Australian Cinema Glass Slide

Today we take a look at something that I didn't think I'd ever see, let alone see again!  This is a glass slide used in movie theaters (or cinemas as our friends down under would say) to advertise upcoming films.  The fact that this has survived almost 70 years in this pristine condition, and loose no less (no holder or cardboard sleeve) is amazing.  I much prefer this one to the one made for the American release.

Alice in Wonderland Viewmarx by Marx

What a cool toy this is, and how surprising that they made an Alice! This is called a Viewmarx, it is basically a slide viewer toy, sorta like a viewmaster, but not in 3-D. This is the only one I've ever seen in its original box.

The toy itself is made to look like the White Rabbit's house, which is pretty cool by itself.

The toy is simple to operate, even more simple if you look on the back of the box...

and the bottom...

I managed to get my camera to focus on a couple of the slides through the viewport (not an easy task I might add).

There are a total of 8 slides, and they have all gone very VERY red. This is the best I could do to adjust the color.

1951 National Screen Service (?) Glass Slide

This is something I didn't think existed, a glass theater slide advertising Alice in Wonderland. I thought that these glass 'Magic Lantern' slides pretty much went the way of the Dodo in the 1940s, but here one is (thank you eBay!). I'm not even sure if these were distributed by NSS, but I'm operating under that assumption. This particular slide came out of the Rialto Theatre in Joliet, IL.


These were used by theaters to advertise coming attractions, local business, etc., between features and sometimes between reels. There were also sing-a-long slides from way back when the theater would only have a single projector and it took time for the projectionist to switch reels. At that time these kind of slides would be used to keep the audience entertained until the next reel was ready to show.

There is a pretty good article on these kinds of slide over at LAMP, if you are interested check it out.

UPDATE: I just noticed that the campaign book has a small note on the caption for the A-style half-sheet that says "Slide Same", which I guess means that the image is the same for this slide. No other mention of slides appears in the campaign book.