Today I was thinking of 1970s AV equipment. We certainly had free-standing film projectors that projected to screens in front of the room (to screens that pulled down, or mobile screens), but I’m recalling something a bit different: A cart that had both the projector and a builtin translucent screen that the projector projected to the back of, allowing the whole class to view it on a screen the size of (what would be today) a moderately sized flatscreen tv. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? What were these called?
Are you thinking of a filmstrip (back) projector?
Stranger
I’m remembering it as bigger, but that’s basicall it. I thought it was for film, but I could easily be misremembering omething that in fact was only for film-strips. Thanks.
I remember them it was about 3-4 feet across and for movies not filmstrips. Had two big doors on the front. It was sort of like a big TV, I guess so you didn’t need a screen.
Something like this:
Or this (links won’t preview)
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cragstan-total-action-color-show-1789183380
http://www.jackbergsales.com/toys/8mmcolorshow.htm
I’m thinking of something about twice as high and twice as wide, so a whole class could watch at once.
I remember us calling the larger TV-sized one a Caramate. Had a cassette player built into the side that would play the associated audio for the slide or filmstrip (not motion picture, just slides on a strip). You could either advance the slides manually or the cassette would beep and advance the slides for you.
Not sure if that was a brand name or just a local corruption of another name.
ETA - Caramate is the correct name, made by the Singer sewing machine people, apparently.
I don’t recall anything like it, but I think I’m a bit older than a lot of people on this board. I’m pre-video cassette. We had filmstrips (with an accompanying record “Move to the next slide – BING!”) or, more rarely, movies.
They never would have used a device as small as the one pictured – our AV presentations were for classes of circa 30 kids.
Could it be something like the Technicolor Movievision?
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/technicolor-magi-cartridge-console-1846785972
(Sorry, can’t get it to generate a preview even with a direct link to the image file. But have a look at that.)
ETA:
Let’s try another link for the preview:
My grade school was still using those at least into the late 90s. Both reel to reel and the ones you manually advanced frame by frame.
Yeah, the one I’m thinking of wasn’t small, but I think it was better than the “ting, go to the next slide please” version (which I remember too). If I recall correctly, the device was simply a projector inside an enclosure with a translucent screen - I wonder if the school just created that screen part themselves.