View-Master

[Flivver]

How many of you had a View-Master when you were a kid?

This was a modern day stereoscope introduced by Sawyer's of Portland Oregon in 1939. And it's another example of a Golden Era product that's still in production.

I got mine for Christmas of 1954 when I was 3 years old. I always enjoyed it as a neat toy, but I didn't really appreciate the three dimensional aspect of the pictures until I was about 10. But from that point on, I was hooked!

Since then, I've acquired quite a few viewers, reels, camera and even Sawyer's 3-D projector.

Does anyone else here have a passion for Sawyer's View-Master?

 

[Brian Sheridan]

A guy I worked with in television opened a Stereoscopic Museum in Meadville, PA. He has a huge collection of viewers and slides. You can go in and spend the day looking at 3-D images from the past.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

Hah! I was trying to explain the concept of a View-Master to my son just yesterday. When I showed him a picture of one online, and explained how it worked, he just looked at me, [huh], and walked away. Apparently it's just too low-tech for him to grasp.
I loved mine; new slides were the one thing (outside of a book) that I could guarantee my mom would buy me if we went shopping. I think I may have to find one somewhere.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Still have mine, and use it too. It's cheaper than cable TV...

I'd like very much to find View Master Reel 296, the St. Louis Zoological Park, 1948 -- if anyone has a spare copy, let me know.

 

[John in Covina]

Here is an item that I definately did not own, but I did know several friends and relatives that did own them. One thing I recall was that nobody seemed to buy many of the picture sets after the initial purchase. At my cousins house they had some with cartoon episodes, maybe the Flintstones, but I am not sure.

 

[52Styleline]

I had one and quite a collection of reels as well.

At one time I had a View Master projector as well. Mine did not project in stereo although there was a version that did. Occasionally I would leave it on (being a kid) and it would melt the cell before I got back to it.

 

[Caroline]

I had one as I kid and adored it. I think they're wonderful for a child's imagination. I gazed at the images as much as I flipped through my well loved Ezra Jack Keats books. There is something about images, without the pressure of reading or the chatter of sound, that really allows a kid's mind wander, in a good way.

Oddly enough, when I bought my children a re-issued View-Master they were "eh" about it, but they love my husbands stereo viewer. I think they like the mysterous places and people in the stereo cards, rather than the cartoon images of the viewmaster. No problem though, I use it all the time .

 

[ShooShooBaby]

i loved viewmaster when i was a kid in the 80s! we had all kinds of reels, cartoons, souvenirs from various places, etc. my mom bought us a huge box from a neighbor' garage sale at one point, so i think they were probably all from the 60s and 70s (thinking to the age difference between me and the boy who owned them before me). i wish i still had them!

 

[miss_elise]

i think my nana had the gulliver's travels reel...

it was always a nice thing to play/look at when we stayed over at my nana and grandad's house

 

[kowalskt63]

I had several in the early 70's. Always remember the commercials with Henry Fonda for GAF...

 

[Trickeration]

We have 4 in storage back in California, along with half a shoebox full of reels. Mostly mixed reels, but a few sets. I want to start collecting the Disneyland sets (I have a few single reels). They remind me of how the park looked when I used to go there as a kid. It's so much different now.

 

[The Wolf]

I still have my old View Master and many of the reels.
I still have the Batman one with Adam West and Burt Ward but wish I still had the Green Hornet one.
I might have to dig it out again. Thanks for the memories.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[carebear]

Also had one growing up.

Having lost it I now have no way to follow Captain Walker to Tomorrow Morrow Land.

 

[splatt]

I also vaguely remember having a reel which showed various scenes around Australia in the early 1970's or late 1960's...things like the Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and that sort of thing.

 

[Flivver]

We have 4 in storage back in California, along with half a shoebox full of reels. Mostly mixed reels, but a few sets. I want to start collecting the Disneyland sets (I have a few single reels). They remind me of how the park looked when I used to go there as a kid. It's so much different now.

The Disneyland reels are among my favorites. New Disneyland reel sets were introduced every few years from 1955 into the 1970s so it's possible to trace the evolution of the park.

I never made it to Disneyland until 1986, but the View-Master reels showed me what I had missed.

Does anyone have any spare reels from the Coney Island set that was introduced in 1956?

 

[TheDutchess]

I was a view finder fanatic when I was a kid (secretly still am)! I think I had reels of every Disney movie available and I do recall having a few episodes of Family Matters and I believe Full House on my little view finder. This really makes me go back to my parents house and see if i still have mine in my old toy box somewhere.

 

[Dalexs]

I still have a circa 1969 viewer and a big box of reels.
My favorite is probably New York City At night.

 

[KY Gentleman]

We had one growing up ,too.
My grandmother had one and it was a highlight whenever we visited her, so my folks got one for my brother and I. The fascination ended almost instantly !

 

[carebear]

I still have a circa 1969 viewer and a big box of reels.
My favorite is probably New York City At night.

Muggers, junkies and prostitutes in 3-D.

Oh wait, it was probably pre-80's.

I wonder if mine is still tucked away at my folks. [huh]

 

[olive bleu]

I LOVED my view master! I gave one to my neice last year for Christmas, she was over the moon!

I still try to buy a lot of retro toys whn i can find them..i also loved my etch-a-sketch.

also i found this link to an online etch-a-sketch( you have to use the arrow keys, it took me a while to figure that out

http://www.etchy.org/