Down the generations: Susan's grandmother, Mary Brana Staum Pinsky also enjoyed 3-D.
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About the Creator: Susan Pinsky
- by David Starkman
Culver City, California
April 2020
HOW SUSAN MET DAVID
I first met Susan Pinsky on December 21st of 1973. What brought us together was a mutual interest in antiques and vintage "stuff". At that time she had a little antique shop in West Los Angeles, and I was looking for some 1940's bakelite earrings. as a gift for a woman I was dating at the time.
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I did not find the earrings I was looking for, but I stayed, and we talked for a couple of hours, until closing time for the shop. To make a long story short, we started dating after a few weeks, and after about three months we started living together. Three years later, in 1977, we got married.
That evening, in bed, I took out the box and started looking at the reels. Here was a three dimensional tour of the USA! We both enjoyed seeing these images in 3D. The next morning we talked about it, and decided that since we were going to garage sales anyway, that the View-Master reels would be another item that we could look for. It seemed like a fun and inexpensive item to collect.
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A week or two later, at another garage sale, we ran across a cardboard box with a dark maroon bottom and a silver and green lid with "View-Master Lighted Viewer" printed on top. It contained a Model C viewer, with an add-on light attachment. There were also a few reels in the box.
The Paws that Refreshes by Susan Pinsky
1985 International Stereoscopic Union Congress Wash. DC Susan Pinsky shooting with a TDC Vivid and David Starkman shooting with a Busch Verascope, Allan Griffin stands behind
- by David Burder
After getting home, and looking through the reels, we also found a printed promotional ad for the "View-Master Personal Stereo Camera". It had a picture of a two-lensed camera, and a description of this camera that could take View-Master stereoscopic pictures just as easily as with a conventional camera. Until that moment we had never thought about how the View-Master pictures were made. But the idea of being able to take our own "personal" View-Master pictures seemed like a fun thing for us to do. We didn't realize then, that reading this promotion would eventually change the course of the rest of our lives!
1985 Susan Pinsky and David Starkman boarding plane to the Photographic Society of America
in Salt Lake City by Tim Cardinale
In 1976 there was no Internet, and no eBay, to allow us to search for a View-Master Personal Camera. In Los Angeles we had a small weekly free classified paper called (appropriately) "The Recycler". It was free to advertise, so we placed a "Wanted: View-Master Personal Stereo Camera" ad.
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Within a week we got a phone call offering us a V-M Personal Camera, Film Cutter, and a Stereomatic 500 projector and a silver screen. All for $250! At the time $250 was a lot of money for a young couple, and we were totally ignorant as to what the film cutter and projector were all about. So we didn't buy that package! (If we had only known what we know now!). We thought we'd just need the camera and the viewer. And we didn't have that kind of money to spare.
1982 Susan Pinsky at the keyboard of the Epson QX-10 computer by David Starkman
1976 Susan Pinsky and David Starkman in their 1961 Triumph TR3 photographed by Laurence Starkman and converted to 3-D by Peter Sinclair, www.snap3d.com
Cow Couple by Susan Pinsky
A couple of weeks later we got another phone call, offering just a Personal Stereo Camera for $50. We drove to the seller's house. Looked at the camera and bought it. Amazingly, on that same day we got another phone call, offering another VM Personal Stereo Camera for $50. We decided that it would be more fun for us both to have cameras, so we ended up buying that one, also. It also included a 36" Close-Up lens attachment. We didn't know at the time that this was a relatively scarce accessory!
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Once again, to make a long story short, we quickly discovered that we needed the film cutter, and found that a few local camera shops still were stocking blank View-Master Personal reels.
1992 Stereo Club of So. Calif. President Susan Pinsky passing the gavel
to incoming President Mitch Walker by David Starkman
2008 Stereo Club of So Calif slide duplicating workshop with David Kuntz, Eric Purkhiser
(AKA Lux Interior of The Cramps), Susan Pinsky and David Starkman - self portrait fisheye
1978 Susan Pinsky at desk working on Reel 3-D News newsletter by David Starkman
"Reel 3-D News" was a side business, while we worked at other jobs. After three years of publications, newer jobs were taking up too much of our time - so we stopped publishing. However, we kept getting requests for back issues. So we comb bound each of the three years of issues we had published, and sold them as yearly volumes. "Reel 3-D News" also had classified ads in the back. Readers had been asking us where to find 3-D products. Our first product was a hold-up-to-the-light plastic 3-D viewer that had been made by a local company. They had not made the viewer since the 1950's, but it turned out they still had the molds. We visited the company and made a test order. That turned out well, and became a product we sold for many years.
REEL 3-D ENTERPRISES, INC.
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Along the way we found more 3-D products, and this eventually led to our "3-D Catalog" of mail-order products for 3-D photographers.
