Show 'N Tell - 1960s Children's Multimedia System. Did You Have One?

By 1964 i was eight and was babysitting my niece and nephew when I discovered what my brother had bought for her. A GE Show And Tell. Essentially a multi media machine for kids. He had some educational sets for it and some cartoons(such as they were-it was a film strip slide show), but to me it became my main record player at his house. And yes I brought my records with me from home.
A good memory.......

But then I had a Give-A-Show slide projector myself and ended up being the AV guy in school.

 

I sure did! I had that original red one and loved it, probably had 50+ stories to go with it too. I still remember the song that went along with this cartoon strip about whales. Years and years later, in the early 1980s, I could still see them for sale at Toys R Us. It truly was "a multimedia machine for kids"! I even used it to play 33 RPM LPs. I have no idea what happened to mine, probably lost in one of several moves in the late 1970s. Techmoan on Youtube just put out a great story on these, I watched it earlier today.

 

Where's the one for Let It Be?

"Now keep quiet kids, watch George and Paul bicker!"

Or Gimme Shelter?

"Now kids if you look at that girl's white crocheted sweater you can see the outline of the gun"

 

Yes! A wonderful, pre-high tech "tech" toy. I still have all my record/slide sets, but the player is gone to the dustbin of history. I, too, played LPs and other 45s on the record player. I wore out a copy of the "Christmas with the Chipmunks" LP playing it over and over every holiday season on my Show 'N Tell.

It was amazing to watch the slide shows. Toys like this, the Give-A-Show projector, Pocket Flix, and View-Master were a way for kids to enjoy "video" in the pre-videotape era. I could go full-on curmudgeon and say "It sure was better then," but my Dad always lamented that I couldn't enjoy the old-time radio shows he did as a boy. It's all relative. I always say the "Golden Age" is whenever you were around 12, whatever year that may be for you.

Also, the Show 'N Tell 45 flipsides usually feature oddball, library music-style instrumentals. Another reason I preserved the sets so zealously (I took better care of them than I did my Chipmunks albums!). I have seen the Show 'N Tell record/slide sets around (estate/yard/garage sales), but I have yet to turn up a working player. I'm sure they're out there online, but my memories suit me for now.

 

I had the version put out by Child Guidance in the 1980's:



It was awesome. I had an Alvin And The Chipmunks record and filmstrip set for it. It was basically a higher-tech version of those old book and record sets.

I spent like over a year searching online trying to figure out what this toy was called because I remembered what it was, but not the name of it!

 

Literally my first turntable. Although I probably had an early 70s iteration.

 

I have a pile of them but not the player. Every single one of them has only magenta color left in the film.

 

Yeah, my sister had one. Piece of crap... but I have to admit, it was entertaining. You know, for kids.

Kenner had a cheap imitation called the "Play 'N' Show," which was essentially the same thing: a record player that had a built-in slide projector. Let's just say it wasn't exactly Betamax.

 

Wow, I forgot all about Child Guidance!

 

no way my mom would've popped for one of those......'you'll break it!' probably right....looked high tech back in the day though

 

You might remember the Playskool/Child Guidance Talk 'n Play 4-track cassette player and storybooks.

 

Kind of along these same line, this is what I had; it was fun to be able to slowly crank the scenes forward and backward

 

I had the handheld version of it:

 

I did as well.