Prince Valiant
Home Home

3-D FILMSTRIPS

WOW!!! As a Prince Valiant collector I know unique collectible items come along very infrequently! This is such a case. The image above shows part of a vintage 3-D Prince Valiant Film Strip from 1949. The partial picture of the original filmstrip above does not give it justice. It is in excellent condition and it was produced using Hal Foster's art. It is amazing to be able to see Val come to life in crisp, clear 3-D.
This filmstrip tells a story along with the pictures as you advance it frame by frame using the Tru-Vue's red lever.

Displayed below is a Tru-Vue Viewer by it's original box, and the Prince Valiant filmstrip, in it's original box.
           


Tru-Vue Filmstrips - from 1933-1951: A brief history of the Tru-Vue Company

The Tru-Vue Company of Rock Island, IL debuted their product at the 1933 Century of Progess World's Fair in Chicago, 6 years and a World's Fair earlier than the View-Master® debut. Although the 3D Stereo Filmstrip format was not brand new, (see Novelview, here at the 3Dstereo eMarket) their marketing and choice of titles made them a smashing success, bringing sepiatone 3D Stereo Filmstrips into the homes across America. The original views were initially made with a 5"x7" Stereo Graflex camera and mounted as black and white prints, then copied onto 35mm transparancy film. Each filmstrip usually contains 14 stereo pairs.

Some 17 years later, after competing for 11 years against the color 3D Stereo reels of View-Master®, Tru-Vue tried their hand at color too, but was soon purchased by their competitor, View-Master, who needed the lucrative Disney licenses that Tru-Vue had obtained.

For about a year, View-Master produced in Portland, Tru-Vue Filmstrips in both color and black & white film (mostly Disney subjects) and then dicontinued the product after an 18 year run.

Tru-Vue 3D stereo cards and 2D cards were not made by the Tru-Vue Company, but were a View-Master bargain-priced product, utilizing the Tru-Vue name which they owned after purchasing Tru-Vue.

Today, Tru-Vue 3D Stereo Filmstrips, are collected and viewed by a smaller, but extremely active group of collectors, who regard Tru-Vue's coverage of World's Fairs, Hollywood, Night Clubs, Fashion and Risque as unparralled in the area of 3D Stereo.


Tru-Vue 3-D Film Strips



Tru-Vue Film Strip Viewer #9730
These strips are made on 35 mm film. Each image is about 19 mm by 20 mm (excluding captions) and images are on 63.5 mm centers. There are usually 14 pairs, and the order of images on a strip is 1R, title, 2R, 1L, 3R, 2L, 4R, 3L, 5R, 4L, etc.



FILM STRIPS (if you can find them, please let me know)

Color
C-154 Prince Valiant 10 View (Full Frame) Film
2166 Prince Valiant 15 View (Full Frame) Film

B/W
234 Prince Valiant 1949 10 frame version