1982 Casa 3D Duarte hallway filled with friends by David Starkman
1977 Castillo Del Mar Pacific Palisades H.S. Reunion committee meeting
by Jonathan Kuntz
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1978 Photographic Society of America Denver CO convention, Jerry Walter wrapping up screen after convention with Susan Pinsky helping by David Starkman
Susan did all of the editing and layouts for the catalog. We both worked on product descriptions, and I did the product photography. Before home computers, all of the text had to be typeset by a stat house, and the photos had to be converted to a dot-screen format for printing. Susan would take all of these elements, that were on separate pieces of paper, wax them on the back, and paste them onto special boards. She would find clip art in the old magazines and other sources. The final pasted up pages were then photographed by the printer to make the plates for printing the catalog.
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Susan had done the same editing and layout process for "Reel 3-D News". The only difference was that the "typesetting" was done on a typewriter.
1977 3-D friends at the Getty Villa in Malibu: LtoR: Unknown woman, David Kuntz in stripy t-shirt, George Kirkman in the back, unknown couple, Linda Shea Ford (holding View-Master camera) and Jamie Ford (in blue t-shirt), (both living and working on Getty premises) Marilyn Felling (in orange top),
David Starkman and Jonathan Kuntz in the red t-shirt - by Susan Pinsky
1979 Susan Pinsky posing in her grandmother Frances Saltzberg Altmann's black lace dress
for David Starkman using the Sputnik 120 rollfilm camera
1982 Susan Pinsky, Ray Zone and John Rupkalvis watching the 3-D comic "Battle for a Three Dimensional World" on the printing press - by David Starkman
JOINING THE STEREO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In 1977 we joined the Stereo Club of Southern California (SCSC) (now www.la3dclub.com ). Later I was president of the club for one year, and Susan served as president for two years a decade later.
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It was a defining change in our lives, as we met all kinds of impressive, creative people, willing to share their ideas and knowledge with us. Susan almost immediately became the official Hostess and greeter. Not long after she became the Membership Director, which she did for over twenty years. With our connection to other 3-D enthusiasts through our company the club expanded exponentially.
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The club had regular workshops and outings, board meetings and 3-D photo challenges. Friendships were made that persist to this day.
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3D COSMIC PUBLICATIONS
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In 1982 I went to work at 3-D Video Corporation. They were converting 1950's 3-D films into an anaglyph format to show on television. I was involved in marketing the anaglyph 3-D glasses. One week later Susan got hired to create an anaglyph 3-D comic book that would provide a brief history of 3-D leading up to 3-D Video Corporation. Thus she became the Editor-in-Chief of "3-D Cosmic Publications". After doing some research she hired Ray Zone to write the story for the comic book, Jack Kirby to do the artwork, and SCSC member Tony Alderson to convert the artwork to 3-D.
1981 Susan Pinsky standing on picnic table looking up to Mt Hood in June by David Starkman
1980 Jim Butterfield, Allan Lo, Bruce Lane, unknown, and Susan Pinsky by David Starkman
High Voltage by Susan Pinsky (PSA 1981 Slide of the Year winner)
1990 Susan Pinsky resting in Yosemite by David Starkman
1982 United Kingdom early morning butcher shop transfer in Totnes by Susan Pinsky
1986 National Stereoscopic Assn convention in Riverside CA David Starkman and Susan Pinsky
resting on their two Hondas by Steve Aubrey
1986 Susan Pinsky with her trusty TDC Vivid camera
1986 Western Photographic Collectors Assn trade show in Pasadena -
Susan Pinsky at Reel 3-D table selling by David Starkman
1988 Stereoscopic Society Annual convention outing Bus Full of 3-D Nuts by David Starkman
2006 National Stereoscopic Assn convention in Miami FL Bus Full of 3-D Nuts by David Starkman
I mention all of this, because this explains Susan's background for creating the pages you see here online, on her 3-D Legends web site. The only difference is that it is all digital, so she can now do this all on a computer.
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Her other great talent, and obsession, since we have gone from 3-D slides on film to digital 3-D images, has been digitizing 3-D images. This includes scanning vintage stereo cards, personal View-Master reels, Stereo Realist format slides (our own, and vintage ones from the 1950's that we have collected), and twin 2"x2" slides.
The majority of images that you see on this web site have been scanned by Susan.
