It’s been a long and wild journey that first began on a spring day in New York City 39 years ago. Fate, timing and sheer luck have all played a role in this crazy story. Let me take you back to that fateful day and tell you how it all happened.

THE EARLY YEARS

It was May of 1973 and my dad had taken me into New York City for my 12th birthday. We were waiting for a train to the American Museum of Natural History and a huge poster on the subway platform caught my eye. It announced “THIS IS CINERAMA IS BACK” and pictured an audience watching a huge wraparound screen with the image of a roller coaster. I was very curious, especially with the bold proclamation, “Puts YOU in the picture!” Now I knew a bit about film, I had been around it all my life. My dad was an avid home movie buff and we even had an 8mm projector and screening room in our basement, but I had never heard of Cinerama and wanted to know all about it. My dad told me all that he could remember and also mentioned seeing 3-D movies back in the 1950’s. He recalled BWANA DEVIL and HOUSE OF WAX and having to wear special glasses for the 3-D effect. The immersive aspect of these movies fascinated me and I wanted to see those films too.

I had a very limited knowledge of 3-D. I owned a View-Master set at the age of five and must have looked at the Batman reels hundreds of times. When I was 9 years old, I read an article about 3-D horror movies in Famous Monsters of Filmland, and there were ads for a couple of films in the Columbia 8mm home movie catalogs. For whatever reason, none of these had made much of an impression on me at that time. But suddenly, I found the audience participation concept most intriguing and I was eager to learn more.

There were no books on 3-D so I began going to the library and looking through film journals for more information. The real technical details, which I was most anxious to discover, were frustratingly elusive. Finally, two years later, I spotted a small ad for a publication on the history of 3-D and immediately mailed one dollar to Texas for a copy.

In addition to my growing fascination with 3-D movies, I was a huge Martin and Lewis fan. I had just watched the ABC television premiere of MONEY FROM HOME on June 15, 1975. The very next day, I received the magazine, “Everything You Wanted to Know About 3-D But Were Ashamed to Ask.” It was written and published by Paul E. Adair, a man who (I was later to discover) had been the first person to ever undertake the difficult task of searching for original 3-D prints.

As I read through the magazine, I was amazed at the amount of 3-D movies made in the 1950’s. I knew of the horror films but had no idea there had been so many westerns, comedies, musicals and even a travelogue in the process. I turned the page and saw ads for MONEY FROM HOME. I thought “Wait a minute, the movie I watched last night was originally in 3-D?”  I now wanted to see it that way! Having just watched it flat on TV was disappointing, to say the least.

I was able to find a used copy of Columbia’s 8mm red/blue anaglyph version of THE MAD MAGICIAN and ran it repeatedly for my friends and family. The 3-D effect was somewhat diminished in the anaglyph format but I didn’t care, I was finally able to see something in 3-D! I convinced the teacher in my 8th grade class to let me show it as a special end of school presentation. At that time, 3-D movies were extremely hard to find so the kids had never seen anything like it. That was my first public exhibition for an enthusiastic audience and I was hooked.

Just a few months later on October 16, 1975, I was finally able to see my first vintage 3-D movies on the big screen. The Paramount Theater on Columbus Circle in New York was showing a double feature of IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Even though they were presented in the converted anaglyph system (they were originally shown in Polaroid) I was thrilled to finally see them. I sat through the double feature two different times, not knowing if I’d ever have the chance to see them again.

Once again, my classmates were exposed to my three-dimensional obsession. For my 9th grade English class, I submitted an 8 page article, “A Look at 3-D Motion Pictures.” As part of my presentation, I brought in the 8mm projector and ran SPOOKS with the 3 Stooges. They loved it, and that was the only time in Junior High School that I got three A’s for one report!

Just a few years later, I finally had my chance. I was working weekends at a record store in New York and the Thalia on 95th street was showing a revival of MISS SADIE THOMPSON, SPOOKS and MAN IN THE DARK. I asked my boss if I could take an extended lunch break and go watch a little bit of one film. He reluctantly said yes, but told me not to stay too long. When I saw that first dual-strip 3-D presentation on November 25, 1978, I was hooked. I wound up staying for both features and when I finally got back to the store three hours later; my boss was not terribly pleased with me. He understood that I had my priorities.

