Re: Life Magazine January 1939

[P3D Lawrence W Kaufman <kaufman3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael A Amundson wrote:

> A week or so ago I posted a note that a student had found a short article
> regarding stereo in an old LIFE magazine.  I have since found out that the
> article is from Janurary 1939.

There were five Life magazines published in January 1939. I found theJanuary
16th
and January 23rd issues. They did not include the stereo article.

>         What I found really interesting about the date, of course, is that
> later that year the first 3d movie appeared at the New York's World's
> Fair.

One of the Life Magazines had some photos from the 1939 World's Fair.
They were mainly of futurist looking items, such as sunglasses and hair
styles. I believe the fair spanned the entire year of 1939 and New York tried
to
keep the magic going by extending it into 1940, but it lost some of its
appeal.

Marvin Jones wrote:
>Actually, there were a number of 3D movies prior to 1939, some dating
>back to at least 1915.

Marvin didn't mention that the SCSC website has several 3D movie firsts
listed under 'Stuff About 3D Movies' at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~campfire/index.html
The film at the 1939 World's Fair (and remade in color for the 1940 fair)
was, of course, 'Motor Rhythm'...which played at NSA '97. This twelve
minute short is generally considered the first 3D film exhibited in a
polarized
process. Even though Edwin H. Land devised the polarized method for
stereoscopic films in 1935. The process had been used prior to 1939
in Germany and Land and George W. Wheelwright of the Land-Wheelwright
Laboratories, Boston had a demonstration film. They had a demonstration
at the New York Museum of Science and Industry in December, 1936.
It was the beginning of a campaign to acquaint the public with Polariod.
The demo 3D film was shown, but also you could see how Polariod could
reduce headlight glare, improve sunglasses, create special effects, help
beauty parlors, laboratories and photography.

When the Society of Motion Picture Engineers met in New York in October,
1937 they were treated to a 3D demostration film from Wheelwright and also
a 'stereophonic' movie. Land & Wheelwright's demonstrations didn't do
anything for Hollywood. R.M. Hayes writes in '3-D Movies' that amatuer
movie enthusiast J. Kinney  Moore's polarized travelogue of Yosemite National
Park, shot in Kodachrome(1937) , was screened and generated quite a bit of
talk,
more possibly than Land's original demonstration film.

Thanks for the time,
Lawrence Kaufman
mailto:kaufman3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


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