The Mutoscope, an early motion-picture technology, let viewers watch a succession of flipped images on a rotating drum. [Getty Images]
For many years, 3D movie fads seemed to come in cycles of about 20 years; there were outbreaks in the 1990s, the late 1970s, the early 1950s, even the 1920s. Yet there was an even earlier burst of activity—which unfortunately did not see commercial success.