Remembering Sidney Pink

Sidney W. Pink was born on March 16, 1916 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played a film producer in his high school’s production of “Merton of the Movies” and decided that was the profession he wanted to pursue. He began working as a projectionist in a theater owned by his wife’s family while attending the University of Pittsburgh and receiving a degree in business administration. In 1952 Pink produced “Bwana Devil”, the first widely released 3-D film designed to be seen through the now familiar two-toned glasses. The film was shot with two lenses and was called CineMagic. In 1961, he wrote the original story for “Reptilicus”, which he also co-directed and co-produced at Saga Studios in Denmark. In 1966 he discovered a young Dustin Hoffman in an Off-Broadway production in New York City and cast him in the lead role of “Madigan’s Millions” which was filmed in Italy and Spain. The movie was not released until 1969, two years after Hoffman appeared in “The Graduate” (1967). During the 1960s Pink produced, wrote and directed a number of Euro-westerns including “Finger on the Trigger” (1965), “The Tall Women” (1966), “The Christmas Kid”, “Seven for Pancho Villa” and “Bang Bang Kid” all in 1967. In the 1970's he owned a chain of movie theaters in Puerto Rico and Florida. Sidney died after a long illness on October 12, 2002 in Pompano Beach, Florida. He wrote his autobiography “So You Want to Make Movies: My Life as an Independent Film Producer” which was released in 1989. Today we remember Sidney W. Pink on what would have been his 95th birthday.