Joe Liptak was hired by View-Master to create Tru-Vue scenes after they acquired their major
competitor in 1951. He was their second artist after Florence Thomas. He had a 45 year career at View-Master
sculpting dioramas and later designing new products. His greatest love was sculpting figures. He was born in
1923 in Connecticut and passed away in 2014 in Portland, Oregon. He was a fighter pilot in WWII and is remembered as a
kind and gentle man with an artist’s soul. Most of his View-Master sculptures ended up being trashed, but his
work lives on in the beautiful Tru-Vue cards and View-Master reels.
While he was originally hired to create Tru-Vue cards, most of his work involved creating View-Master
reels. His earliest work was only published as Tru-Vue cards which had inferior film that faded to magenta.
Some of his early work from 1955 on was republished as View-Master reels, but about 8 up to 1957 were not.
After 1957 3D scenes were published as both Tru-Vue cards and View-Master reels. Up to 1977 the reels were
all published on durable Kodachrome film with superior color and range of shading. Between 1978 and the
early 1980s View-Master switched to an inferior GAF film that faded to magenta in 20 years. Unfortunately
two of Joe’s greatest dioramas were manufactured only in that time period, “Dracula”, and “Wolf-Man”.
Joe was known for his recreations in 3D of various Disney movies, but his earliest work involved
creating classical fairy tales. In addition he created many other cartoon characters as well as some historical
and classic stories. The Disney work is his largest single category, but is outnumbered by his other creations.
He preferred to be thought of as an artist rather than a Disney artist. His early work was innovative with
surprising viewpoints. While Florence Thomas crafted beautiful figures in a realistic classical style Joe had a
more modern cartoonish style. Many classical fairy tales were made by Joe and Florence independently.
Joe was hired, in competition with another artist, after creating the scene where Jack exchanges his cow
for beans. This is possibly the same diorama.
This scene has a completely different perspective to the previous ones created by unknown Hollywood
artists, and later by Florence Thomas. There is a striking resemblance between Gretel and Goldilocks.
Little Black Sambo has a scene with great depth viewed from the top of the tree where Sambo is hiding.
This ultimate scene has pancakes obviously made from “tiger butter”. This differs from Florence Thomas’s
lush realism for the same story.
View-Master had three versions of The Night before Christmas. One was a single reel, while another was a 3 reel
packet with the father, son, and a dog viewing Santa. Joe’s early one makes the mouse a major protagonist.
Fortunately it was later released on permanent film as a reel.
In 1961 Joe created a 3 reel packet of Gulliver's Travels treating just the Liliput chapters. They used an
anonymous workman in the title role when the hired actor failed to show up.
One of his notable non-Disney packets was The Little Drummer Boy in 1958.
Quick Draw McGraw is another packet where he displays his ability to change styles.
No history of Joe’s work would be complete without showing some of his Disney creations. His first one on Tru- Vue was never republished, to my knowledge, on durable Kodachrome film.
His last one was, to my knowledge, “Mickey’s Jubilee” packet on inferior GAF film. However it was republished by View-Master International on better film in a blister pack.
In between he created many Disney reels. His Bambi card was, to my knowledge, never republished as a View-Master reel. Since Joe's Bambi reel and the subsequent three-reel packet of Bambi are made to ape cells in the movie one could combine them to good effect.
These are three of his earliest ones, originally Tru-Vue but also available on durable Kodachrome film View-Master reels.
Cinderella is his most complicated work. He was very proud of this packet with its many overlays.
One of his most popular Disney projects was the Jungle Book. The original movie is a loose adaptation of the Kipling books.
His Winnie the Pooh series of packets have been popular and have been reprinted many times.
Some of his last Disney projects used his sculpted background dioramas with cartooned characters.
