Colleen Moore Magic Theatre 3D Viewer

USA, 1930s

This very hard-to-find cardboard 3D viewer was created by Diamond D Studios in Chicago to advertise the Colleen Moore dollhouse. Colleen Moore was a famous silent movie star with a passion for building doll houses. In the late '20s, she spent today's equivalent of over $7M to build an elaborate doll house that's still on display today in Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry, recently undergoing a $200K renovation. The viewer is based on Diamond D’s own Magic Theatre cardboard viewer and is made of 2 cardboard pieces. It’s hard enough to find one of these viewers in poor condition so we were excited to not only add to our collection a like-new complete set with Colleen Moore Dollhouse filmstrip and the accompanying brochure, but also a wood version that could have been a prototype or perhaps just a one-off someone made. We also have a soft orange version of the cardboard viewer (not pictured here, yet).

Primary Material: Cardboard
Media Format: Filmstrip
Light Source: Natural light
Focus: Fixed
Interocular: Fixed