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Topic: 2004 50th Anniversary of Fox Cinemascope

Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 09-03-2002 05:37 PM

Next year will see the 50th birthday of the original 20th Century Fox Cinemascope process.

I am interested to learn if there is any planned events to mark this stage in Cinema history and are there any prints "The Robe" in 4 track Mag still suriving?

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Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 09-03-2002 05:39 PM

should have been 2003 and not 2004!

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Peter Kerchinsky
Master Film Handler

Posts: 326
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-04-2002 04:35 AM

Ben
We recently ran a newly struck print of THE ROBE and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE at the Seattle Art Museum, but both prints were mono. They were done for a tribute to Otto Lang, now a local, so prints do exist.
I did not run THE ROBE but did run MILLIONAIRE and it looked great, complete with STREET SCENE.
I'm not sure where these prints came from, assuming Fox archives.
CinemaScope is really 50. My I am getting old because I remember seeing THE ROBE first run at the RKO Keith's Memorial in Boston. I must have been 10!

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Hillary Charles
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 748
From: York, PA, USA
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 09-04-2002 05:20 AM

It's a shame those are in mono. The laserdisc to HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE has directional sound, so the tracks must exist somewhere. Good to know they look good at least.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 09-04-2002 07:28 AM

Marty Hart's "American Widescreen Museum" CinemaScope section:
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingcs1.htm

CinemaScope reference library:
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/cinemascoperef.htm

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Dick Vaughan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1032
From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 09-04-2002 07:49 AM

I've already e-mailed Fox archives in LA to see if they are producing any new prints of The Robe or any other scope titles for next year.
Haven't heard back yet.
We will of course be featuring the anniversary in next years Widescreen Weekend and at the Widescreen Conference in July 2003.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 09-04-2002 08:04 AM

Being anally pedantic (as usual), it's only really Fox's commercial exploitation of the process which is 50 years old. Henri Chrétien's 'Hypogonar' anamorphic lens was first successfully demonstrated in the late 1920s (1928 if memory serves me correctly).

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-04-2002 10:30 AM

Although THE ROBE was premiered and run in CinemaScope 4 track magnetic stereo at the Odeon, Leicester Square, Fox fell out with their release circuit, CMA (Odeon/Gaumont) after refusing to install stereo equipment. At the time there were the three major circuits being, ODEON, ABC, GAUMONT. Fox then created what became known as the 4th CIRCUIT, comprising of smaller circuits like, ESSOLDO, GRANADA, and, INDEPENDENTS!

After experiencing 3 strip Cinerama, I was rather disappointed with CinemaScope, as I saw THE ROBE at a small independent flea pit! Fortunately I was to change my mind when I visited one of the magnificent very large Granada theatres.

For those who don’t know, before THE ROBE there was in fact an introduction film in B+W academy ratio (within the anamorphic print) explaining CinemaScope. It would be great if Dick could have this on the print for his Bradford complex. I also used to enjoy the many CinemaScope 30 minute short subjects; the stereo sound was always very creative! We revised three of these at the Carlton Theatre, London as late as 1970; the Soho Square print manager had kept spare copies in his office. The prints were as new and not faded original 2.55 magnetic tracks only! I wonder if these same copies are still in existence last seen 30 years ago?

Strange for me at that time, as there was 4 track magnetic scope with a ratio of 2.55. Other studios had anamorphic prints with mono sound with a ratio of 2.35. such as Warner Bros. under the banner of WarnerScope. I also seem to remember that there was a batch of Fox B+W ‘B’ second feature scope releases under the banner of RegalScope.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-04-2002 10:51 AM

During that time Fox had CinemaScope prints in 4 Track Mag Stereo
and Mag Mono. That was for the theatre owner that could not buy the
full CinemaScope Stereo systems Fox was selling. They also had a
special high gain screen, but that was dropped from the specs.
So some mag prints from that time may be CinemaScope mono mag.

That was a time when theatre owners had to choose many diffrent
projection systems (Cinerama, CinemaScope, Todd-AO, VistaVision...)
and stereo systems. So they had to find the best and most economic
system for their company. The big chain could buy anything, but the
little theatre owner had to find a system, he could afford. It
is just like when Dolby Stereo came out in the mid 70's.

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-04-2002 11:55 AM

quote:
Henri Chrétien's 'Hypogonar' anamorphic lens was first successfully demonstrated in the late 1920s (1928 if memory serves me correctly).

Leo's right. Chrétien developed that lens in the late 20s and tried to present it to the film companies. No one listened. I have some video somewhere of a Scope promotion short (taped off the old AMC channel) that shows Darryl Zanuck boldly declaring, "I invented CinemaScope by myself!"

The funny thing about this is, when he says the words "by myself", he diverts his eyes and looks at the floor.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 09-04-2002 03:33 PM

I believe the demonstrations and premiere engagements were done with an interlocked soundtrack and a full silent frame picture, thus 2.66 : 1.

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Peter Kerchinsky
Master Film Handler

Posts: 326
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-04-2002 09:32 PM

Bernard
You mentioned the Fox Scope shorts. We ran 3 of them with the screenings at the art museum. Otto Lang had something to do with them, maybe producer?
Not sure of the titles, one was about an aircraft carrier, another on a train I believe in Switzerland...something Express and I think Land of the Bible, which I originally saw with THE ROBE back when.
All these prints were also newly struck.

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-05-2002 05:49 AM

Peter, I must have seen every one of the scope shorts made, but I can only remember one title being “The Bulls Of Pamplona” as I kept the print on site until I left the cinema. I doubt if there will be any in the UK again, unless some place like the NFT or Pictureville, Bradford manages to track down a couple of titles for historical value showing. Were your newly struck prints magnetic?

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 09-05-2002 06:02 PM

As a lover of classical music, I used to enjoy the CinemaScope shorts featuring The MGM Symphony Orchestra with Johnny Green and the 20th Century Fox Symphony Orchestra with Alfred at the helm. One short I remember is a long one with the Fox Orchestra of a complete performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 45 in F Sharp Minor-"The Farewell". There were excellent ducumentaries beside music and one of my favorites was "THE BATTLE AT GETTYSBURG" from MGM and it is included on the "GETTYSBURG" movie DVD.

-Claude

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Peter Kerchinsky
Master Film Handler

Posts: 326
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-06-2002 01:22 AM

Bernard
No, none of those prints we got were magnetic, only mono.
I noticed though on the leaders of each short were the words "Magnetic/Optical" so I assume they had mag prints made of these at one time. They all arrived in cardboard boxes from 20th Century Fox Film Archives.

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