The View-Master was introduced at the 1939 New York World's Fair, marked 'Patent Applied For'. The View-Master brand name eventually came to be recognized by 65 percent of the world's population, but William Gruber disliked the name which Mayer gave it, thinking that it sounded too much like Toast-Master, Mix-Master, or some other kitchen appliance. After three years, a formal agreement was entered into on February 24, 1942, between Gruber and Sawyer partners, doing business as Sawyer's.Įd Mayer and people within the Sawyer's organization were uncertain what to call their new product, but they eventually came up with the name 'View-Master'. Thereafter, Ed Mayer negotiated with Gruber while production methods and some marketing were developed. The components of each pair are viewed simultaneously, one by each eye, thus simulating binocular depth perception.Īccording to a 1960 court document, the Gruber-Sawyer partner venture began from that first meeting in 1938. He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome 16-mm color film, which had recently become available.Ī View-Master reel holds 14 film transparencies in seven pairs, making up the seven stereoscopic images. A special viewer was also designed and produced. He designed a machine that mounted the tiny pieces of Kodachrome color transparency film into reels made from heavy paper stock. Mayer and Gruber had both developed devices for viewing stereo images, but Gruber had made up a stereo imaging rig out of two Kodak Bantam Specials mounted together on a tripod. The company took the first steps towards developing the View-Master after Edwin Mayer and Graves met with William Gruber, an organ maker of German origin trained by Welte & Sons and an avid photographer living in Portland. Sawyer's was the nation's largest producer of scenic postcards in the 1920s and the future View-Master viewer eventually became an extension of the two-dimensional cards. Later, photographic greeting cards were added to the Sawyer's product line, marketed to major department stores. Graves handled marketing for the products while Mayer ran the business.

The company was producing photographic postcards and album sets as souvenirs by 1926, when Harold Graves joined Sawyer's. The company relocated to a large two-story building at 181 Ella St., near Morrison Street in Portland, Oregon. Kelly, renaming the business Sawyer Service, Inc. Graves, Thomas and Pauline Meyer, and Augusta and Raymond F. He built up a photo-finishing business there, and bought into Sawyer's Photo Finishing Service in 1919 with the help of his father August Mayer, his fiancée Eva McAnulty, and her sister Vi McAnulty.Įdwin described how he started the business in a letter dated April 1, 1954: 'Suffice to say that in 1919, what little it was, was purchased with borrowed ($3,500) money from Dad, aided by about $1,600 in insurance money Eva got when her father died and which was left in permanently, and $1,600 borrowed from Vi and repaid, along with Dad's notes, within a few years.' Īs the business grew, Ed Mayer incorporated in about 1926, taking on partners Harold and Beulth F. ( November 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this message)Įdwin Eugene Mayer worked as a pharmacist at Owl Drug store in downtown Portland, Oregon, after serving in the U.S.

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