Viewmaster 20,000 Leagues Walk-through

Here are some scans of some amazing photos from a vintage Tomorrowland Viewmaster packet, showing the rarely-photographed "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" walk-through in color (and 3-D, if you have the reel!). The first Tomorrowland packet devotes an entire reel to this extinct attraction.

Check out this amazing model of the beautiful Nautilus, Captain Nemo's submarine. Harper Goff hatched a brilliant design that is believable and uber-cool. Steampunk! I believe that this model was quite large. Behind it is Peter Ellenshaw's lovely matte-painting of Vulcania, the flooded volcanic crater where Nemo had his hideout.


The designs for the diving suits were also cool, especially the helmets (not pictured here) that resembled seashells. You could almost imagine that in a few moments, some of the sub's crew will come down those steps and "suit up" for a dive.


Here is the bridge of the Nautilus. For some reason it looks like a toy miniature in this photo. Once again, there is plenty of believable detail, including brass gauges and dials, riveted pipes, levers, and other props that recall early ocean liners...and yet it all looks so much cooler here!


I hope you all enjoy these Viewmaster scans...sometimes I feel like these are "cheats", but you can't deny that they are great vintage images. And isn't it nice to see them so big?