View-Master

They were dinky.

Yeah, like a, like a View-Master in a- [laughs]

Yeah, exactly.

So they take a picture, and, um, and we go back, and we're, um, uh...

... did I die?" 'Cause I'd never had an experience like this.

Next thing I know, I look up, and it's almost if you imagine looking through a View-Master or looking through a kaleidoscope and spinning a kaleidoscope, and you're gonna see all these fractals of beautiful colors.

That is exactly, I felt like I was in a cosmic View-Master.

I went straight up, all the way up, boom.

Immediately, I experienced myself in the void, complete blackness, but the blackness was not scary.

Milbourne Christopher talks about an autobiography that Houdini was writing the draft for.

At some point, Houdini lost the draft and then gave up the project.

And because of the nature of these slides going from 1903, there are personal slides, there are studio slides, there are just casual slides.

From 1903 to 1911, they kind of fit the genre of what would be used for an autobiographical book.

A lot of promotion with different toy companies like Mattel, Think Away Toys, Lego.

Fisher-Price, which is owned by Mattel, released Toy Story 3 for the Viewmaster.

Did you ever have a Viewmaster?

I don't know what the Viewmaster is.

It's the

thing you put in the eye and you just click the button and it does the different shots from the film.

Mm-hmm.

Whether it's on purpose or not, the queer experience is continually reflected through the experiences our characters are having supernaturally stuck between two slides on a Viewmaster.

Aww.

I just always love the care with which this cast and crew treat the queer experience.

Jiminy Christmas, Bobby.

Now, "The Thousand Year Knockout." Now, this is the one that I did see as a kid via View-Master.

Uh, you could wind...

They had cartridges.

Oh, weird.

It's only available on the GAF Viewmaster.

It's not a good film.

How dare you talk

Um, so Elizabeth, um, whom is actually Victor's cousin in this version, um, she's a cousin here instead of Victor's, you know, adopted sister, a- as she is in the novel.

Uh, but she's still the love interest, which is, you know, slightly creepier 'cause it's actually a blood relative.

[laughs] As where it's, it's creepy in the novel, but it's not, technically not a blood relative.

It is in this movie, so, or the assumption is.

Yeah.

Um, it's, it's, i- obviously like we know, we, we have heavy suspicions right off the bat he's obviously bringing him here specifically to murder him and take his brain.

Um, he does this by faking an accident and like, you know, it's, it's, it's frankly a little bit of a harrowing scene because he's like, "Oh, I'm just an old scientist.

Time to go to bed." And you know, Victor's like, "Well, let me show you to your room." They go up the stairs and, you know, the guy's just gushing about how great it is to, to, you know, visit his home and spend time with all these charming people, and Victor, very cold-blooded, um, which, which is the theme throughout.