Here's proof that there was a time when absolutely everything was for sale in avocado green. I used to think that avocado was a color reserved for kitchen appliances and primary school counter tops (and avocados of course!), but here it is – a pea-soup & ivory colored Super 8 projector.
It's easy to forget that home movies weren't just the turf of spendy camera shops. Regular department stores wanted in on the lucrative domestic cinema market. This Montgomery Ward 866 projector simply has to be from the 70's (I'd welcome any confirmation of that) from the color scheme. Of course the 70's were back when Super 8 was king.
It's quite compact, maybe about the size of a six pack of tall-boys (I'm thirsty as I write this - so kill me...). The take up reel is neatly built in (though the hub is oddly for regular 8). Montgomery Ward looks like they wanted to simplify projecting home movies with this affordable projector.
The threading is much simpler than most projectors, which makes me fear for the safety of any film I'd run through it. All of those extra gears and spindles that you see on larger projectors are there to take the strain off of the film as it runs through the projection path. Not the kind of thing I'd want to eliminate to reduce costs.
I can't run it because the rubber belt inside has rotted to bits. Looking at the internals it's simplified compared to most projectors I've seen. It's got forward and reverse as well as a still function – not totally commonplace features, especially in what was probably a pretty affordable projector in its day.
Since I have so many misgivings about the safety of this “monkey wards” projector (no wonder they went out of business in 2001!) I doubt that I'll ever run movies through it. It doesn't look like I'll be missing much. Check out the tiny lens. The lamp is plenty big but not much light seems to make it out the front of the thing.
Sometimes department stores can sneak out something crazy and cool (see our post about the Sears Silvertone guitar), but in this case I think they should have saved their avocado green for a washing machine.
Related:
Marvelously Miniscule 35mm slide projector
Muplet cheapo projector
Bell + Howell antique screen
Bell + Howell oddball cassette projector



The Cine-Kodak Eight featured a wind-up spring motor and a simple parallel viewfinder built into the handle on top of the case. Everything was completely manual -- you set the exposure by hand and fancy zoom lenses were still decades away. None of that mattered, because aspiring filmmakers suddenly had an affordable and compact camera to shoot home movies. It remained on the market until 1947.
There are lots of practical reasons to not have a bright red video camera (think of all the charging bulls it might attract!), but that doesn't mean that your editing equipment can't be! Let's look back some 50 years to Kalart's 8mm film editor - in bright red plastic! This is pretty daring - remember that photo equipment was almost always in serious gun-metal finishes, or dour black. What a great way to perk up the drudgery of editing your home movies!
The box promises that through editing you can transform your own films into polished "movieland" type productions with this simple device. The Kalart even goes so far as to simplify advancing and rewinding the film by just using one crank. Using a complicated internal mechanism, you use a single crank to move the film forwards and backwards. To be honest, I find the single crank thing more confusing than anything - and the gimmickry that makes it work isn't always the most reliable.
Several cameras - such as the Quarz 2x8 Super-3 above - did away with the cartridge completely and accepted Double Super 8 film on reels. Double Super 8 (DS8) is a hybrid format that uses 16mm wide film to
capture Super 8 sized frames. One half of the film is exposed, the
reels are flipped, and the other half is shot. The 16mm strip is cut
into two 8mm-wide reels after processing. It was a clever system.
The Bolex H16 is one of the most popular 16mm movie cameras ever made. The original H16 was introduced in 1935 and the modern spring-operated SBM model can still be purchased new. Bolex cameras remain extremely popular among film students and experimental filmmakers, because they're capable of capturing images that put sterile "High-Def" camcorders to shame. It's even possible to convert vintage cameras to shoot modern widescreen Super 16mm format.
The Bell & Howell 2709 was a hand-cranked 35mm camera that
became the mainstay of Hollywood silent movie production upon its introduction
in 1911. In fact, nearly every major Hollywood production of the era was shot on a
2709 or its competitor, the Mitchell Standard. Unbelievably, this model
remained in production into the 1950s, although I suspect many of the
later units were used for animation purposes, rather than hand-cranked
live action.
There is hope for stop motion animators who want to shoot with digital equipment, thanks to modern digital still camera technology and some clever software. Programs like Stop Motion Pro are capable of controlling a wide variety of digital cameras, including some affordable point-and-shoot models. The program costs anywhere from $70 to $595, depending on the features you require. The basic package is suitable for hobbyists, while the more costly versions add uncompressed image storage, unlimited resolution and multi-monitor output.
