Tru-Vue Film Cards

In the 1940s, Tru-Vue of Rock Island, Illinois was a direct competitor of the well-known View-Master stereoscopic slide viewers made by Sawyer. In 1951, Sawyer purchased the Tru-Vue company, along with their exclusive licensing contract with Disney, and moved the base of operations to Beaverton, Oregon.

Both Tru-Vue and View-Master would release numerous Disney character film cards, including Snow White. Each film strip would be placed into the viewer and pointed towards a light source to see the 3D images. Tru-Vue cards worked very much like View-Master except they were rectangular in shape rather than round. Seven scenes per Tru-Vue card.

The Snow White card is marked "Copyright 1954 Walt Disney Productions". Card no. D-5.

Card envelopes. (The Pluto card is dated from 1953.)

Another envelope design.

A three-card set: Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Snow White (all dated 1954).

Snow White card sealed in original plastic on hang card. Retail 35¢.

Sawyers Tru-Vue Magic Eyes three-card set. Disney's Snow White is pictured in upper right corner of packaging, yet the illustrations on the cards are of generic characters.

An example of of a Tru-Vue viewer. It is made of Bakelite.

Creative Commons copyright Joe Haupt.

Opaque illustrated cards. There was at least one unlicensed copycat manufacturer in the 1950s--True-View in Hong Kong--that made opaque cards rather than transparent slides.

The Tru-Vue brand would continue through the 1960s, yet it would be View-Master that would go on to great commercial success.

Slides from Hollywood Film Enterprises

In 1947, Hollywood Film Enterprises, Inc. distributed three sets of Disney 35mm color slides. They featured The Caballeros, The Three Little Pigs, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Each set of 10 was sold separately for $1.95.

Package insert front.

Package insert reverse (with story sheet).

The slides were not printed with the dye-transfer process that was seen with the Craftsmen Guild Slides in an earlier Archive entry. As a result, the colors have faded over time.

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Original envelope front.

Envelope reverse.

The three sets were mentioned on page 206 of the 1974 Disneyana book by Munsey.

Special thanks to Michael Filippello for sharing info and images from his collection.

Viewmarx Slides & Viewers

In the 1960s, toy manufacturer Louis Marx & Company produced a series of plastic micro-viewer toys called Viewmarx. Each was themed with a favorite cartoon character or animated film, including several Disney favorites. A Snow White version was released with the viewer in the shape of the Seven Dwarfs' cottage. A peep hole on the back allows you to see the slide, and a button on the bottom changes the picture. Eight color slides total.

We have not yet come across a photo of the Snow White plastic viewer. However, Hake's did offer at auction a lot of six of the eight numbered 9" x 12" original artwork scenes from which the slides were created.

Also included in the lot were two additional pieces of artwork on aged stiff paper, each a pencil drawing of Snow White with the text, "Correct Head And Expression".

Images via hakes.com.

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An Alice in Wonderland Viewmarx slide viewer can be seen over at  Matt Crandall's Vintage Disney Alice blog. It is molded in the shape of the White Rabbit's house.

Peep hole on the back and the slide changer button on the bottom.

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Non-Disney viewers were produced for other cartoon favorites including these three Hanna-Barbera examples.

Image via Heritage Auctions.

1982 Blanche Neige School Slides

Long before internet searches and PowerPoint presentations, the multimedia choices available to schools usually consisted of films on reels, filmstrips, and slides. Here we have a Snow White 35mm slide program that was designed by Fernand Nathan for a classroom curriculum in France. Includes a total of 24 slides with corresponding text in a six-page booklet, plus colorful covers. Copyright 1982. Published in Paris.

Images courtesy of Greg Philip of A Lost Film.