Talk about a "blast from the past." When I was a small child, I had an
acoustic phonograph that had records with a picture of a red bird on
the label, which had moving pictures on the surface. Owing to my age
(born 1954) and the general scheme of what's been discussed, these had
to be the aforementioned Red Raven Records. Their copyright dates fit
in well, too.
They can only be viewed on single-play phonographs, as the viewer sits
on the record over the center pin. The viewer has a many-faceted
mirror mounted around the axis of rotation. The operator looks at the
mirrors of the viewer, and the picture moves with a repetitive action,
usually a trot, walk, or bounce as the record turns.
The viewer was made to look like a carousel, with a painted top which
was yellow and red striped painted tinplate, as I recall. I remember
the optical quality as being pretty poor, because rather than silvered
mirrors, I think that the mirror surfaces were polished metal, perhaps
with a lacquer coating to retard tarnishing (I may be wrong about
this). Nonetheless, it was a very attractive toy, to me at least.
Maybe one of the MMD folks can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think
that set-ups of this type are referred to as "zootropes."
Dave Vincent
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