View Master

Today is the day that Queen Elizabeth became the longest reigning monarch in British history, surpassing even the amazingly long reign of Queen Victoria. 

I was regaling my Facebook readers with news of this anniversary, noting that, as a lad, I had collected View-Master reels of scenes from her magnificent 1953 coronation.  As I did so, it occurred to me that most of my audience probably had no idea what a "View-Master" was.  I duly noted this sad fact in my post, and told them -- in so many words -- that, for purposes of my subject, if they had no idea what I was talking about, it really wasn't worth explaining. This disclaimer applies to so much of what I say on Facebook that it was accepted without comment.

But I was hit by twin waves of nostalgia and curiosity -- whatever happened to the ubiquitous View-Master?

As the photos suggest, the View-Master was a device designed to give the viewer stereoscopic images.  The "reel" or disc, when slipped into the viewer, gave each of your eyes a slightly different view of the subject -- just as your eyes view objects in real life -- and your brain combined the two images into a three-dimensional image.  Each reel contained fourteen photographic slides, which produced seven 3-D images, one following another as the reel was turned by clicking a lever.

The viewer was so simple to operate, and the reels so easy to load, that the device was ideal for children.  But, at least in those halcyon days when I owned my viewer, View-Masters were also quite popular with adults -- not just for the stereoscopic effect but for the scenic subject matter: color slide film for cameras and slide projectors did exist by that time, but was not widely owned or used.

View-Master reels made good, inexpensive gifts for both adults and children.  I owned many reels of national parks -- which also could be purchased at gift shop souvenir counters in the parks themselves.  I had a number of reels showing scenes from fairy tales and Disney movies.  I believe View-Master gave me my introduction to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  And, of course, there was Queen Elizabeth's coronation. 

After several years of post World War I development, View-Master was acquired and marketed by Sawyer's, Inc. -- the nation's leading producer of picture post cards -- and introduced to the public at the New York World's Fair in 1939.  Its golden years appear to have been during the 1950s -- the very time that I  owned mine and was mulling over the elaborate rituals in Westminster Abbey.

View-Master was sold to another company in 1966, a purchaser which subsequently marketed the viewer and reels primarily as children's toys.  The views of scenery and National Parks were largely replaced by images from TV shows and cartoons. 

So what finally happened to View-Master?  Why did it disappear?  The answer is that it didn't.  It's still around.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, 2015 is the year View-Master goes digital.  Instead of viewing tiny slides set in a cardboard reel, the viewer will scan plastic cards with his smart phone.  In some way, a 3-D image will then be revealed.

Don't understand it?  Well, neither do I.  But you soon will have a chance to figure it out: the new digital View-Master is scheduled to go on sale next month (October).

When I find myself yearning for the good old non-digital View-Master with scenic views of the Grand Canyon and the Matterhorn -- together with the occasional coronation -- I remind myself that what I'm really yearning for are the good old days of being 12 or 13 again.  It's an easy mistake to make, and one quite common among those of us past the first blush of youth.  It's rarely fatal.