View-Master 3-D reels make memories

At first, the reels featured scenic images.

MAINEVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Walking into Mary Ann Sell’s basement for many adults is like returning to childhood when — with a click of their trusty View-Master — they could gaze wondrously at images of cartoon and TV heroes through the magic of 3-D.

Lining the basement walls in Sell’s suburban Cincinnati home are huge, glass-fronted display cases and file cabinets filled with 500 viewers dating back to 1939 and 40,000 carefully catalogued 3-D reels spanning nearly seven decades.

“Just seeing the viewers and reels brings back so many memories for people,” said Sell, whose enthusiasm is contagious.

“There’s something so special about 3-D compared with a flat photo, TV or movie image. With 3-D, you feel as though you are really there.”

More than 1.5 billion View-Master reels have been issued since organ maker and piano tuner William Gruber invented the system in 1938.

It was introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and featured as a popular Christmas gift.

The Christmas theme continues today with the recently released first View-Master version of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

About 25 models of viewers have been produced over the years, some with lights and even sound. Brightly colored viewers in animal shapes also are now available.

Friends, family, other collectors and people just interested in View-Master and 3-D often tour Sell’s impressive display.

“Mary Ann has by far the most extensive View-Master collection, better than mine, said collector Sheldon Aronowitz, 59, of Teaneck, N.J., who has 50,000 reels and about 1,000 viewers.

“She has so many different types and it’s so well-organized that nobody else comes close in quality.”

Fisher-Price Inc., the Mattel Inc. subsidiary that now manufactures View-Master, even turned to Sell for older reels needed for a 65th anniversary special edition in 2004.

Many of the viewers and reels are familiar to baby boomers. The reels — small disks about 5 inches in diameter with transparencies ringed around the edge — slip into the top of binocular-like viewers. Pulling a small lever rotates the disk to advance the pictures.

“Each reel contains seven stereo pairs of images — one for each eye — that create the 3-D effect when looking through the viewer,” Sell said. “And every reel fits every viewer.”

The first reels aimed mostly at adults featured scenic images from around the world, and the scenic reels were the ones that first fascinated Sell at age 5 when her mother let her check out a View-Master and reels from the library.

“You could renew the viewer and check out new reels every week,” Sell, 56, said. “I traveled the world all summer.”

She was 11 when she got her first View-Master, which she still has.

“I’d get reels for birthdays, Christmases and other special occasions,” Sell said.

Eventually fairy tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Thumbelina” and Disney characters such as Donald Duck were added.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, reels also featured popular Saturday morning cartoon characters and TV stars such as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

More TV shows, for example, “The Munsters,” and “Laverne and Shirley,” emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

The focus since the 1980s primarily has been children’s TV shows and movies.

About 100 scenic titles are still sold at sites such as national parks, but today’s core consumers are mostly 3- to 5-year-old children, Fisher-Price spokeswoman Juliette Reashor said.

Adult collectors must rely mostly on flea markets, the Internet, antique shows and garage sales for the older items.

Members of the National Stereoscopic Association and International Stereoscopic Union estimate about 2,000 to 3,000 serious collectors worldwide and thousands with View-Masters in other memorabilia collections.

Sell started collecting in 1983 with a $1 purchase of a box of reels at a flea market.

Her husband questioned the purchase but soon became a fan and now has his own 3-D camera collection.

“It just pulls you in, and the more you see, the more you fall in love with it,” said Wolfgang Sell, 58, who was born in Germany and never had a View-Master as a child.

The Sells, who have written two books on View-Master and are widely acknowledged as experts, even bought a larger house to accommodate their collections.

“I don’t think anyone else has as many one-of-a-kind items or as much knowledge,” said collector Eddie Bowers, 39, of Dallas.

The early reels sold for as little as 35 cents with viewers priced around $1.50, but collecting has become more expensive. Rare items can now cost hundreds of dollars.

Fans believe the View-Master will survive even amid increasingly sophisticated technology.

“The hook of 3-D is that it’s so realistic,” Mary Ann Sell said. “Nothing else makes you feel so much a part of what you are viewing.”