Tourist attraction and travel views predominated in View-Master's early lists of reels, most of which were meant to be of interest to users of all ages.

[citation needed] Edwin Eugene Mayer worked as a pharmacist at Owl Drug store in downtown Portland, Oregon, after serving in the U.S. Army in World War I.

Later, photographic greeting cards were added to the Sawyer's product line, marketed to major department stores.

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.

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.

He designed a machine that mounted the tiny pieces of Kodachrome color transparency film into reels made from heavy paper stock.

The View-Master brand name eventually came to be recognized by 65% of the world's population, but Gruber disliked the name, believing that it sounded too much like Toast-Master, Mix-Master or some other kitchen appliance.

Mayer gave details of the company's expansion in a letter dated April 1, 1954: In 1939, 20 years after starting the business, we had, by dint of hard work and long hours and frugal living, accumulated a business (Sawyer's) worth about $58,000.00 and Western Photo Supply Co. owning the buildings, worth about $30,000.00.

At this point, Sawyer's also decided to change its structure from a partnership to a corporation, for various good reasons, one of which was to permit our children to participate in the stock ownership.

[3]In the 1940s, the United States military recognized the potential for View-Master products for personnel training, purchasing 100,000 viewers and nearly six million reels from 1942 to the end of World War II in 1945.

After moving to the new plant, Mayer leased the building on 20th Place to Oregon Television, Inc.[citation needed] In 1951, Sawyer's purchased Tru-Vue, the main competitor of View-Master.

In 1962, lighter thermoplasticversions were introduced, beginning with the Model G, a change driven by Sawyer's president Bob Brost.

Under GAF's ownership, View-Master reels began to feature fewer scenic and more child-friendly subjects, such as toys and cartoons.

Television series were featured on View-Master reels, such as Doctor Who (sold only in the U.K.), Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Family Affair, Here's Lucy and The Beverly Hillbillies.

View-Master was assigned to Mattel's preschool division and is now marketed under the Fisher-Price imprint, with a continued emphasis on children's content.

In 1998, during the purchase of the Tyco-owned plant by Mattel, the EPA investigated the View-Master factory supply well for the toxic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE).

The new View-Master is an implementation of the Google Cardboard VR platform and is accompanied by a mobile app built using its SDK.

[25] Reels have been produced for Disneyland, many TV shows (such as The Flying Nun, Lost in Space, and The Munsters), blockbuster movies (such as The Poseidon Adventure, E.T.

For example, in the early 1990s, Canadian restaurant chain East Side Mario's used a View-Master reel as their dessert menu.