![]() "Almost forty years later, Milton Gunzburg was still spinning his own fabulous yarn about the spectacular failure of Schaefer’s negotiations with Warner Bros. But any deal involving BWANA DEVIL would have to be approved by Arch Oboler personally. It just so happened that any distribution deal for BWANA DEVIL would net Schaefer 3% of the gross receipts, while an outright sale might mean a fat 5% commission. George Schaefer, only recently appointed as Gulu’s sales manager, seemed to know just about everybody in the business and was making the rounds on both Coasts. Milton Gunzburg approached Joseph Schenck and Spyros Skouras at 20th Century-Fox. In addition to booking playdates and shipping out prints and equipment, Feder personally sought distribution or acquisition deals with Jack Warner and Ben Kalmenson of Warner Bros., Sam Katzman of Columbia, Harold Mirisch and Ralph Branton of Allied Artists, and George Bowser of Fox West Coast Theatres. Limited partner Sid Feder, a veteran exhibitor, was juggling multiple duties from his base at Gulu’s Hollywood office. "Even before the big premiere, the Gulu partners realized they would need to take BWANA DEVIL to an established distributor, either to handle the film’s release on Gulu’s behalf or to buy it outright. A special design with freewheeling flanges had to be introduced to manage torque and ensure that the film did not snap when the projectors were started, and the earliest prototype reels commissioned by Natural Vision were said to be too large for the metal alloy used in their construction. Even the outsized reels used to hold the prints posed unexpected problems. These double prints then had to be shipped out to theatres all across the country without loss or delay, at twice the usual expense. Left and right release prints from the lab had to be matched not only for synchronism but also for color balance, brightness, sharpness, and contrast. Projectionists, even those with long experience, had to be trained to handle the unusual mode of dual-strip projection. Theatres showing BWANA DEVIL needed more than just an ample supply of Polaroid glasses they had to install entirely new screens with a 'silver' metallic surface and special mechanical couplings to synchronize their projectors. ![]() The partners in the Gulu Picture Company, in their new role as ad hoc roadshow distributors, had to become fast experts in esoteric technical matters never associated with any previous feature film. ![]() "The staggering instant success of BWANA DEVIL caught everyone by surprise, including the people who made it. Please note that the final product will include thoroughgoing endnotes citing all sources. In commemoration of this significant milestone, please enjoy five rough draft paragraphs from my work in progress, CLOSE ENOUGH TO TOUCH: 3-D COMES TO HOLLYWOOD. THIS WEEK marks the 70th anniversary of the Los Angeles premiere of Arch Oboler's groundbreaking 3-D film BWANA DEVIL.
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