I'm so pleased with myself. I really shouldn't have gone out and spent $25, but since I did...I'm pleased with myself.

We stopped at the antique mall on the way home from our walk this afternoon, and I got hung up looking at this way cool movie projector from 1961. It didn't have a price on it, and it wasn't like I needed a projector that probably didn't work, anyway, but it was so neat, I couldn't stop picking up, putting it down, picking it up, etc. I've got a nifty (if small) camera collection in our living room--a box camera, a Hawkeye, an old Kodak Brownie movie camera--and the movie projector would have fit right in with the rest of them. I've never seen a projector quite like this one: it takes 8mm "Magi-Cartridge" films. You just slide the cartridge in the back of the projector, turn it on, and it supposedly works. Kind of a precursor to a videotape, I guess.

No price tag, though. Then I saw an 8mm camera hanging nearby, and discovered that it, the projector, two reels of film, and a small projection screen were a package deal--$25. That's too good to pass up. Even if nothing worked, I wanted it just because of they way they all looked together.

Bought them (after a little hand-wringing over the state of my bank account), brought them home, set the whole outfit up in my garage, and discovered *the projector works*! One of the reels is this totally classic 60s flick on how to use the projector (if you don't know how to use the projector already, how do you watch the film?), and the other one was "Spectacular Spills," a flick of professional stunt ski jumpers. They both rocked.

The projector, front view:



The back of the projector, where the cartridge fits. The coolest thing is the little red button that automatically retracts the power cord:



One of the film cartridges:



The Savoy 8mm camera:



The projection screen (worth $25 on its own):



So, now I have to start going to garage/estate sales and see if I can drum up some old home Magi-Cartridge movies. Very, very cool.