Industry 3D Viewer Defunct 1961 | Founded 1955 | |
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Fate Incorporated into Capital Paper Company Limited Headquarters 16, Soho Square, London, England Key people Jack Spring & Jeff Leigh (Founders and owners) Stanley Long (Photographer) | ||
The VistaScreen Co Ltd was launched in the late 1950s by two friends Jack Spring & Jeffery Leigh who at the time owned a paper merchanting company; Capital Paper Company
The Vistascreen 3D system became popular during the late 1950s/early 1960s when Ex-RAF photographer Stanley Long joined the company. Stanley shot the vast majority of the stereo images, mostly using a 1920s Rollei Heidoscope stereo camera with a plate back. The Vistascreen viewers were manufactured in ivory and were designed to fold flat in order to be able to be compactly stored.
The viewers were priced at 1/6d (around 7.5p in today’s terms). The 3D experience given by these viewers was astonishing for the time of which they were invented. Picture cards were supplied in booklets, each one had about 10 cards in them costing around 2/6d (12.5p today).
Later, Vistascreen was also featured in a Weetabix breakfast cereal promotion with red, branded viewers. The promotion lasted for a number of years and featured 6 different sets of 25 3D cards; Working Dogs, Thrills, British Cars, British Birds, Animals and Our Pets. The Weetabix promotion gave away single cards with their breakfast cereal and the viewers could be purchased by mail order directly from the Weetabix factory. These were the same as the originals, but red in colour and with ‘Weetabix’ printed on the back.