While at the Glendale meet in June a gentleman approached and inquired about Studebakers use of the Viewmaster as a sales tool. I was certain that I had a few of the small “projectors” but could not recall for certain how many reels I had and for what years. I remembered only the 1954. After doing some digging I also found two different reels for 1959 (with one duplicate), one for 1960 and two different for 1961. Does anyone have any others besides the years 1954, 1959, 1960, 1961 and is there a second reel for 1960?
For some who may not be familiar with these they are similar to the old wooden stereoscopes that were common in the late 1800 and early 1900’s. The new plastic Viewmasters (introduced in 1939) allowed the viewer to see colorful three-dimensional images using a special “hold to light” projector as shown in the image above. A small lever allowed for advancing the images that were on a 3 1/2" reel made of thin cardboard. Each of mine has 14 images allowing for seven different views in 3-D. I know Studebaker offered these directly to dealers for a nominal price because I have some of the promotional literature on them. It is my guess that there were not many “takers.”
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