Montyne

Montyne, Sherman LaMont Sudbury, was briefly a contract artist for View-Master. He only created two three-reel packets, “Tarzan of the Apes”, and “Beetle Bailey”. Both of these packets were very innovative and different. Beetle Bailey had paper cutouts molded and painted to give depth. Some fully sculpted objects were used in the dioramas. This gave the scenes a very cartoon like appearance.

Tarzan of the Apes by contrast had fully sculpted figures and realistic dioramas. Montyne sculpted the young Tarzan in anatomically correct realistic nudity. The fight scenes were bloody and looked violent. The View-Master management was not pleased according to Wolfgang Sell. These two factors together may have contributed to Montyne’s contract not being renewed. The nudity was not full frontal, and was no more sensational that what could be seen on the beach or in “classical” reliefs on many US buildings. It has a spectacular scene, with awesome depth, of Tarzan flying through the trees.

Montyne was born in 1916 and died in 1989. He showed early talent, but was frail and sickly. He studied anatomy with medical students and became a physical culturist. He became an athlete and performed for a while in a physically demanding circus act. He traveled the world, authored a book, View-Master reels, and a number of diverse art works. Some of his art works were stolen by Las Vegas thugs, and he was gypped out of an extensive commission payment. He had a great interest in 3D art. He died in his son’s arms after an illness. (Information culled from the official Montyne website)

Beetle Bailey B518 (Reel 1, Scene 4) Beetle drew the cue back and— "O-ohmph!"


Tarzan B444 (Reel 1, Scene 6) Inside he found a knife — and he learned to read books


Tarzan B444 (Reel 2, Scene 3) Mad with rage Kerchak fought to the death with Tarzan
(According to Wolfgang Sell, the knife was created by Frank Visage, who also worked on the dioramas)


Tarzan B444 (Reel 3, Scene 2) Tarzan leapt through the trees in wild pursuit
This scene has astounding depth, but is actually only lm deep (3 ft) (Wikipedia)


Bibliography: View-Master Memories by Mary Ann & Wolfgang Sell


List of View-Master projects by Montyne

1963 B518 Beetle Bailey
1968 B444 Tarzan of the Apes