This is a Babe Ruth All
American Athletic Underwear Advertising Magic Lantern
glass Slide. Also known as Optical lantern slides they
were used as a form of entertainment before there were
movies and television. The slides were viewed by
using an artificial light source and a combination of
lenses (Magic Lantern) that would enlarged the small
transparent images and projected them onto a wall or
screen. Back in the day Oil lamps were used to illuminate
the slides.
"Magic Lanterns" date as far back to
the 1700s and earlier. While most magic lanterns were
designed as simple wooden boxes fitted with a handful of
precision brass parts, a few were ornately decorated with
exotic painted scenes or engraved metal casings.
This Babe Ruth All American
Athletic Underwear advertising, made by the Select
Advertising Service Co. was inserted into those
old magic lantern projectors in local movie theaters between acts when they changed the reels.
The front Left of the slide there are 3 lines that
reads (following a Star) "Showing Instructions,
Always One
Week Only - From, Monday to Sunday Inclusive" On the
Right side of the Slide it reads (3 lines) "The Select
Advertising Service Co., 1878 Fairfax Ave, Cincinnati O.,
Phone Woodburn 6705"
