Bwana Devil

“A lion in your lap! A lover in your arms! Newer than television!”

That’s what Arch Oboler’s Bwana Devil promised in 1952. TV had arrived in America four years earlier and filmmakers had started experimenting with ways to keep audiences in cinemas. One experiment was 3D movies, and Bwana Devil was the first 3D colour feature film. At the time, industry bible Variety hailed 3D as “the next big thing”, and LIFE magazine captured the premiere with a major spread and this iconic picture of the audience. The film was panned by critics but made $2.5 million US dollars, something TV definitely couldn’t do yet.