Stereo Photography: Places And Times Remembered

Long before 3-D movie effects existed (or movies themselves, for that matter), people enjoyed three-dimensional audio-visual images through stereo photography (which are two identical pictures side by side). This excellent production chronicles the birth, rise, heyday, and demise of stereo photography as seen through the eyes (and stereo viewer) of Keystone photographer Phillip Brigandi (played by an actor). It is Brigandi's job to clear the Keystone picture vaults, and throw out half of the prints in the files; a painful task, yet one which allows him a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Following the initial experimental "stereoscope" models in the 1830s, the 1850s saw the perfection of the design, and between 1870-1890 some 100 different models of stereo viewers were offered on the market. Between 1850-1930 virtually all of the major personages and history-making events were captured by the stereo photographers, including the careers of President's McKinley and Roosevelt, the Civil War, the Great San Francisco Earthquake, the exploits of the Wright Brothers, and Henry Ford's new invention. Examples of some 150 stereo photographs are shown in the program, and the history of the Keystone-Mast Co. and the Underwood & Underwood Co.-the two major suppliers of stereo photographs are chronicled. The Keystone company stopped production in 1939, right about the time that a new audiovisual medium was being born: television. Stereo Photography: Places and Times Remembered is an intriguing history of a format that most of us have forgotten (though at one point they were standard in homes, like TV is today), presented in an entertaining and informative manner. Highly recommended. (Available from: Sandpail Productions, 3608 Avenida del Sol, Studio City, CA 91604.)