life:

J.R. Eyerman’s peek inside the opening-night screening of Bwana Devil, the first full-length color 3-D feature, certainly is peculiar: Men and women, young and old all angle in the same direction, formally dressed but for those silly specs over their eyes.

Funny as it is, with the audience members coming off like clones of an alien species, there’s also prescience in the photo — not just about the emergence of special effects in cinema but also, on a deeper level, about the hypnotizing nature of our entertainment. 

(see more iconic LIFE photos here)