Remember slide shows?

[Matt Deckard]

When someone from your family went to a far off place and when they came back you'd admire their journey in a dark room as they told their story and showed you slides?

 

[Luddite]

Yes, I was only thinking about this the other day! Much more captivating than a similar PC-based presentation. I think it has something to do with the whole ritual of it - the loading of the carousel, the steady click-clank of the slides changing and of course the sitting in the dark aspect. And of course, the images were blown up to cinematic proportions so you could see details with clarity (barring those creases in the corners of the screen - or the wallaper pattern for those of us who saw screens as a needless extravagance). I miss 'em!

 

[Edward]

I was in Romania in early 1992 (about three weeks after the first anniversary of the revolution) and took all my photos in slide form as I was doing a whole bunch of presentations about it when I got back. That was in the days before even scanners and power point (the pre-digital phase for me was scanning in all my print photos...). I kinda regret it now, actually, as it mans I have no actual photos from that trip. I must evetually pay to have the slides converted to digital.

I'm sure, you know, that you could recreate much of the feel of old school slides with a powerpoint presentation now, including the soud effects, occasional slide out of focus or upside down, etc

 

[Matt Deckard]

Yes... it was the gathering for me. Before people put heir pictures on line and hey would sit around and someone would have their day in the sun while he or she gleefully told of his or her adventures to the whole crowd.

 

[miserabelle]

We do the holiday slide show thing, but more recently I've been looking at my Grandad's old slides from when my mom was a baby. I love finding out about my family's history, and there's something really lovely about slide shows.

Powerpoint is good for presentations but it's pretty soulless xx

 

[PrettySquareGal]

YES. I also LOVED the sound the carousel made when my grandfather clicked to change the slide with his remote (that I think was attached with a wire). Just last week I asked my grandmother if she still has them and she does. I like that when those were shared you had to tell the story as opposed to posting them online and never seeing people's faces or hear the emotions in the telling. Many of the slides my grandfather had were of family things like me at summer camp, not just vacations.

I went to Rome as a kid and bought a souvenir set of slides. I'm pretty sure I still have them. If so I'll take a pic and post later.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Found them. They're actually from Florence. This is a partial scan:

Thanks for this great thread. You brought back some really comforting, happy memories.

 

[staggerwing]

I used to use these for sales presentations. I'd get so wound up in my narration, I once went through about half of a 20 or so slide presentation with the slides upside down. Nobody pointed it out until I was halfway through.

 

[Luddite]

Speaking of slides, I just remembered those nifty little pocket viewers which were available - just a light in a box with a magnifying screen which took a slide at a time, great stuff.

Back to the slide shows - good point, Matt. There was always someone at the front speaking with enthusiasm on a subject which they were obviously still very excited about. So much better than pretyped 'humourous' captions.

Has anyone on here been to a Magic Lantern show - a story told in glassplate picture slides and lit by a carbide flame projector (an epidioscope??)?

 

[LizzieMaine]

We presented a genuine Victorian Magic Lantern show at the theatre as a kids' attraction for Halloween a couple years ago -- the presenter set up his apparatus in the middle of the auditorium and he and his assistant did their whole show surrounded by kids who were absolutely fascinated. Many of the slides were multi-layered, with sliding shutters that revealed hidden images when the presenter hit a strategic spot in his narration. He used an actual turn-of-the-century projector which looked like a cross between a traffic light and a steam engine.

If a show like this ever comes to your town, do yourself a favor and see it -- you'll really enjoy!!!

 

[Big Man]

Thanks for inspiring a fond memory from past times ...

When I was little (OK, young - I've never been "little") we used to gather around at my grandmother's house and watch the old family movies (16mm) and view slide shows (in slide trays, not carousals). they would hang an old quilt over the window as a shade and use a white sheet as a makeshift screen.

I remember my grandmother would almost always shed a tear and say how it was so sad to see those old pictures. I never really understood how she felt until I got much older and looked back at "more happy times" myself.

 

[jake_fink]

Ahhhhh slides.

When I was a young teen I used to go to the Naval Club to see the travel presentations. Folks - usually retired folks - would go off to some exotic (or quasi exotic) location, snap a billion pictures and then present them as a slide show in the dingy interior of the Naval Club Supper Room. Smoky air, so-so food, but I loved it. I'm going there, I'm going there, I'm going there, I'd think. And I went most of those places eventually. The presentations were a little lack-luster though, and hopelessly, excrutiatingly linear. This is the Taj Mahal, click-clunk; this is the Taj Mahal, click-clunk; this is also the Taj Mahal, click-clunk; this is someone we met, very nice couple from Albany, click-clunk; this is the Taj Mahal from another angle, click-clunk...

Then I did an art history degree and spent four years up to my eyebrows in slides. I even worked in the slide library. Among other duties I had to assemble carousels for lecturers based on their- often not very sensical request lists. Yikes.

Now, I have images saved on my computer and I put the presentations together, timed out and with all kinds of support in the form of video and music, using Keynote. Presentations are much better, more fluid, more interesting, also more flexible.

Some things are just better in the modern mode.

 

[Doctor Strange]

My Dad shot stereo slides of the family back in the late 50s, and regular slides from the early 60s to mid-70s. We've got maybe twenty Carousel reels and a good-sized box of stereo slides. More impressively, we have a working Carousel projector (I just viewed some of the family slides less than two years ago) and a way-cool stereo viewer that still worked the last time I put in fresh batteries.

There's definitely something about big optical slide projection on a screen that you can't replicate on a computer. Of course, I feel that way about movies too, and I pull out my old 16mm and Super 8 prints every year or two... (And on a good viewer, the 3D effect of stereo slides is still remarkable!) I still love all the old media that was state of the art when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s!

 

[Foofoogal]

I love all those old types. Slide shows, stereoviews and even viewmaster.

We would throw an old sheet up. Here is me in action in 1958. I am the little girl on my moms lap.
I also remember some type of toy that you could see cartoons and stuff on the wall like a projector but a toy.

Tip of the day:the stereoviews that you can feel the photos like pasted on are the real deals.

The only photo of me online anywhere since being online since 2002. FL is privileged.

 

[Big Man]

... I also remember some type of toy that you could see cartoons and stuff on the wall like a projector but a toy ...

I remember those. I had one. I remember showing the the "Flintstones" in the one i had. I haven't thought about that toy in years and years ...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The "Give A Show" projector!!! The slides were in a cardboard mount and you'd pull them thru the machine one at a time and follow the adventures of Mickey Mouse or whoever. Basically a flashlight with a lens in front of it, but still extremely entertaining till the batteries ran out.

 

[Feraud]

My family did not show slide shows but my parents have a lot of photographs. They would periodically take the photos out and show the kids.

Digital photography appears to have removed this aspect of bonding from our lives.

 

[Big Man]

The "Give A Show" projector!!! The slides were in a cardboard mount and you'd pull them thru the machine one at a time and follow the adventures of Mickey Mouse or whoever. Basically a flashlight with a lens in front of it, but still extremely entertaining till the batteries ran out.

Those were the good old days ...

 

[Avalon]

About once a year I pull out my mom's slides from the 1960s. There are a lot of great candid shots of the family that we don't have in any other form.

I also used to love filmstrip presentations in school - turn the knob when the record says beep! - but that's for another thread.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1961-Ke...tcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

While the parents would hang out we would watch for hours.
Such innocent fun times.

Thanks Lizziemaine. I would of never remembered the name.