Last weekend, we took Sweetpea to see The Lion King, and I'd never seen it. Sitting there in the 3-D glasses like Fifties Folks, eating ten-dollar popcorn---we were UPTOWN! (Plus, it took us the third time's charm to GET there---first week, Chris had to cancel for a service call, second one, we stopped to kill time before the movie at a lovely playground and locked the keys in the trunk).
I LOVED it, for the pictures and all the little colorful moments just flying out into your face---took me back to my childhood's deepest COVET---a Viewmaster. Despite the different characters and setting, it was kinda like being right inside "Cinderella" again.
You put in the little round disc with the dark shiny panes, put your eyes up to that magical machine, and were transported into the most enchanting realms of storybook characters and fairytale tales. And they STOOD OUT. They had depth and color and a shine past understanding, right there in the two inches before your eyes---like being inside a big sugar Easter Egg. Faberge’s exquisite jeweled craftings for the czar had no such appeal and beauty as those bright vignettes inside that hunk of black plastic.
The glasses, contrary to those punch-out cardboard Fifties models with one green lens and one red, were big ole Buddy Holly models, a pale gray tint, and whatever magical polarization or prescription or pane, they were absolutely wonderful. The creatures and characters took life, flying out of the screen, swooping out two rows ahead of you, and I imagine there was some ducking and flinching going on, but I was too enraptured to notice.
The glasses, contrary to those punch-out cardboard Fifties models with one green lens and one red, were big ole Buddy Holly models, a pale gray tint, and whatever magical polarization or prescription or pane, they were absolutely wonderful. The creatures and characters took life, flying out of the screen, swooping out two rows ahead of you, and I imagine there was some ducking and flinching going on, but I was too enraptured to notice.
Do not use these in place of sunglasses, read the little blurb on the outside of the packet---which also admonished us to return them when the movie was over, but after we’d paid thirty dollars for two seniors and one four-year-old (before popcorn), plus three-dollars-each for the glasses, we just walked right out with all three pairs.
Maybe we’ll wear them again someday, just to look kewl.
Hello Rachel:
ReplyDeleteWhat happy memories you revive here of the trusty 'viewmaster'. We remember being similarly entranced by this magical machine, made of Bakelite, and can only wonder about what has become of this once treasured possession.
The cost of your cinema treat does seem to have been alarmingly expensive. We only ever go to the cinema in Budapest these days as the prices in England are similarly prohibitive. But, as you go about town in your 'Buddy Holly shades', you will be able to think fondly of your time watching the 'Lion King'!!
Oh, yes, I had a viewmaster. And, I loved it. It was such fun to get those little discs and climb up in the bed and fly away to wherever the picture came up. Along with the cartoon slides, I had several travel discs of far away places.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed the movie. I loved the music to it, as well!
Ah, my Rachel, you can still buy Viewmasters. This post sparked a vague memory of viewmaster disks for sale at a national park along the way somewhere in our great country, so I searched and they can be found at various toy stores! I predict one for Sweetpea for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteJessie Bear gave me a vintage Viewmaster for Christmas last year - along with Wizard of Oz slides! One of my coolest gifts. With all of today's technical advances, there is still something utterly magical about those little scenes.
ReplyDeleteI think that you all definitely need to add Buddy Holley to the rotation - I think Sweet Pea would LOVE 'Peggy Sue'.
YES, DONE, DONE, AND DONE!
ReplyDeleteNice Posting
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