Throughout 1979, I was able to see several dual-strip revivals at the Thalia, including an original 1953 left/right pair of IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE on New Year’s Day. The print had some wear but it was a revelation seeing it in the original Polaroid version. I never wanted to see the anaglyph again.

It was then I knew that something had to be done. It was clear the studios were not concerned or taking the proper steps to preserve their 3-D libraries.  The seeds for 3-D Film Archive had been planted...

THE WORK BEGINS

The unique and irresistible opportunity to work for a living legend took me to Hollywood in 1984. My boss was now Jerry Lewis and with his connections and influence within the industry; doors began to open for me. There was a renewed interest in 3-D at that time, and various stations around the country were getting high ratings with anaglyph broadcasts of some vintage titles. The studios began digging into the vaults to see what they had and what they could sell. Time had not been kind to those 30 year old elements. Negatives had not been preserved and the few remaining prints were in terrible shape. The films needed attention and I was in the right place at the right time.
  

I began poring through studio files and laboratory records. Some of my discoveries were heartbreaking. While doing research at the old Consolidated Film Industries laboratory in Hollywood, I learned that all of the elements for the 1953 Lippert Pictures short COLLEGE CAPERS (left/right 35mm negatives and fine grains) had been destroyed ten years earlier. They were stored under a closed account (Jezebel Productions) and were placed in an outdoor trailer on the parking lot. One of the major archives was supposed to pick up the materials but after several un-returned phone calls, the films were junked. I have often wondered what other rare films were destroyed in that trailer. Thankfully, we have since located an anaglyph print of this entertaining comedy short.

Sometimes, important elements survived just by sheer luck. I had become close friends with Bud Abbott Jr. and he shared the following story. He was working as an optical technician at one of the film laboratories. He went to work one morning and found the master 35mm right side fine grain of THE MAZE sitting outside on the loading dock. He asked why it was there and his manager said “That’s just a duplicate element and the distributor said to junk it.” Bud was savvy to 3-D and informed the manager that it was the opposite eye of the other fine grain that was still in the vault. Thanks to Bud, the distributor was contacted and the master fine grain was saved.

My research continued for the next several years but it wasn’t until 1990 that I began my quest to seek out original left and right side prints. It happened quite by accident. I was doing work at a film storage facility and was looking through some vaults on my lunch break. Sitting way up on a top shelf and covered in dust were three reels marked MONSTER FROM MARS. I had never heard of the film but what really got my attention was the word “right” on the reel band. It was a good ten to twelve feet off the ground and I didn’t have a ladder so I had to balance myself on adjoining shelves to reach the top. The effort paid off because it turned out to be a complete right side 35mm print of ROBOT MONSTER, a film that had not been seen in good quality 3-D since 1953! 

              

I began digging though the vaults in the hope of finding the other side. Sure enough, several days later, I found another print that was also sitting on a top shelf covered in dust and dirt.  The reels had not been touched for forty years and the account had been closed for decades. Upon inspection, I was thrilled to discover it was a complete left side. Had I not found those six reels at that time, they would have eventually been destroyed when that storage facility went out of business.

ROBOT MONSTER does not have a good reputation for quality so I was not expecting to be impressed with the 3-D cinematography. I put both prints through a synchronizer and painstakingly replaced any missing footage with black film to keep them in perfect sync on projection. My screening room was not set up for 3-D so I took the prints to a facility in New York. When the film finally hit the silver screen, we were shocked. The quality of the outdoor stereo photography was as good as any of the major studio films from 1953.

I discovered that Medallion TV Enterprises did not have complete elements when they created the red/blue anaglyph version in the early 1980’s. On their video master, entire sections of the film went flat and that’s the way it’s been seen ever since. However this 1953 print (with the exception of a few minutes of flat stock footage) was entirely stereoscopic. I realized then the importance of tracking down original release prints as they might be the last available record of the complete 3-D versions. The search was on!

