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Seventy-one years ago on March 20, 1953, Lippert’s first 3-D short A DAY IN THE COUNTRY had its first known showing at the 800 seat Capitol Theatre in Olympia, WA.
From 3-D Expert, Mike Ballew: "The work of boxing short impresario Jack Rieger, it was filmed near Sussex, New Jersey, with an unknown camera rig, by a crew only barely conversant with the requirements of good screen stereo. Its original title was Stereo Laffs, and the prevailing hunch is that it was meant to beat M-G-M's Third Dimensional Murder into theaters. That latter short, which began production on November 30, 1939, was missing in action more than a year later.
On February 17, 1941, nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Lyons predicted that "Jack Rieger… will beat M-G-M to the showing of a third-dimension stereoscopic picture." On February 22, Boxoffice magazine, reporting production costs of about $20,000 for Stereo Laffs, anticipated a theatrical release in two weeks' time. Third Dimensional Murder finally reached the nation's screens on March 1, 1941, but Stereo Laffs sat out World War II on a shelf.
Stereo Laffs was licensed for exhibition in the state of New York in 1945, but never found wide distribution until independent producer Robert L. Lippert, acquiring the film from Rieger, made single-strip anaglyphic prints available under the present title, A Day in the Country. Paired with a 2-D Western, The Tall Texan starring Lloyd Bridges, the short at last reached the public in March 1953.
A Day in the Country disappeared for over 50 years, until a mysterious East Coast dealer sold the only surviving copy to collector Jeff Joseph for $500—and then promptly vanished, along with the film. When Joseph tracked him down a year later, the man confessed the print had been left abandoned in the back of his pickup truck, now in the clutches of a local towing company. Joseph put through a long-distance phone call, and a friendly clerk took a quick look. Yes, there was a pickup truck, and yes, there was a can of film, and yes, the label read A Day in the Country.
High-quality preservation scans were made of this faded 1953 Pathé Color release print, and 3-D wizard Dan Symmes worked out ingenious methods by which the discrete left- and right-eye views could be harvested from the composite anaglyphic image. The film had its first public presentation in many years at World 3-D film Expo II, in September 2006. But in the years since, 3-D Film Archive Technical Director Greg Kintz has worked his own digital alchemy on the film."
A DAY IN THE COUNTRY is currently available on our Blu-ray release of 3-D RARITIES II from Flicker Alley.
From 3-D Expert, Mike Ballew: "The work of boxing short impresario Jack Rieger, it was filmed near Sussex, New Jersey, with an unknown camera rig, by a crew only barely conversant with the requirements of good screen stereo. Its original title was Stereo Laffs, and the prevailing hunch is that it was meant to beat M-G-M's Third Dimensional Murder into theaters. That latter short, which began production on November 30, 1939, was missing in action more than a year later.
On February 17, 1941, nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Lyons predicted that "Jack Rieger… will beat M-G-M to the showing of a third-dimension stereoscopic picture." On February 22, Boxoffice magazine, reporting production costs of about $20,000 for Stereo Laffs, anticipated a theatrical release in two weeks' time. Third Dimensional Murder finally reached the nation's screens on March 1, 1941, but Stereo Laffs sat out World War II on a shelf.
Stereo Laffs was licensed for exhibition in the state of New York in 1945, but never found wide distribution until independent producer Robert L. Lippert, acquiring the film from Rieger, made single-strip anaglyphic prints available under the present title, A Day in the Country. Paired with a 2-D Western, The Tall Texan starring Lloyd Bridges, the short at last reached the public in March 1953.
A Day in the Country disappeared for over 50 years, until a mysterious East Coast dealer sold the only surviving copy to collector Jeff Joseph for $500—and then promptly vanished, along with the film. When Joseph tracked him down a year later, the man confessed the print had been left abandoned in the back of his pickup truck, now in the clutches of a local towing company. Joseph put through a long-distance phone call, and a friendly clerk took a quick look. Yes, there was a pickup truck, and yes, there was a can of film, and yes, the label read A Day in the Country.
High-quality preservation scans were made of this faded 1953 Pathé Color release print, and 3-D wizard Dan Symmes worked out ingenious methods by which the discrete left- and right-eye views could be harvested from the composite anaglyphic image. The film had its first public presentation in many years at World 3-D film Expo II, in September 2006. But in the years since, 3-D Film Archive Technical Director Greg Kintz has worked his own digital alchemy on the film."
A DAY IN THE COUNTRY is currently available on our Blu-ray release of 3-D RARITIES II from Flicker Alley.
, do you have any details on the 3-D filming of Willie Nelson’s 4th of July picnic? It has fascinated me since seeing it on the Silver era posters section of the Archive’s website. How much was filmed in 3-D? Why no release in 3-D? Was it Spacevision? Stereovision? Etc. 
