Walt Disney's Donald Duck And Mickey Mouse Club Projector (Stephens Products Co.)

Walt Disney's Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse Club Projector
Stephens Products Co.
1946

We're heading way back this time. All the way back to the forties to an era before home videos. A day and age where if you wanted to see a movie at home, it would have been on a projector, typically owned by the rich and famous, or in a kids toy version. That's where we meet up with the really cool Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse Club Projector from Stephens Products Co. These things are designed for fans young and old, making it a fun toy for kids of all ages. I'm not lying. That's what is says on the box.

Opening up the package, you're greeted by a folding open show curtain, which reveals the projector inside. It's here you'll also see the words, "Auto-Magic Theater. It was in digging in further to these words that I found further information, pinpointing the year 1946, as printed on the side of the film reel box. I also learned that Stephens Products Co. initially released what they called the Auto-Magic Picture Gun, a pistol shaped image projector.

I was able to find two different Disney themed versions of the toy gun, one branded as Disneyland, and the other based on Davy Crockett. 

The box for the Disneyland version would fold open into a theater for kids to project their films on. Of course, being a cardboard box, they are few and far between these days, having not survived use and abuse.

The latter Crockett version is definitely odd, as this certainly isn't the type of pistol that would have existed in his day and age. This also pinpoints this particular gun to around 1956, as that's when the show aired on television.

How it works can get a little convoluted, so rather then blindly explain it, take a look at the instruction sheet.

Basically, load the gun, looping the real around the inner body of the chamber. The bulb rest in between the film loop, and when you pull the trigger, two AA batteries required in the handle of the gun, the bulb turns on, transmitting the images through the barrel. Speaking of the barrel, it's able to be pulled in, and pushed out, serving as the projector's focuser.

I was able to trace all the way back to a version of the auto-gun released in 1936. In addition to the various releases of it throughout the following decades, Stephens Products Co. would make several film strips cross compatible with both the guns and projectors. They also produced several different packages and licensed versions of the gun, but all of the exterior designs remained the same, sometimes receiving upgrades to the mechanisms inside to improve functionality.

Now knowing the origin of the projectors, we fast forward back to the Donald Duck version.

Unlike the gun version, the projector runs off of a power cable. However, this only serves to provide power to the bulb. Much like the gun, the film strips are loaded inside the unit. However, instead of pulling the trigger to advance the film, one would need to manually crank the knob located on the outside of the machine.

What's interesting about the projector is that it has a standard reel molded into the top of the unit, but this is not functional or usable. It serves no other purpose than to sell the effect that it's an actual reel fed projector, even though it's not.

The below image is an example of the packaging that the film strips come in, and the roll of film itself. As I mentioned above, there were several different strips released, which packaging varied for. This particular version is the one included in with the Donald Duck projector.

Stephens Products Co. also released a Mickey Mouse Club version of the projector. The design was the same as the above Donald version, simply with a new sticker adhered. Both a grey and light blue version were released.

Overall, it's a pretty cool concept. Considering it was a day and age where home video wasn't a thing, this was a great way for kids to watch them at home. Granted, without sound. Still, from a child's perspective, this would be just as good as seeing it in a theater. Imagine the hours of fun spent hosting a movie show with the neighborhood kids as you go from film strip to film strip. What a blast!

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