My efforts paid off: by 2003, the 50th anniversary of 3-D’s breakthrough year, my 3-D Film Archive held the world’s largest collection of vintage stereoscopic film materials.  I had found and re-combined thirty dual-strip features and two dozen shorts, trailers, tests and cartoons all dating from 1922 through 1955.

Among my earliest discoveries were the lost comedy shorts HAWAIIAN NIGHTS with Pinky Lee and STARDUST IN YOUR EYES with Slick Slaven. 3-D researchers and historians had never even heard of these obscure titles. The Pinky Lee film was never released in 3-D. While doing research for an Abbott and Costello book that I co-authored, I found a passing reference to the short in Universal-International’s 1953 Daily Committee Meeting notes. Further research confirmed that the left/right 35mm negatives did exist but had never been printed. The Slick Slaven short was found in a closed storage account at Movielab in Hollywood and was originally intended as an opening short to ROBOT MONSTER.  It would have eventually been destroyed.

Director Roy Ward Baker was preparing his auto-biography “The Director’s Cut: A Memoir of 60 Years in Film” for publication in March 2000.  He was quite proud of his subtle and dramatic use of stereoscopic cinematography on the 1953 classic INFERNO and lamented the fact that no original 3-D Technicolor prints had survived. (The Dinard British Film Festival saluted Mr. Baker in 1993 and was reduced to showing a flat black and white 16mm print.) When his editor Tony Sloman told him that I had found original dye transfer Technicolor 35mm left/right prints, he had the publisher stop the presses so he could modify the text! He called personally to express his gratitude and appreciation for my preservation efforts. We spoke for 20 minutes about his work on the film and he asked many questions about my work on the Archive. It was quite an honor. 

For three weeks in May 2000, I had the great pleasure of providing eleven features and four shorts to David Packard for screening at his beautifully restored Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, California. Seeing those original prints on the big screen in a beautiful movie palace with a large and appreciative audience was a tremendous thrill. The discovery and restoration of each print had a story and Mr. Packard encouraged me to share those with his audience. It was a wonderful experience.

In June 2003, I found the only surviving 3-D footage from TOP BANANA, a 1953 comedy starring Phil Silvers and Rose Marie. The film was never released in its stereoscopic version and no 3-D elements are known to survive. The discovery of this brief footage was an important find. More details on the history of this film can be found on our Lost 3-D page.

The Archive’s collection formed the basis of the World 3-D Film Expo held at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood in September, 2003.  I provided twenty-one of the thirty-four features screened at that event. Surviving cast and crew members as well as film buffs from around the world came to see these one-of-a-kind prints and it was a tremendous success. The second Expo was held in 2006 and I also contributed rare films to that festival. Some of the special guests who attended were Rhonda Fleming, Kathryn Grayson, Tommy Rall, Ray Bradbury, Julia Adams, Jane Russell, Richard Fleischer, Herbert L. Strock, Stan Freberg, Kathleen Hughes, Pat Hitchcock, Biff Elliot, William Schallert, Pat Crowley, Gene Barry, the Bell Sisters, Lorenzo Lamas, Warren Stevens, Ray Evans, Paul Picerni, Slick Slaven, Leonard Maltin, Joe Dante, John Landis, Bob Burns, Quentin Tarantino and many more.

Some writers have suggested that both events, with so many Hollywood movers and shakers in attendance, formed the nucleus for today's 3-D renaissance. Who can say for sure, but I can personally state that it was the crowning achievement for all my years of work in putting the Archive together.

The Archive's preservation work is ongoing. Most recently, I helped to ensure preservation of the 1954 United Artists feature GOG and have provided important research materials and documentation to Warner Brothers and NBCUniversal on their 3-D libraries.

It’s been a long and bumpy road these past 39 years with many surprising twists and turns along the way. I’ve made some mistakes but overall, I’m very proud of what’s been accomplished.

Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to tell my story. This new chapter of the Archive has begun and I’m very excited to now share these stereoscopic treasures with you. With the contributions of my good friends and fellow 3-D historians Greg Kintz and Jack Theakston, I'm very optimistic for our future.

Please keep an eye on this website, our Facebook and YouTube pages for important updates and other information about our ongoing preservation efforts.

Dimensionally Yours,

Bob Furmanek

May 2012