers and disks. The patent for their device was issued in 1940 and the disks soon took over the postcard business in Graves business, Sawyer's Photographic Service.

The Viewmaster was later introducd at the New York Worlds Fair as a alternative to the normal postcards with subjects such as Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon.

After the start of World War II the militar bought over 100,000 viewers and over 5 million disks to help in the training of recruits. After the war Viewmaster bought Tru-Vue it's main competitor eliminating a rival and giving them the rights to Disney Studios and later in 1955 Disneyland.

1952 saw the introduction of a 35mm camera where users could make their own ViewMaster disks. Though a hit at first the line was discontinued in the mid 60s but many of these cameras are still in use today. The "ViewMaster Personal Line" also brought us the Model D viewer( what most of us probably had as kids)

In the mid-60s Sawyers was purchased by General Aniline and Film. Under new ownership Viewmaster disks had fewer senic and more kid friendly subject matters such as cartoons. What where to become classic tv shows, Laugh-In, Star Trek, Here's Lucy and The Beverly Hillbillies were also featured on the disks.

From the 1970s to the late 1990s the company was sold three times and is now owned by Fisher Price a division of the Mattel toy company. In March of this year
(2009) Fisher Price announced that they would no longer produce the scenic disks of tourist sights there were a direct decendent of the first disks old with the View-Master.

All Things Viewmaster

Thriller Viewmaster- How Did I MIss This One?

Viewmaster - A History