Dinosaurs (G.E. Show'N Tell, 1965)

 I had boatloads of these things.  But, I should preface that statement (why do people say that, when they have already SAID something? Doesn't "preface" mean that it should COME FIRST?) by saying that there is a huge difference between being a Child of the 1970's and...a Child of the 1960's.  

I'm not faulting you decade-older folks.  You had tons of cool stuff; stuff that I benefit from and enjoy to this good day...you just had to look harder for it.  But in MY day, we had licenses.  Oh, and blockbuster movies (yeah, I know, that used to be a good thing).  And licensing began to cause the world of entertainment to explode.

Case in point:  there I was, at my favorite thrift store, and I find what must be 50 or 60 of these classic "Show'N Tell" record sets.  [We've discussed these marvels of pre-VCR technology before, but for the uninitiated, they were filmstrip-and-record sets, and you watched them on a viewer built into the turntable, which automatically advanced the filmstrip as the record went along.] There must be a similar pile of these things still existing somewhere in my parents' house...and then I began to look through them.  They were dismally boring.  Three-minute adaptations of literature from the 1800's, and science lessons called "Which Way Is North?" and, I kid you not, "Would You Eat Flowers?"...would kids in the 1960's even sit through this dreck?  I would think that "Farm Animals: Hog," "Ghandi," or "A Midsummer Night's Dream" would have helped invent juvenile deliquency if I hadn't seen those films from the 1950's and known it was already around.

But I digress.  I was able to find one solitary title of interest, and I present it to you today.  No filmstrip, of course, but I've played that game before, and it didn't work.  Interestingly, these records are a weird intersection of brand names:  General Electric, Childcraft/World Book, and Pickwick International.  If I had to guess, I'd say GE made the record player/viewer, Childcraft/World Book supplied the text (naturally), and Pickwick manufactured the records...a partnership made in heaven.

And hey, it's outdated information about dinosaurs, so this should be fun.  As a caviat (not a preface, mind you) to my earlier statements, I will admit that all the great developments in the 70's led to things like this happening shortly thereafter:

LINK:  Dinosaurs (GE Show'N Tell, 1965)