View-Master Stereo Camera Ad

Oct 1950 HOLIDAY magazine ad for a V-M Camera

Oct 1950 HOLIDAY magazine ad for a V-M Camera

Toronto. My friend George Dunbar sent me an email the other day showing over a dozen magazine ads from mid last century. The magazines of that era had many small illustrated want-ad size listings, often for ways to get rich quick, fix various personal problems, own your own business, or save money.

The ad I chose today is from the October 1950 HOLIDAY magazine (in print from 1946 – 1977). The ad touts a View-Master 3D camera able to take 3D colour pictures for less than the cost of snap-shots. The wrinkle, of course, is that they are tiny colour slides that fit a seven scene View-Master reel.

The year 1950 was in the middle of the most recent surge in the popularity of 3D. Four years later, the first edition of the Stereo Realist Manual (I have a copy) was released. Unlike the View-Master camera, the Realist took an image about 3/4 the size of a 35mm slide – bigger than half frame but smaller than full frame.  The various right and left images of shots mingled in a progressive and orderly way to save film.

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