View-Master Nicaragua Viewmaster

View-Master (yes, that goofy, plastic, stereo viewer, binocular "thing") - Nicaragua. The image posted above is of the paper sleeve (it is also used on the original poster advertisements) to the View-Master 3-reel and booklet set. While Central America coverage pales in comparison to Mexico, the various countries and cities were sought after products for nearly 30 years (1945-1975). Nicaragua is also included in the 3-Reel set, "Grand Tour - Central and South America". Vintage solo reels also exist from post-WWII Nicaragua, "Managua & Vicinity", from 1946, and almost exactly a decade later, "Magnificent Managua", from 1957. While most vintage reels were not widely available in later years, as View-Master changed corporate hands and leaned towards cartoon and entertainment topics (as opposed to travel, science, and education) some reels have managed to stay in print decade after decade. For example, the aforementioned "Grand Tour" (a re-issue of the GAF reel) is still available to this day, even from major online bookstores. While many of the original reels from the 1940's are quite collectible (and often quite pricey; for example a popular online auction site has seen several copies of mint discs for Tegucigalpa and Managua sell for over $35), decent re-issue copies from later (often lacking the packaging and/or little booklet) can be found for 20% of that. A list of reels relevant to Central America, and a brief history of the device/technology, is listed below; each code/catalog number refers to a single reel, unless otherwise noted:

REGIONAL = #B021, Grand Tour-Central & South America [3-Reel Set].

NICARAGUA = #0561, Managua & Vicinity, c1946 ; #0562, Magnificent Managua, c1957 ; #B020, Nicaragua, c195?, [3-reel set].

HONDURAS = #0558, Tegucigalpa, c1946 ; #0559, Tegucigalpa, "Silver Hill", c1957 ;

COSTA RICA = #0541, San Jose, c1946 ; #0542, Cartago & Irazu Volcanoes, c1946 ; #0543, Scenes of Costa Rica, c1946 ; #0544, Costa Rica, c1957 ; #B022, Costa Rica, 195? [3-Reel Set].

PANAMA = #0530, Panama City, c1946 ; #0531, Panama City II, c1946 ; #0532, Old Panama - Fort San Lorenzo, c1946 ; #0533, Balboa to Colon, c1946 ; #0534, Native Indians of Panama, c1948 ; #0B0254, Panama Canal, c195? [catalog number not a typo] ; #B025, Panama [3-Reel Set].

EL SALVADOR = #0548, San Salvador & Vicinity, c1946 ; #0549, El Salvador, c1957 ; #B017, El Salvador [3-Reel Set].

GUATEMALA = #0550, Guatemala, c1957 [unnumbered 3-reel set] ; #0551, Guatemala City, c1946 ; #0552, Chichicastenango, c1946 ; #0553, Antigua & Lake Atitlan, c1946 ; #0554, Lake Atitlan, c1946 ; #0555, Highland Indians of Guatemala, c1946 ; #B012, Guatemala, c195? [3-Reel Set].

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View-Master is, today, considered an eccentric novelty toy, as opposed to its original purpose, an educational tool. Initiated in 1939 by Bill Gruber, it was promoted and distributed by the picture-postcard and greeting-card company, which would later be known for photography, home movies, and audio-visual equipment, Sawyer's. The View-Master success was partly due to cost (it was inexpensive compared to traditional stereo cards), partly due to the use of then new and impressive Kodachrome film technology (delivering true-life color reproduction which to this day has really not been improved upon), and partly due to marketing.

For the first decade View-Master reels were sold individually (14 film slots, but as stereo pairs, this means only 7 "Shots" per disc). It was not until Sawyer's bought rival True-Vue (their only serious competitor in what was then a huge market for stereo images of people and places around the world), where they had enough images to think bigger than reel singles. With the True-Vue purchase came contacts and existing contracts in the entertainment industry, and View-Master produced its first non-traditional, world-travel slide-reels, of Disneyworld and Disney-related topics.

With the increased stock library of images, View-Master began packaging the film reels (flats, but called "reels", and at times the packaging has been a miniature version of a can of motion picture film, which is somewhat appropriate; even though most people did not realize that the film pieces wedged into the View-Master reels sleeves are odd-sized frames derived from 16mm motion-picture film stock, used in a customized still photo reproduction system; the same film stock would later be utilized in cartridges, for tiny 110-film cameras, made famous by Eastman Kodak).

The 3-Reel sets resulted in a new catalog numbering system, as popularity of the device increased exponentially. View-Master would then release its own personal camera system (using special frames on standard 35mm film, resulting in 70 stereo pairs from a roll of 36 exposure film), and a mail-order process by which families could make their own View-Master reels. These reels could be viewed on the standard, bakelite, handheld device, or viewed by more than one person on the new View-Master Projector (a miniature projector which usually produced a decent image on a flat-white viewing board or wall, about the size of a 13-19" television tube - though is was adjustable for focus and image ratio).

In 1966 Sawyer's was acquired General Aniline Film company, better known to photographers and super 8mm film shooters, as GAF. The business change marked a second shift towards popular cultural subjects, as reels were produced on sports figures, cartoon characters, major motion pictures, television programming, etc. There was also a shift away from high-quality original system, towards a more profitable, streamlined manufacturing process (Kodachrome was phased out and replaced with cheaper E-6 slide film technology from Kodak, and many reel images were based on copy work or inter-negatives, as opposed to original images shot by View-Master photographers, using special cameras). A short-lived off-shoot of the product line was the "Talking View-Master", which was an oversized handheld viewer capable of both internal lighting and corresponding audio capabilities (talking View-Master reels were produced with a clear, miniature, "record album" mounted to the back of the reel. Purchasers could hear descriptions of the images, as they viewed them).

In 1981 GAF sold off the View-Master system and product line to a newly-formed investor pool, which took over the company as View-Master International Group (VMI). The same trend toward entertainment subjects and topics for young children continued. The buying-selling string continued as VMI bought Ideal Toy Company (ITC), resulting the stereo-view line being relabeled, View-Master Ideal Group (VMIG), which was later bought by Tyco Toys, which later merged with Mattel Toys Inc., which ultimately led to a near guarantee that juvenile subjects will be the focus of the product line, since View-Master is officially now under the direction of Mattel's pre-school specialists at Fisher Price - a far cry from the days when the focus was wildlife, national parks, space exploration, world-changing news events, and occasionally, specialized services (at times, the U.S. government contracted special discs for use as instruction for things like ship-to-ship identification (U.S. Navy), Flight Training (U.S. Army), Gun-Range Estimation (U.S. Marines), as did others for topics ranging from driver education to golf instruction. Just prior to 2000, View-Master closed its long-lived Portland (OR, U.S.) facility. For the last seven years, all viewers and reels have been made in Mexico, including contracted reels sets, which various museums and historical societies have produced, as recently as just last year. As technology has made many optical and photographic devices, at best , the subject of passing interest or the but of jokes, stereo fascination lives on, and in the last 5 years countless products have been released promoting 3-D viewing, ranging from adaptors for disposable 35mm cameras, to new stereo cameras using professional 120-film (produces single film negatives / positives up to the size of a credit card). There is countless information on the web, for the stereo-curious.

* No images from View-Master were posted here, since I am unsure of the copyright status of the sets, old or new(er).