The problem with 3D cinema in its golden era during the 1950s was that two prints cost more, they may require two projectionists and if the prints or shutters projecting them went out of sync, they were drastically uncomfortable to view. After much vomiting and criticism they faded away.
1970 pioneered Stereovision, whereby the two strips were squeezed into one traditional 35mm single strip. An anamorphic lens would then widen the images to the correct ratios.
However, the end of the flower power movement and the grit of 1970s paranoia and social claustrophobia had gripped America. Censorship was a dying animal too, paving the way for hard-hitting cinema or even mass circulation of soft (or even hard) core porn. To see these boundaries broken in 3D was a tempting prospect.
Coming in at just the right time, soft corn porn ‘The Stewardesses’ was thought to be the most successful 3D film of all time. Not trashy enough? Enter Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, whose 3D schlock horror ‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ popularised the increasing amounts of sex and violence shown in three dimensions - a blood drenched precursor to what would come next...