Two of Joe’s greatest creations, of which he was justly proud, were Dracula and Wolf-Man. Unfortunately they
were only published on inferior GAF film after 1977 that faded to magenta. Dracula covers Johnathan Harker’s
visit to castle Dracula and the final ending of the original story by Bram Stoker. The reels added Johnathan’s
son and changed Dr. Van Helsing to the local school master. The character of Anna was added inspired by the
baby in the original. Only Dracula perishes in the reels unlike the original story. These reels used photographs
of real scenery in some backgrounds unlike previous work by Joe.
Wolfman was a creation of the original Hollywood movie with completely made up “legends”, unlike Dracula
which was a novel based on researched legends. Unlike the movie Wolfman survives and is cured by a silver
bullet through the heart. The View-Master story is a completely made-up confection involving a botanist
visiting the area with his children. Wolfman is the embarrassing son of a nobleman who melts his silver cane
head to make the bullets. They used articulated dolls to make the packet more quickly at less expense.
This is probably his last diorama project, released as a blisterpack
* 3D photo by Cliff Bond, Hank Gaylord, Digitization- Wolfgang Sell, Restoration- J. Clement
Bibliography: View-Master Memories by Mary Ann & Wolfgang Sell
Uncredited attributions came from this reference and private communication with Wolfgang.
List of View-Master and Tru-Vue projects by Joe Liptak
Tru-Vue cards:
1950 S-1 Frosty the Snowman
1953 F-1 Cinderella
1953 F-2 Little Red Riding Hood
1953 D-3 Pluto Baseball Catcher
1954 F-4 Sleeping Beauty
1956 E-1 The Easter Bunny’s Surprise
1957 F-7 Hansel and Gretel
1957 F-8 Little Black Sambo
1957 D-23 Bambi
Early Tru-Vue cards later released in the View-Master format:
1953 TV D-1 VM B5231 Mickey Mouse in Mickey’s Birthday Party
1953 TV D-2 VM B5232 Donald Duck in Deep Sea Diver
1954 TV D-4 VM B3151 Pinocchio comes to life
1954 TV D-5 VM B3153 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1954 TV D-6 VM B5233 Peter Pan
1955 TV D-7 VM B3152 Lady and the Tramp
1955 TV S-2 VM F-29 The Night Before Christmas
1955 TV F-4 VM B3071 The Three Little Pigs
1956 TV F-5 VM F-14 Goldilocks
1957 TV F-9 VM B3142 The Ugly Duckling
View-Master only:
1958 B871 Little Drummer Boy
1960 B310 Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff
1961 B374 Gulliver’s Travels
1961 B534 Quick Draw McGraw
1962 B514 The Flintstones
1962 B531 Bugs Bunny (with Martha Armstrong, uncredited)
1962 B901 Seven Wonders of the World (with Lelia Heath, Florence Thomas, Frank Visage, Joe is uncredited)
1964 B362 Winnie the Pooh
1964 B520 Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm
1965 B318 Cinderella
1969 B545 Casper’s Ghostland (with Lew Turner, Photograpy:Hank Gaylord)
1970 B584 Superman meets Computer Crook (with Lew Turner, Photograpy:Hank Gaylord)
1972 B549 Bugs Bunny in Big Top Bunny (with Lew Turner, Photograpy:Hank Gaylord)
1973 B342 Disney’s Robin Hood
1973 B551 Micky Mouse Clock Cleaners (with Lew Turner, Photograpy:Hank Gaylord)
1975 B810 The Revolutionary War (with Lelia Heath Pearson, Mary Lewis, Frank Visage, Photograpy:Hank Gaylord)
1976 B342 Dracula (uncredited)
1976 B369 Winnie the Pooh & Tigger Too
1977 B363 Jungle Book
1978 J30 Wolf-Man (Uncredited)
1979 J29 Mickey Mouse Jubilee (with Pete Dorsett, uncredited)
1979 K37 Winnie the Pooh & The Blustery Day (with Pete Dorsett, uncredited)
1980 L29 The Fox and the Hound (with Pete Dorsett, uncredited)
1986 7152 Barbie and the Rockers
1992 4139 Crash Dummies