The Stewardesses is a 1969 American 3D softcore comedy film written and directed by Allan Silliphant (credited onscreen as Alf Silliman Jr.) and starring Christina Hart, Monica Gayle, Paula Erickson and Donna Stanley. Produced on a budget of just over $100,000, the film grossed $26 million over its theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing 3D film in history until the release of Avatar in 2009. In budget-relative terms it remains the most profitable 3D film ever released. Originally self-rated "X", in 1971 the film was re-edited with newly shot scenes to receive an "R" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America to qualify for a wide general release. Plot A single eventful night in the lives of a crew of Los Angeles-based, trans-Pacific stewardesses. The leading character is killed in a 30-story suicide leap, and the others simply "party," using drugs and engaging in various sexual encounters. One of the girls befriends and beds a returning Vietnam combat soldier. Production and development The film was initially a 35mm 3D softcore "skin-flick" with minimal production values and a very basic plot. Since it was grossing extremely well in specialty "adult theaters," in 1971 Silliphant and executive producer Louis Sher decided to repackage their film into a regular R-rated, general release 3D feature film, with a more complex, conventional storyline with reduced nudity and simulated sex activity. New scenes were shot in both Los Angeles and Hawaii to "open up" the picture, including dialogue and characters on a newer passenger plane interior and cockpit. The self-imposed X rating was a draw in the early stages, attracting viewers to relatively small theaters showing the 3D film. In the last year, with the official R rating, it was possible to show the film more widely, even in 70mm 3D, in houses like the 4,300-seat Boston Music Hall. The film ran for three years and was presented in just over 800 theaters. It outsold some higher budget movies in larger theaters. The film also played in at least 30 overseas markets. The film is also notable in that it may be the only film to be extensively re-shot, edited and updated as it played in theaters, according to Silliphant. Probably four versions of the evolving film were played over the three years that the film was in active distribution. Writer, producer, director, and 3D technologist Allan Silliphant was the younger half-brother of Academy Award-winning writer