method was used and the audience wore 3D glasses with gray Polaroid filters. The anaglyph color filter method was only used for a few short films during these years. The two-strip Natural Vision projection system required making substantial alterations to a theater's projectors and providing its screen with a special non-depolarizing surface. The film was a critical failure, but a runaway success with audiences. It opened in San Francisco on December 13, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio on December 25, and New York on February 18, 1953. M.L. Gunzburg presents 3D, a short film produced by Bob Clampett and featuring Beany and Cecil, was screened preceding the film. Long thought lost, the short rejoined Bwana Devil for screenings at the Egyptian Theater in 2003 and 2006. Natural Vision announced they would make 12 follow up films. United Artists United Artists bought the rights to Bwana Devil from Arch Oboler Productions for $500,000 and a share of the profits and began a wide release of the film in March as a United Artists film. A lawsuit followed, in which producer Edward L. Alperson Jr. claimed that he was part owner of the film after purchasing a share of it for $1,000,000 USD. The courts decided in Oboler's favor, as Alperson's claim was unsubstantiated and "under the table". The other major studios reacted by releasing their own 3D films. Warner Brothers optioned the Natural Vision process for House of Wax. It premiered on April 10, 1953, and was advertised as "the first 3D release by a major studio". In truth, Columbia had trumped them by two days with their release of Man in the Dark on April 8, 1953. Commercial reception The film grossed $20,000 in its opening day from two theaters and went on to earn $75,000 in its first four days setting house records. It earned $2.7 million in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada in 1953. United Artists ultimately ended up recording a loss of $200,000 on the film. Public reception In 1989, Pink spoke fondly of the opening week of Bwana Devil at the Hollywood Paramount Theater. "They were lined up around the block". "People would come out of the movie and yell, 'Don't go in, it stinks!' But nobody listened and they went in anyway." Reviews Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said it was "a clumsy try at an African adventure film,