Boxed stereo viewer, 'Talking View-Master', GAF Corporation, USA ca.1970

Boxed 'Talking View-Master'. Cardboard box colour printed with images of the viewer, including one of it in use by a young boy along with examples of photographs from picture reels. The lid and base of the box have an identical pink and white graphic representation of the picture reels. The stereoscope is made of moulded plastic parts in two-tone beige that are screwed together:
Sides: one side of the stereoscope has two protruding eye pieces with transparent plastic lenses and a large ridged plastic area beneath. On the other side of the stereoscope is a transparent plastic screen and a small red button. Below the screen is a long oval 'SOUND BAR' button which can be depressed.
Top: A transparent sticker with instructions, numbered 1 to 5, printed in black ink is adhered to the top of the stereoscope. There is a rectangular shaped slot in which picture reels can be inserted.
Edge: A metal lever, with plastic handle can be pulled down through a narrow slot.
Base: Circular plastic dial with integrated handle and an arrow pointing to the direction in which to 'OPEN'.

Paper envelope contains a preview talking picture reel. The reel is made up of 14 colour film stills secured between white card, with text descriptions, numbered 1 to 7, printed in pink ink on one side of the card wheel. A transparent phonograph disc is attached to the other side of the card wheel, secured by a central plastic pin.

Paper instruction leaflet features black and white diagrams and text providing step by step guidelines for use.

A colour printed mail order leaflet features a range of View-Master products to buy.

Two rectangular pieces of shaped polystyrene fit snugly over the back and front of the stereoscope, providing complete protection for the viewer.

Given by Janis Pegrum Smith

It was William Gruber, a German immigrant to the United States, who first developed the idea of the View-Master in the late 1930s. The View-Master was originally manufactured by Sawyers Inc., a company that specialised in scenic photographs, and was launched at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 where it was marketed as home entertainment for adults. In 1958 the American industrial designer, Charles "Chuck" Harrison helped reshape the View- Master design whilst working at a Chicago company, Robert Podall and Associates. Harrison's Model F reduced the bulk of the batteries and his Model G was made of injection-molded plastic rather than the original bakelite. Designing the View-Master in plastic meant it was lighter and could be made in a range of colours. Harrison's design modifications, along with making the product easier to use, increased it's appeal to children.

The View-Master has been relaunched many times, and has progressed through some novel alterations. Gruber died in 1965 and the company was sold to the General Aniline and Film Corporation (GAF). The Talking View-Master was launched in 1970 at a time when the traditional View-Master was declining in popularity as electronic toys began to take a larger share of the market; it was manufactured in its original form until 1981. Talking View-Masters use a simple system: each talking picture reel has a small, free running phonographic record attached and when inserted into the stereoscope, the audio disc and pictures are aligned by pressing a button. A sound bar can be depressed to engage the needle on the soundtrack which plays a sound clip for each picture. The sound stops at the end of each clip and the operator then advances the picture and restarts the audio commentary. This early version of the Talking View-Master, manufactured in a two-tone beige colour was superseded in later years by models in a USA themed red, white and blue colour.

By the 1970s GAF were offering a library of over 500 reel sets, available to purchase via mail order. As with all View-Masters, the types of reel available ranged from popular television and film productions, to purely scenic and educational. In the 1980s Michael Jackson signed a deal with View-Master to create Talking View-Master reels and he went on to produce a total of 25 reels, the first being a talking reel for ‘Thriller’ in 1984.

Janis Smith, the donor of this Talking View-Master, recalls vivid memories of her favourite childhood toy:

“I think the Talking View-master has its place as a technological toy of its time – a handheld device which delivered sound and vision in its rudimentary way, in 3D too! Though it did used to make your eyes ache after a time, and you would come away with indents on your face from the viewer, because it had been held so closely.

It was, without doubt, my favourite toy as a child. As it says on the box, it was both fun and educational. It was a present from my grandparents who used to regularly go to America to visit relatives who had emigrated there after WWII….My grandparents would bring me back discs for it from their travels, hence the tourist ones of Pompeii and the USA. I think the Pompeii ones and the Seven Wonders of the World helped broaden my horizons at an early age, and encourage my love of history. The story ones helped me a lot too, as I am dyslexic, though in the 1970s/80s this was unrecognised. The View-Master meant I could enjoy a story on my own without struggling with a book. Ironic now, as I am a writer by profession.

The Museum of Childhood was one of my favourite museums as a child. We lived not that far away and my mum would take me there often. I marvelled at the toys, and the stirrings of the writer in me would always wonder about the children who had owned the once much loved toys.
I looked after this precious toy so carefully as a child, though it was very much played with….My parents were very strict with how well I kept my toys.”

Janis also remembers the day she introduced her Talking View-Master to her own daughter:

“One rainy, summer holiday afternoon in the early 1990s, when my own daughter was about 6 or 7, I clambered up into the attic and, with much ceremony, brought the treasured View-master down to pass on to her. She watched eagerly as I lovingly lifted my old friend out of its box, and placed the first disc in. I showed her how to hold it up to her eyes and sat back satisfied that she would now enjoy the hours of endless pleasure from this magical device, just as I had. Humouring her excited mother, who was going on and on about how this had been her favourite toy when she was a child, Sophie clicked through a few frames and then dropped it from her eyes. “Boy, your childhood must have been sooooo boring,” she sighed, tossed the View-master carelessly aside and scampered off to put the computer on.”

This 'Talking View-Master' was the favourite childhood toy of a girl named Janis Smith who was given the stereoscope and several picture reels as a gift from her grandparents in the early 1970s. Janis remembers the toy as being "absolutely magical and beguiling in its day".

The View-Master was the brainchild of William Gruber, a piano tuner and camera enthusiast who first developed the idea in the late 1930s whilst recuperating from surgery in hospital. During the late 1950s the American industrial designer, Charles "Chuck" Harrison helped reshape the View-Master design. By making it lighter, more durable and easier for children to use it shifted from being a speciality photography item to a popular children's toy. The 'Talking View-Master' showed not only stereoscopic colour images but also introduced sound to the 3D viewing experience using an internal mechanism to play a tiny phonograph record attached to the reverse of each reel. The sound quality wasn't very good on early models and improvements to the sound mechanism were made during the 1980s.

Janis' grandparents bought the 'Talking View-Master' in the USA when they were visiting relatives and it was more technologically advanced than anything available in the UK at the time. As Janis recalls "No one we knew had anything like this! My Talking View-Master was like 'space-age' technology in the 1970s English suburbs - we didn't even have VCR's at the time. It was such a marvel that friends would queue up to have a go with it." Janis' grandparents added to her collection of photo reels whenever they travelled overseas, returning with reels of images from Pompeii and the USA which broadened Janis' horizons and, she believes, encouraged a love of history that has remained with her throughout her life.

As with all View-Masters, the types of reel available ranged from popular television and film productions, to purely scenic and educational. The photos in this preview reel introduce the viewer to the wide range of reels produced by GAF. Usually the reel sets would include an accompanying booklet linking story scenes or factual information to each image, thereby encouraging reading as well as listening. Janis' collection comprises twelve sets of reels, both talking picture and picture only reels, and includes 'Wizard of Oz', 'Tom & Jerry' and 'The Seven Wonders of the World.'

B.23:1 to 8-2017