A practicing dentist in Tacoma, WA, in 1951 [William B. Treutle] was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only six months to live. He closed his practice, dispensed with most of his possessions and, with his wife, traveled to Karamoja, a remote region of northern Uganda, where the natives still lived very primitively. Treutle used a 16mm Bolex camera to document the tribe's activities, including bloodletting, body piercing, and mutilation. Soon it became clear that he had been misdiagnosed and in the summer of 1952, he and his wife returned to America and he resumed his dental practice, this time in Sebastopol, CA. In order to help pay for the cost of the expedition, he sold everything he shot to exploitation movie producer Kroger Babb. Babb was impressed with the nudity of the natives, as well as the circumcision that Treutle had captured on film. The footage was quickly edited with the nudity intact and released to theaters, with press material claiming that the tribe was the descendants of Ham, a son of Noah. Although some questioned if the events were staged, Babb dismissed them in the accompanying press book with the statement, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater." Babb's instincts were successful and "Karamoja!" led to the creation of the "mondo" genre of exploitation documentaries, best exemplified later by A Dog's Life (1962) and several similar films that followed.
Documentary of tribal Africa filmed in 1952 by William B. Treutle --a dentist from Sebastopol, CA--with his wife accompanying him. Before leaving his practice temporarily to go to Africa, famed Hollywood cinematographer James Wong Howe had given Treutle three short lessons on cinematography. When Treutle returned in the summer of 1952, Howe viewed the 10,000 feet of color film that Treutle had shot and was impressed enough to tell the dentist, "There is not a cameraman in Hollywood who would have, or could have, gotten what you have here. You have succeeded with some shots that I would have passed up for a number of technical reasons as being impractical to attempt."
A box display ad for the Baseline Drive-in in San Bernardino, CA, in the "San Bernardino Daily Sun" on 11/19/54 included this text: "Shocking sights of the world's most primitive people! True, daring beyond belief! Kroger Babb presents KARAMOJA (Land of Lost People) in new Eastman Color. The World's Last Lost Tribe--Untouched by Our Modern Civilization!!! SEE The enchanted Lobor Mountains . . . the Valley of Bones . . . the River of Rolling Sands . . . the Prairie of Lurking Death. The Enchanted Forest of Deer . . . World's tallest Giraffe. SEE The ancient Rites of Baal . . . Customs of the Iron Age, the Stone Age in practice Today . . . The Worship of the Golden Calf. A People without Fear who Display no sign of Pain! SEE Savage Tribesmen Wearing The Men They Have Killed, Tattooed on their Right Arms and the Women They Have Killed on their Left Arm. Thirty Foot Wells Dug using only the smallest of sticks. SEE Children's Teeth Knocked Out by Stones . . . Holes punched through the Lower Lip, and Lip Plugs of Milky Quartz fashioned and Inserted. The Catalan Forge . . . the Skirts of the Crusaders. SEE Jungles bristling with Lions, Hyenas, and Snakes Invaded by Karamajans armed only with spears . . . Unbearable temperatures of up to 150 degrees . . . the Melting of Solid Iron. SEE The Amazing Bleeding of Anmals for food--Karamojans grow into Giants on a diet of only Blood and Beer . . . They have never tasted Vegetables, Sea Food, Fowl, Meats or Bread. SEE Soaps of sand . . . Teeth that know no decay . . . world's most elaborate hair-stylings . . . Incredible Ear-rings . . . Women bite off their Husband's toes for being bad. SEE People who pay no taxes . . . Suffer no disease . . . Feel no pain . . . Count no years . . . Fight no wars . . . Living today in the most primitive and uncivilized customs of the Earth's history.