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3 - D Glasses
The 3-D craze can be attributed to Arch Oboler’s 1952 Bwana Devil. The movie hit the big screen with advertising posters which showed lions jumping out from the screen. These posters also promised an experience which was going to be more than “just a movie.” Unfortunately, the movie never became a theatrical standard, the 3-D idea never completely disappeared.
The 3-D fad of the 1950’s was one of the movie gimmicks which made a huge splash in America. The fad was so big that many of the CEOs of the film industry believed that all movies would be converted to 3-D quickly, just as silent films had been converted to talkies just a mere 23 years earlier.
The new 3-D movies gained a lot of publicity. LIFE magazine itself hosted pictures of hundreds of viewers laughing and enjoying themselves while all wearing the 3-D glasses. As a matter of fact, press coverage was so good that the fad soon snowballed, hitting theaters and studios everywhere.