When 3-D First Flopped

Today In History with The Retrospectors

Journalists, exhibitors and producers packed the Ambassador Hotel Theater, Los Angeles on 27th September, 1922 - to see the first ever paid-for screening of a 3-D film, ‘The Power Of Love’.

Using an anaglyph system (meaning the 3-D glasses had two tinted lenses; one red, one green), viewers were told they could select a happy or sad ending - by closing one of their eyes.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider if the costs of double-projector movies explains why first-gen 3-D never took off; revisit the provocative tag-line from 1952 3-D movie ‘Bwana Devil’, and reveal what the critics consider to be the best 3-D film ever…

Further Reading:

• ‘The Power of Love’ (1922) on IMBb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013506/trivia

• ‘The fascinating history of 3D films’ (Interesting Engineering, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmmFDyhCufc

• ‘The 18 best 3D movies’ (Empire, 2016): https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-3d-movies/

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