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Presence Examples From The Herald Tribune The Associated Press October 17, 2002 Producer Sidney Pink, the father of the feature-length 3-D movie, has died in Florida. He was 86. Pink, who produced more than 50 films, including the groundbreaking 1952 three-dimensional feature "Bwana Devil," died Saturday at his home in Pompano Beach, Fla., after a long illness, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. "Bwana Devil," on which Pink served as associate producer with the movie's producer-writer-director Arch Oboler, was a surprise hit. The story of British railway workers in Kenya falling prey to two man-eating lions, "Bwana Devil" starred Robert Stack as Bob Hayward, the head engineer bent on killing the lions before they feast on his entire crew. "Sidney Pink and Arch Oboler and all of us poor innocents were involved in something that we didn't even know worked or not," Stack said. "It was a very expensive process, and it took a lot of guts to even do it." Pink's wife, Marian, told the Times that the box office for the movie, which required audience members to wear cardboard 3-D glasses, "was very good. Lions were jumping into your laps, spears were flying and people were coming toward you in hordes." She said her husband was proud to be connected with the first 3- D movie, which was shot in Hollywood with two large cameras with polarized lenses, one for the left eye and one for the right. Stack recalled that everyone had their fingers crossed at the first preview. "Over the titles, they had a train that made a long, circling turn and then came directly to the camera," he said. "When it came directly to the camera, people began to scream and jumped out of their seats and ran out of the theater. I remember one of the guys saying, 'Son of a gun, it really works.'" Stack said "Bwana Devil" was "enough of an eye catcher" to prompt Jack Warner to come out with his own 3-D production - the 1953 film "The House of Wax," starring Vincent Price. Born in Pittsburgh, Pink graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He began his film career as a projectionist in a theater owned by his wife's family. He moved to Los Angeles in 1937, and was hired as production budget manager for Grand National Pictures, where he worked on the Tex Ritter musical western series. He later moved to Columbia and worked as a budget manager on "Lost Horizon" and the Jack Holt action films. After a disagreement with Columbia chief Harry Cohn, Pink returned to film distribution as the owner of a circuit of theaters in Los Angeles. During World War II, he served in the Army Transportation Corps and Special Services. After the war, he imported foreign films and produced burlesque shows in downtown Los Angeles. In 1959, Pink co-wrote and produced "The Angry Red Planet," the tale of the first expedition to Mars. The sci-fi movie was filmed in what was advertised as a "revolutionary" process called "Cinemagic," a printing-process technique that gave the Mars scenes a pink glow. As an independent, Pink moved his productions around Europe, his work including one of the earliest spaghetti westerns, "Finger on the Trigger," starring Rory Calhoun. Pink, who discovered actor Dustin Hoffman in an off-Broadway production, cast him in "Madigan's Millions" as a U.S. Treasury agent sent to Italy to recover money stolen by a murdered gangster played by Cesar Romero. Pink was based in Puerto Rico in the early 1970s and, after returning to the Florida in 1974, he owned movie theaters in Puerto Rico and Florida. In addition to his wife, Pink is survived by a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren.
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