Haneel Tri-Vision camera ad in Pop Photography
Toronto. The heady days of the late 1940s! War was over. Pent-up demand for all kinds of goods exceeded supply leading to continued wait lists. Telephones just outside the town took two years for the cables to town alone to be hung. You had to wait months or longer for a new car. And on and on it went.
A company in Alhambra California bet this demand included 3D images and a less expensive camera. Haneel in sunny Cal forked over money for this advertisement on page 146 of the March 1946 issue of Popular Photography. The big ad includes wording subliminally implying another sensation that was halted by the war – Television. Haneel predicted huge sales of the “Nation’s Camera Sensation” Two models and three years later, it was gone from the market, relegated to the dust bins of history.
This meant two things: the camera failed so few were sold; and the few out there were far more valuable to collectors in this century than when first sold last century – especially with the original box, and instructions.
My thanks to my friend and booster George Dunbar for sharing this find with us. Haneel Tri-Vision Camera, anyone? There are two models – the earliest is all plastic while the later model is plastic and aluminum.
