Stereofilms Ten Vue

Long Beach, California, USA, 1950s

One of the barrels of the little, plastic Ten Vue stereoscope is stamped with “3D Pat. Pend. Scope” and the other is stamped with “Color Film Enterprises”. A 1954 Long Beach City directory shows that Color Film Enterprises was located at 1520 South Street which is the same address listed on the container for Stereofilms, the maker of the filmstrips. The box, which doubles as a mailing container, is cardboard with tin metal endcaps. The filmstrips contain 10 views (hence the name of the viewer) that are duplicated from 10 Stereo Realist slides.

Primary Material: Plastic
Media Format: Multiple-view filmstrip
Light Source: Natural light
Focus: Fixed
Interocular: Fixed

Stereofilms Ten Vue, not family-friendly

Despite the family-oriented fun shown on the container, the filmstrip it came with has pics of women in their undies. This viewer does not have the plastic bridge in between the barrels so the design differs slightly from the viewer on the package and the other 2 Ten Vue viewers shown on this page. Perhaps this design change was for the purpose of being able to slide the barrels apart for focusing, as the instructions on the viewer indicate; however, the barrels are fixed and do not move.

Ten Vue in Brown