Susan Pinsky holding Daniel Greenspan's medium format viewer by David Starkman
2010 Gabriella Nutt, Susan Pinsky, Brian May and David Starkman hands out in London, May
by Elena Vidal
2011 Bob Bloomberg, Susan Pinsky, Andrew Hurst and David Burder at the
International Stereo Union in the Netherlands Aug by David Starkman
2018 Happy Susan Pinsky on her scooter at the airport
Beatrice and Phoebe playing in the bag by Susan Pinsky
1987 December Big Ben David Starkman, Fred and Val Lowe, their MP and Susan Pinsky
Susan in Solvang in Guard Box by David Starkman
1988 National Stereoscopic Assn convention in Cincinnati OH Bus Full of 3-D Nuts by Susan Pinsky
Layouts done by Susan Pinsky
2011 National Stereo Assn convention in Loveland CO in July Bus Full of Digital 3D Nuts
by Susan Pinsky
1993 International Stereoscopic Union Congress in Eastbourne in Sept with an outing to Brighton
to achieve a Bus Full of 3-D Nuts by Susan Pinsky
No Cell Phones Please by David Starkman
(Eric and Jodi Kurland, Susan Pinsky, Scott Ressler and Kathy Day at Philippe's Restaurant)
1983 "Bus Full of 3-D Nuts" first bus load of 3-D enthusiasts taken at International Stereoscopic Union Congress, Buxton UK by David Starkman
Phoebe on Taxiphot by Susan Pinsky
David Starkman and Susan Pinsky have the world at their fingertip through View-Master
1987 Photographic Society of America convention, Long Beach, CA, Susan Pinsky and David Starkman are awarded their Associate of PSA designations. Sponsored by Seton Rochwite and Allan Griffin, they all celebrate this honor with Jackie Leventhal, Bob Bloomberg,
Col (Ret.) Melvin Lawson, Seton and Isabelle Rochwite, Dolly Lawson and Judy Archer. Photo by Allan Griffin.
At 3-D Cosmic Publications Susan Pinsky edited and oversaw the creation of this "Friday the 13th - Part 3" poster, painted by Barry Jackson and converted
to 3-D by Tony Alderson
1987 Susan Pinsky opens the ISU convention in Interlaken, Switzerland
2017 May 23 Stereo Club of Tokyo (Left to Right) Row 1: Takashi Sekitani,
Row 2: Miki Nakamura, Chie Mimura, Susan Pinsky, Momoko Nishio Row 3: Masuji Suto, Junji Ikeda, David Starkman, Masaharu Aoki Row 4: Izumi Okano, Satoshi Maeda, Kazue Maeda, Yoshifumi Takatsume, Hiroshi Yoshinaga
by Takashi Sekitani
1981 Susan's handmade View-Master viewer birthday cake made by Howard Frazee June with John and Gwyn Dukes and son Jeff by David Starkman
1953 Susan Pinsky with
sub-miniature Stereo Mikroma camera by Carol Altmann Pinsky
1982 Susan Pinsky with Brian May's daughter in Jan by David Starkman
2018 Susan Pinsky, Dana Kubick, David Starkman, David Burder, Phil Palmer, Alan Butters, Fred and Valerie Lowe at Stereoscopic Society convention in Buxton UK by Susan Pinsky
Susan Pinsky, David Starkman and Art Linkletter by Gene Lester
1984 David Starkman and Susan Pinsky by Susan Werner
for Los Angeles Magazine
Naked Cats of Mission House on the perch looking away from each other 2016 by Susan Pinsky
Call of the Wild (infrared) by Susan Pinsky
Cow with twin Olympus cameras at 1987 ISU Interlaken, Switzerland by Susan Pinsky
2018 April Susan in her scooter in Stratford on Avon at Thortons (Chocolate Heaven since 1911) enjoying Death by Chocolate ice cream -
by David Starkman
1985 Jefferson Memorial multi-exposure by Susan Pinsky
Pemaquid Framework by Susan Pinsky
1992 David Burder, Paul Wing, and David Starkman sitting for a daguerreotype to be done the
original way by Robert Schlar at Paul Wing's home in Hingham, MA - by Susan Pinsky
1978 Jerry Walter and Susan Pinsky, SCSC banquet
1978 Susan Pinsky with Karl Kurz and Norma Gruber, Portland OR by Marilyn Felling
Susan Pinsky and
Vivian Walworth
1992_10_30 David Burder, Paul Wing, David Starkman and Susan Pinsky sitting for daguerreotype
done the original way by Robert Shlaer at Paul Wing's home in Hingham, MA
Happy Jester by Susan Pinsky
2007 Susan Pinsky and Sheldon Aronowitz on Central Park Merry-go-Round Nov.
by David Starkman
2009 3D Movie Division Meeting January audience shoot set-up for ISU Stereoscopy periodical envelope stamp by David Starkman
It's a Beautiful Day in Marina del Rey by Susan Pinsky
2017 Aug 25 Susan Pinsky with Brian May at Queen 3D book launch by David Starkman
1978 Reel 3D News editors Susan Pinsky and David Starkman by Carol Altmann Pinsky published in the Jan 1979 issue of Peterson's Photographic magazine in the Kalton Lahue column.
