Re:Original Holmes cards

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dr. T. opines:

>>Perhaps we were born a century too late:)

>No, perhaps 50 years too late.  From my viewpoint, stereo views were a form
>of consumer passive entertainment. [ ... ] 1952-1955 were the peak years
>of consumer use of these stereo cameras to record one's own stereo pictures
>in full color, something that is at least as exciting (if not more) than
>looking at someone else's stereo pictures.

Then would you say that Wrebbit is making a big mistake by introducing
the 3Discover without an accompanying camera to make one's own strips?
(Obviously, they don't think so.)  There's nothing about the 3Discover
that's really "new", except the motor drive.  Other than that, it's
basically Tru-Vue revisited (and in color, of course, but that goes
without saying; imagine the reception a black-and-white only filmstrip
viewer would get today).

Myself, I'm not sure.  After all, just about everybody has at least
*seen* a Viewmaster viewer, many (most?) of us had one when growing
up, and many on this list have lots of them even in adulthood. :-)
Yet, although a camera system *was* introduced so that people could make
their very own Viewmaster reels, it never really caught on.  It seems
to me that most people just don't have the reaction, "Gee, I wish that
*I* could make those myself", which is necessary to create a market.

I'm afraid that the majority of people *are* content with being passive
receivers of such entertainment as Viewmasters and 3Discovers, and in
the television age this is more true than ever.  Present company
excepted, of course... we're all here because we participate actively,
in one way or another, in stereography.  Even the pure collectors have
educated themselves about what it is they're collecting.

        -Greg W.


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