A ROUND TRIP TO THE MOON

 Long before the advent of mobile phones, or portable video, cine films and slides were the order of the day. Super 8 and Kodakchrome film would allow anyone to make their own home movies or slideshow. Toy companies saw a gap in the market for children's slide viewers and simple projectors or the Marx Flashy Flicker gun shaped model, allowed kids to run their own tiny cinema show, just for themselves or for their friends. 3D became a big draw in the fifties, with the audience having to wear bi-chromic glasses to get a 3d effect from the film and the victorians had earlier perfected the stereoscope, which used to images of the same subject taken at slightly different angles, which when viewed though a special mount, gave a faux 3d effect. 

Two businessmen developed the idea of the early stereoscope and launched the 'View-Master' device at the 1939 Worlds Fair. Whereas the original stereoscope used to images at a time, the View-Master used special 16mm slides on a disc, 21 images in seven pairs. The user could press an advance lever to quickly move on to the next scene, with the stereo slides simulating the binocular effect and increasing the illusion of depth. The first View-Masters were marketed as 'scenic postcards' and sold via photographic suppliers and tourist gift shops. As the brand developed, it acquired the rights to use Disney cartoons and other famous children's series and the View-Master reached the hands of children.

Originally made from Bakelite, the simple viewer remained essentially unchanged, apart from moving to a lighter plastic version and adding the use of sound in more recent times. As a means to present a story for children it had the advantage over a book or a comic of being much more real and almost like a film and proved really popular.

With the advent of the space race, the factual and science series of reels naturally began to include space themed disks, one of the best being a 'Project Apollo - Man on the Moon' set. As it was originally released in the mid sixties, the imagery is largely based on the projected designs for the spacecraft, which were being put forth by the various engineering companies, eager to be first to the moon,

Early concepts for the LEM were much more streamlined and rounded, whereas the Apollo capsule remained more or less unchanged in basic shape.

The View-Master series uses models and practical effects for its slides, to capitalise on the depth projection in each scene. A simple painting would not provide the same illusion and actual photographic reference for the mission would not be available for some considerable time, so each scene was constructed methodically, using a combination of models, landscapes and back projections. As can be seen from the slides, a lot of trouble has been expended to ensure as much technical accuracy as possible, even to the apparent ages of the individual astronauts - most US astronauts were well into middle age before being chosen to go into space and the figures in the last few panels reflect this. Its possible that GI Joe or Action Man items have been used for the figures, as well as contemporary Revell or Aurora model kits. The LEM and Command Module may have been borrowed from one of the technology companies, as a means to promote their design, but the rockets and backgrounds are clearly produced in house. A lovely series of slides, which not only anticipate the images which would eventually be released by NASA, but also show the more romantic nature of the speculative side of the space race, as the astronaut discovers rare gems on the lunar surface. Its also interesting to note how mountainous the lunar surface is shown to be, as the slides were issued in 1964, they pre-date the moon mapping observations by the Lunar Orbiter series, which catalogued the lunar surface in preparation for the Apollo missions and never saw any evidence of high mountain ranges or deep valley ranges as seen in the show,

KEEPING THE CAPTAINS LOG

One of the best things about being a kid in the sixties, during the height of the space race, was that the excitement and wonder of space travel was reflected everywhere. It was not just found in toys and games, but in clothes, confectionary and foodstuffs. Space was big business and the burgeoning children's market which had arisen following cheap plastic production techniques in the late fifties, meant that everyone wanted a piece of the action. In order to capitalise on the demand by children (via their mums and dads) for space themed goodies, confectioners and food companies ran special mail away offers for larger items such as posters and models, but also took advantage of the already substantial cigarette and tea card collecting fad. Sweet cigarettes made of candy sticks were popular with kids who wanted to emulate their favourite tv and movie stars. as smoking was seen to be chic and cool, but clearly not all parents would want their children to see smoking as a good thing, so the cards were also issued tucked away inside ice lolly and sweet wrappers. America had gum cards for many years previously, but these were larger and much more substantial. A smaller, more cost effective card type - around the same size and format as a cigarette card - was packed with Walls and Lyons Maid ice cream products. These were extremely popular and given the companies promotional tie-in with popular shows such as Doctor Who, Thunderbirds and Stingray, demand quickly soared.

The only problem with the lolly cards was if the product thawed slightly and the card became wet and refroze, getting the card out of the waxed wrapper could be tricky. Besides the basic cards, Wall's also ran other paid promotions for badges, albums and other tie ins.

Sky Ray was a long running and very popular lolly, preceded by the Zoom brand and Sea Jet lollies. Sky Ray carried a series of Patrick Troughton era Doctor Who Cards, before moving on to the real space themed 'Moon Fleet' as the moon landing drew closer. As was usually the custom, a set of 50 collectable cards was released, with one tucked away inside the wrapper of the lolly. Kids could get a dedicated album to keep the cards in, which was split into two parts to house the first 25 cards and then the latter. The cards are well illustrated and show the progression from the early days of space travel up to the projected moon landing, mostly based on NASA's imagery, as opposed to actual photographic reference. As was usually the way with these themes, the last six or so cards went even further into the future and speculated on Mars landings and nuclear powered rockets. Some of the imagery was clearly based on the work of NASA artist Philip Bono and echoes the illustrations from his excellent book 'Frontiers of Space'.
 

Not to be outdone, confectioners produced many different candy cigarette card sets, such as this extremely diverse and well designed set from George Bassett for their 'Conquest of Space' series in the 1980's. The set focusses heavily on the Space Shuttle, but also covers a lot of the early and less well known space probes. Once more, the later focus is on future developments and Bassett takes a much more science fiction approach to their cards, although the influence of NASA and Bono can still clearly be seen.

Some of the last cards clearly borrow their inspiration from one of the premium science fiction book cover illustrators of the day, Chris Foss.

Primrose Confectionery, among many others also issued a set of collectables, once more in candy cigarettes, but of a much less substantial quality. The 'cards' are a medium weight paper stock and are quite flimsy. Keeping a stack of them together was always problematic, as unlike full cards, the edges would be prone to dog earing and folding. Once more, the simple illustrations document early sixties space research, prior to Apollo, but then abruptly shifts to a heavily fantasy and science fiction influenced style, more reminiscent of a Boys Own comic.

To complete my collection, I recently found an example of the Moon Fleet plastic badge - a little larger than I expected, at about an inch wide, printed directly onto the surface.