Editing View-Master (section)

===1919–1956: early photo services===
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Edwin Eugene Mayer worked as a pharmacist at [[The Owl Drug Company|Owl Drug]] store in downtown [[Portland, Oregon]], after serving in the [[U.S. Army]] in [[World War I]].  He built up a photo-finishing business there, and bought into [[Sawyer's]] Photo Finishing Service in 1919 with the help of his father August Mayer, his fiancée Eva McAnulty, and her sister Vi McAnulty.

Edwin described how he started the business in a letter dated April 1, 1954: "Suffice to say that in 1919, what little it was, was purchased with borrowed ($3,500) money from Dad, aided by about $1,600 in insurance money Eva got when her father died and which was left in permanently, and $1,600 borrowed from Vi and repaid, along with Dad's notes, within a few years."<ref>Document written by Edwin E. Mayer, dated April 1, 1954, stating history of Sawyers, Inc. Published in the family history "The Morris and McAnulty Connection", by Peggy Savage, 2013, Canby, OR.</ref>

As the business grew, Ed Mayer incorporated in about 1926, taking on partners Harold and Beulth F. Graves, Thomas and Pauline Meyer, and Augusta and Raymond F. Kelly, renaming the business Sawyer Service, Inc. The company relocated to a large two-story building at 181 Ella St., near Morrison Street in Portland, Oregon.<ref name="Edwin E. Mayer 1954">Document written by Edwin E. Mayer, dated April 1, 1954, stating history of Sawyers, Inc.</ref>

The company was producing photographic postcards and album sets as souvenirs by 1926, when Harold Graves joined Sawyer's. Graves handled marketing for the products while Mayer ran the business. Later, photographic greeting cards were added to the Sawyer's product line, marketed to major department stores. Sawyer's was the nation's largest producer of scenic postcards in the 1920s and the future View-Master viewer eventually became an extension of the two-dimensional cards.

[[File:Toronto view-master.jpg|thumb|right|A View-Master reel from 1948]]
The company took the first steps towards developing the View-Master after Edwin Mayer and Graves met with William Gruber, an organ maker of German origin trained by [[Welte-Mignon|Welte & Sons]] and an avid photographer living in Portland.<ref>Gretchen Jane Gruber: ''The Biography of William B. Gruber''. Mill City Press, Inc., 2015. {{ISBN|978-1634130097}}</ref> Mayer and Gruber had both developed devices for viewing stereo images, but Gruber had made up a stereo imaging rig out of two Kodak Bantam Specials mounted together on a tripod. He designed a machine that mounted the tiny pieces of Kodachrome color transparency film into reels made from heavy paper stock. A special viewer was also designed and produced. He had the idea of updating the old-fashioned stereoscope by using the new Kodachrome 16-mm color film, which had recently become available.