Today in 1953, Columbia Pictures premiered Man in the Dark, the first 3-D movie produced and released by a major studio, at the Globe Theater in New York City.
The unexpected success of the previous year’s Bwana Devil in 3-D sparked a stampede from the major studios to release their own 3-D films. Columbia Pictures rushed an existing project into production and completed it in 11 days.
Bwana Devil, the first feature-length 3-D movie in color, was released on November 26, 1952. The film was advertised as the “the world’s first feature length motion picture in natural vision 3 dimension: The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!”