The only true independent, fun-time media experience a kid could have was...Kenner's "Give-A-Show Projector! Hours and hours could be had in a dark room, watching these little 7 fame slides of all your favorite movie and TV stars, both real and cartooony. Written out of character and drawn off-model...and we didn't care.
Kenner was satisfying a need and a wnat and we loved it.
Make that present tense...we love it...since Unca Jeffy's Toy Box still contains his!
Such grand entertainment from the lowet-tech of devices. An on-off toggle switch and a baby light bulb. I don't know where I'd find one if mine ever burns out...but search I shall.
Embossed logo on a plastic toy. Means nothing but fun!
Slides came with the projector, with plenty more available to add to your veiwing collection. Even the box that holds the slides makes me happy inside.
A line-up of all your friends on the side....
...letting you know that, if you don't have these, you need to beg Mom to get 'em for ya!
9 different boxes...all wanting to be yours. sigh.
The boxes came with just a few slides and a holder/devider which kept them seperarated. Once you've hoarded as many as I ended up with though, you tossed the dividers. A good 60 or so slides hides in my toy box.
This quicky scan shows just how badly I may need to go pick up a slide scanner for myself.
Here's the first batch of slides in my collection, just to let you see the wide variety of fun home-theatre laughs and thrills you could share with your friends!
"Huckleberry Hound" (with Yogi Bear making a cameo), "Popeye", "Woody Woodpecker" and "The Three Stooges" (in cartoon form)...
"Rocky & Bullwinkle", "Lassie", "Mighty Mouse" and "Peter (it's obvious that Disney didn't sign a licensing agreement here) Pan"...
"Casper", "Heckle & Jeckle", "Andy Panda" and "Baby Huey"!
The list goes on and on and the party never ends.
For those wishing to see even more, there's a nifty little blog found here, wherein the author takes painstaking steps to present these awesome little slides in a true digital age form. Check it out.
Talk to you soon. I got a show to give!
You saved that all those years. Good Job. I got nothing to show I even had a childhood. LOL
ReplyDeleteLove these Toy Chest Saturdays !
ReplyDeleteAnd YES~! You absolutely MUST purchase a slide/negative scanner. Mine has already paid for itself a thousand times over the initial cost. I am now using it to painstakingly scan my old super-8 movies !
Man, these are the funnest. I've always wondered what these projectors were all about but as a kid I was never able to get one. It's easy to see why you loved these so much.
ReplyDeleteI won't even begin to tell you how many Kenner Easy Show Projectors I went through as a tad because the @#!%ing batteries would leak...let's just say that it was a big number and let it go at that. (I firmly believe, however, that my fascination with this childhood toy led to my lifelong obsession with movies.)
ReplyDeleteBut the fact that you still have your Give-a-Show projector after all these years and have resisted the temptation to hawk it on eBay...you are a god, my friend. And I'm proud to be your long-lost brother (though I don't this makes me a god-in-law).
I think I like these "Toy Box Saturdays", too. Makes your brain itchy in all the fun places. :)
ReplyDeleteI had one of my own in the late sixties. Mom couldn't afford to buy me spear slides 'cause house holdings weren't enough and we lived in Mexico. What I did was to create my own slides with simple paper where I draw my own cartoons with pencil. Yeah, mine also perished to leak bateries, hahaha.
ReplyDeleteGreat rememberance, Koko. I'll bet your original cartoon slides were more fun than the real ones even!!!
ReplyDelete