“If you didn’t get a lion in your Christmas stocking, then don’t give up hope for Interstate has one waiting to jump right in your lap.” The film opened simultaneously in two Los Angeles theatres on Thanksgiving weekend 1952 and was a box office success. Bwana starred Robert Stack and Barbara Britton and was based on the book, The Lions of Gulu, a story of big-game hunters tasked with defeating man-eating lions in Africa. The resulting film, Bwana Devil, was the first feature-length 3-D color film and is considered a pioneer in the 3-D film market. The brothers demonstrated the process to independent producer Arch Oboler, who eagerly adopted this technology to turn a rather mediocre story into a fantastic experience. A more practical solution was a new 3-dimensional presentation invented by the Gunzburg brothers’ Natural Vision Co. The enormous screens of Cinerama did bring people to the theatres, but it was costly and few theatres were able to instal the necessary equipment.

Motion picture studios were looking for new, innovative technologies and gimmicks to bring moviegoers back to the big screen. In the early 1950s, television was on the rise and theatre attendance was declining. On Christmas Day 1952, The Melba was one of three Texas theatres showing the first feature-length color 3-D film, “Bwana Devil.” Bwana Devil (1952) In the 1950s, The Melba was an early adopter of cutting edge theatre presentation, including 3-D motion pictures. The Melba Theatre (previously The Hope Theatre from 1921-1922) was located at 1913 Elm Street on Dallas’ impressive Theatre Row and became part of the Interstate Theatre chain in 1939.

Photograph of the Melba Theatre courtsey of Lovita Irby and “Spotlight on North Texas”

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