Historical Paper: The Development of CinemaScope by Twentieth Century-Fox

Bibliographic Reference(s)

• Progress Committee Report [Active]
• Design Considerations of CinemaScope Film [Active]
• 1. This article is indebted to the efforts of Alex E. Alden, who preserved the papers of the Fox Research Dept., and Stephen Chamberlain, then Chair of the SMPTE's Archival Papers and Historical Committee, who made them available to scholars by arranging for their deposit at the Columbia University Libraries. EXTERNAL
• 10. Technicolor's three-strip camera could not accommodate the CinemaScope lens. At the same time, Fox found Eastman Kodak negatives superior, providing release prints with “better color and definition” (according to Sponable). A 1957 memo explains Fox's switch to Eastman Color as follows: “CinemaScope imposed requirements of resolution and definition on the motion picture image which Technicolor at that lime seemed unable to meet” (letter from Skouras to Kay Harrison of French Technicolor, dated April 19, 1957). Fox was forced, however, to rely on Technicolor for the processing of some domestic and almost all foreign release prints due to the large demand for prints of The Robe and other early CinemaScope features, a demand which their own lab, Deluxe, was not yet equipped to meet. In a memo to Skouras and others (dated March 4, 1954), Zanuck himself faulted Technicolor's dye-transfer release prints for their low definition and softness. EXTERNAL
• 11. Sponable Bragg Grignon , “Design Considerations,” J. SMPTE , 63 : 4 . EXTERNAL
• 12. Paramount, Todd-AO, and Fox learned a lesson from Cinerama as well. Cinerama's failure to enter the conventional 35mm exhibition market seriously limited its profits (which were limited in the first place due to the enormous cost of theater conversion). Any expansion of the system necessitated that virtually all profits be plowed back into theater conversion, significantly reducing funds which the company might use to produce additional films. EXTERNAL
• 13. The exact aspect ratio, as noted elsewhere in this paper, shifted from 2.66:1 (in early 1953 when Fox demonstrated the process using a dual system) to 2.55:1 (in late 1953 when the image and the four magnetic tracks were placed on a single piece of 35mm film) and, finally to 2.35:1 (in 1956 when the Magoptical system was introduced). EXTERNAL
• 14. Huntley Steve , “Historical and Technical Analysis of Early CinemaScope Lenses: 1952–1954,” (unpublished thesis for B.S. degree, MIT , June 1986 ). EXTERNAL
• 15. Belton John , “CinemaScope: The Economics of Technology,”? The Velvet Light Trap , 21 : 40 , (Summer 1985 ). EXTERNAL
• 16. See W. R. Knowlton's patent for “Anamorphic Cylindrical Lens Construction,” #2,702,493 (filed with the U.S. Patent Office on July 23, 1953 ). EXTERNAL
• 17. From a Fox press release dated March 30, 1954 . EXTERNAL
• 18. In a memo to Spyros Skouras dated March 5, 1953, Darryl Zanuck informed him that Fox had only three anamorphic lenses, all of which were in use for the filming of The Robe, How to Marry a Millionaire , and Beneath the Twelve-Mile Reef . Sponable Collection, Box 116, Zanuck folder. EXTERNAL
• 19. Sponable Collection, Columbia University, Box 91, Chrétien folder. EXTERNAL
• 20. A prototype of the “Miracle Mirror” screen was installed in Fox's television laboratory on 54th Street. Later, a similar screen was installed in the Fox Theatre for a theater television broadcast of the Louis-Walcott fight in June 1948 . EXTERNAL
• 21. Benford James R. , “The CinemaScope Optical System,”? J. SMPTE 62 : 67 , Jan. 1954 . EXTERNAL
• 22. CinemaScope: Information for the Theatre , Third Rev. 41 , Oct. 1954 . EXTERNAL
• 23. Ibid. EXTERNAL
• 24. Fox subsequently relaxed its screen requirement for small theaters, where the throw was not as great. But by that time, the larger, downtown houses had, for the most part, installed approved screens. EXTERNAL
• 25. Letter from Alex Alden to Herbert Bragg, dated July 23, 1954, in Sponable Collection, Columbia University Libraries, Box 114, Theatre Installation folder. EXTERNAL
• 26. Press conference handout dated March 30, 1954, Sponable Collection, Columbia University, Box 106, CinemaScope publicity folder. EXTERNAL
• 27. O'Donnell R. J. , “The Threshold of Great Things,”? Daily Film Renter 5 , June 30, 1953 . EXTERNAL
• 28. Jack Prendergast in a letter to To-day's Cinema , 6, July 10, 1953 . EXTERNAL
• 3. The Todd-AO system was previewed as early as January 19, 1954, in Buffalo, when Earl Sponable reported on it to Darryl Zanuck, but no mention of a public demo was made by the press until June. EXTERNAL
• 29. Letter from Grignon to Sponable dated June 5, 1954 , Sponable Collection, Box 96, Grignon folder. EXTERNAL
• 30. Film Bulletin , 11 , May 3, 1954 . EXTERNAL
• 31. Earl Sponable , “Why Wide Film?” J. SMPTE , 65 : 82 , February 1956 . EXTERNAL
• 32. Ibid., 81 – 82 . EXTERNAL
• 4. Leonardo da Vinci's exploration of Alberti's work on perspective, in particular the euclidian notion of a visual pyramid at the apex of which stood an observer, led him to experiment with off-center observer positions. Anamorphic sketches by Leonardo have been found dating from c. 1485 (see Anamorphoses: Games of Perception and Illusion in Art , ed. Schuyt M. and Elffers J. , [ NY : Abrams , 1976 ]). Abbe's patent for an anamorphoser for still photography was filed in 1898 . EXTERNAL
• The early sound period also saw experimentation with stereo sound by Harvey Fletcher at Bell Labs, who transmitted a concert performance in stereo in 1933, and by Alan Blumlein of EMI, who developed a stereo photographic track in the same year. Elements of this technology, especially Fletcher's work, would Figure crucially in the development of Warner's Vitasound ( 1940 ) and Disney's Fantasound ( 1942 ). EXTERNAL
• 5. Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein entered the debates over screen shape on the side of the “squares,” addressing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on September 17, 1930. Rejecting proposals for wider aspect ratios, Eisenstein presented a theoretical argument for the adoption of the 1:1 aspect ratio, which he referred to as “the dynamic square.” See his “The Dynamic Square” in Film Essays and a Lecture , ed. Leyda Jay ( Princeton : Princeton University Press , 1982 ), 48 – 65 . EXTERNAL
• 6. The 1.33:1 silent frame has 31% more negative area than does the 1.33:1 sound frame. In terms of area “waste,” 1.33:1 wastes 14%, 1.66:1 wastes 29%, 1.75:1 wastes 33%, and 1.85:1 wastes 36%. CinemaScope docs not waste any area. EXTERNAL
• 7. Chrétien also delivered a paper on the potential use of anamorphic optics in film to the Academy of Sciences on May 30, 1927, and to the Optical Society of America in November 1928. Chrétien later gave a demonstration of his lens at the Palace of Light in the Paris Exposition of 1937. The paper by Chrétien and others that accompanied this demonstration was published in the J. SMPE , 37, (May 1939). According to internal correspondence at Fox, it was through this article that Chrétien's work came to the attention of Earl Sponable and Herbert Bragg of Fox's Research Dept. EXTERNAL
• 8. When Fox shifted to Magoptical sound tracks in 1956, the aperture used in projection retained the same height (0.715) but was somewhat narrower (0.839) in order to accommodate the optical track. This change reduced the projected aspect ratio from 2.55:1 to 2.35:1. EXTERNAL