1977 Rabbi Laura Geller with Susan Pinsky and David Starkman wedding Aug 28 1977 Irv and Carol Pinsky on left, with Sheila Kirby Pinsky, Best Woman, and Laurence Starkman, Best Man on right, with ringbearer Mark Fainblit
1990 House of Wax Andre de Toth, Chris Condon, Susan Pinsky and Vincent Price
by David Starkman
2019 Susan Pinsky, Paula Richardson Fleming and Dana Kubick together in Virginia Sept
by David Starkman
2004 David Starkman, Susan Pinsky and Ray Zone Dec on the Griffith Park Merry-go-round
taken by Merry-go-round owner Warren Deasy
1953 Susan Pinsky photographed by Carol Altmann Pinsky converted by www.William3D.com
2020 August 28 Susan and David Anniversary with Clara and Molly selfie
1979 Stereo Club of So Calif outing to Lake Arrowhead for the Stereo slide Sequence judging competition - group shot.
1977 Marriage congratulations card received
from Western Photographic Collectors Association
1983 ISU Buxton UK David Burder, Fred and Valerie Lowe, Dolly Lawson, Paul Wing and David Starkman by Susan Pinsky
1978 Portland OR Susan Pinsky William B Gruber Memorial Park at the GAF Factory
by Marilyn Felling
1969 Susan Pinsky, feminist and hippie from the start
Susan Pinsky is always welcome to have your feedback, corrections, suggestions, and contributions. You can write to Susan directly at archivesusie3d@gmail.com.
1983 "Bus Full of 3-D Nuts" first bus load of 3-D enthusiasts taken at International Stereoscopic Union Congress, Buxton UK by Susan Pinsky
Ultra Macro of Beatrice's tongue with water - custom medical camera made by David Burder used,
image taken Sept 2008 by Susan Pinsky
1987 International Stereoscopic Union congress in Interlaken Switzerland Oct -Susan Pinsky being kissed by a friendly cow captured (never wrote, never called again) by David Burder
1987 Susan had a talent for staying on a pogo stick as long as she wanted - by David Starkman
DISCOVERING 3-D
One of our regular weekend activities was to go to garage sales. Susan had been going to garage sales with her father since she was a child, and then it became a source for items for the antique shop.
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At one of those garage sales I noticed what turned out to be a 1950's maroon and ivory View-Master Library Box. The box has a space inside for a Model C viewer (the one I remembered having as a child) and single reels in the rest of the box. This one, however, was filled from end to end with single reels, and dividers neatly typed. In alphabetical order there were dividers for all of the states in the USA. The model C viewer was included separately.
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I put the items back and didn't buy them. However, when we got back to our car, I told Susan about them, and remembered having some as a child. After hearing my description, she thought it would be a good idea to go back and buy the set, and she did. If I recall correctly she paid $3.00 for the lot!
Susan Pinsky being shocked- probably taken by Ron Labbe
Two Fighting Gulls in Brixham Harbor by Susan Pinsky
A Black Hole by Susan Pinsky
STARTING REEL 3-D NEWS
Thus began what turned out, eventually, to be a career in 3-D. We started by going to local camera shows to look for more View-Master items. We discovered that there had been a big boom of stereo photography in the 1950's, and that all of the big photo magazines, at the time, had regular monthly columns about 3-D photography, from about 1950 to 1955. We were able to buy these old photo magazines very cheaply, so we bought as many as we could for research. By late 1977, we had learned so much from these that we got the idea to publish a small newsletter, to share the information we had learned about View-Master. In 1977 we published the first issue of "Reel 3-D News".
By our third issue we realized that there were so many other 35mm 3-D cameras made in the 1950's that View-Master topics were too limiting. We added Stereo Realist and all of the other stereo cameras of that era. We decided to keep the "Reel 3-D" name, but designed a logo that consisted of a Stereo Realist format slide superimposed on a View-Master reel, to indicate both formats.
BATTLE FOR A THREE DIMENSIONAL WORLD COMIC
Susan did all of the layouts of the pages for the comic book "Battle for a Three Dimensional World" before Jack Kirby did the artwork. She hired all the assorted people involved in getting this comic created.
This project launched Ray Zone's lifetime career in 3-D comic books, and a close friendship until his passing.
Along the way, we have been privileged to meet many of the people you will find on this web site. The fact that they are no longer with us was Susan's inspiration to create a web site to share their contributions to the world of stereoscopic imaging.
2011 National Stereo Assn convention in Loveland CO in July Bus Full of Digital 3D Nuts
easily copied both horizontally and vertically with SPM (StereoPhoto Maker) by Susan Pinsky
2014 Oct Nine Past Presidents of Los Angeles 3D Club by Valerie Lettera-Spletzer - From Left: David Starkman, Barry Rothstein, Mitch Walker, Bob Kneisel, Lawrence Kaufman, Chris Olson, Susan Pinsky, David Kuntz and Eric Kurland
1998 Gabriella bath at 10 months old taken with a Burdlo camera by Susan Pinsky
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