Washington Gets Side View of Strategic Air Command
I'd like to know just how many US theatres
played Strategic AirCommand in true horizontal VistaVision. That experience
must have been riveting. I saw White Christmasin a vertical 35mm print made up in 1954, and frankly, it wasn't that sharp. The Blu-Ray looked much
better. I'm guessing there were kinks in those initial 35mm reductions from
horizontal negatives. It must have been ironed out, however, because even 16mm
looked glorious on these VV titles. A print I had ofStrategic Air Commandwas a pip in that smaller format. The battered ad above was from theWashington first-run of
SAC. They had it in 1955, and as is apparent here, rode hard on "Horizontal
Projectors." There is footage of such a unit in a Paramount newsreel
detailing the SAC world premiere in Omaha
(which was the Command's headquarters). We see the operator threading his
machine as the audience awaits their thrill. It may be the only film of
horizontal VV inside the booth, if that's of significance to anyone beyond
hardcore pic-techs. A lot of fans claim VistaVision as best of allwidescreen
processes, but how many of them have actually experienced the real thing? I'm wondering if
even one of the horizontal projectors survives. There were only a handful to start
with. Query to experts: Were any VV's horizontally projected after Strategic Air Command? What about The Ten Commandments? I never heard of it being shown
that way, but maybe someone can enlighten me.
I saw "Story of a Patriot" at Williamsburg in the early 1980s. I can't recall if it was still being projected from VistaVision prints then, but it was darned impressive. The screen was huge and ultra-wide and I remember it being very clear and colorful.
A few years before, during the Bicentennial, I saw the IMAX film "To Fly!" at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. That was jaw dropping fro a sixth grader used to the Parkway Theater in West Jefferson and the occasional 16mm film showing at school.
From Daniel J. Sherlock's corrections to Robert E. Carr and R.M. Hayes' book "Wide Screen Movies" (http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/tips/WSMC20.pdf):
"The authors state that, officially, Strategic Air Command was the first VistaVision film released in double frame horizontal format, and they suspect that White Christmas was shown as an experiment of sorts in Los Angeles. In fact, White Christmas premiered on October 14, 1954 at Radio City Music Hall using prototype horizontal projectors. These were built on extremely short notice with a phone order to Century Projector Corp. placed on September 23rd. It is suspected that the decision was made on short notice to use the horizontal format due to the size of the screen and the desire to have a bright image. Sound was provided from an interlocked standard 35mm projector since the sound head was not included in the prototype projectors. An additional set of prototype horizontal projectors was installed at the Stanley-Warner Beverly Hills Theater and another set was installed at the Paramount lot at about the same time frame." [p. 27]
Since these projectors were prototypes, I assume they were only used for premieres/previews and perhaps a short run and then removed. But that makes me wonder if there were any more "temporary" horizontal setups created for later VV films or if that was abandoned after the VV novelty wore off.
4 Comments:
Wasn't "The Story of a Patriot" at Williamsburg projected in horizontal VistaVision originally?
Right you are, Cool Cat. I had forgotten ... and after writing a post on Willimasburg back in 2012:
http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-garbo-and-como-at.html
I saw "Story of a Patriot" at Williamsburg in the early 1980s. I can't recall if it was still being projected from VistaVision prints then, but it was darned impressive. The screen was huge and ultra-wide and I remember it being very clear and colorful.
A few years before, during the Bicentennial, I saw the IMAX film "To Fly!" at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. That was jaw dropping fro a sixth grader used to the Parkway Theater in West Jefferson and the occasional 16mm film showing at school.
From Daniel J. Sherlock's corrections to Robert E. Carr and R.M. Hayes' book "Wide Screen Movies" (http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/tips/WSMC20.pdf):
"The authors state that, officially, Strategic Air Command was the first VistaVision film released in double frame horizontal format, and they suspect that White Christmas was shown as an experiment of sorts in Los Angeles. In fact, White Christmas premiered on October 14, 1954 at Radio City Music Hall using prototype horizontal projectors. These were built on extremely short notice with a phone order to Century Projector Corp. placed on September 23rd. It is suspected that the decision was made on short notice to use the horizontal format due to the size of the screen and the desire to have a bright image. Sound was provided from an interlocked standard 35mm projector since the sound head was not included in the prototype projectors. An additional set of prototype horizontal projectors was installed at the Stanley-Warner Beverly Hills Theater and another set was installed at the Paramount lot at about the same time frame." [p. 27]
Since these projectors were prototypes, I assume they were only used for premieres/previews and perhaps a short run and then removed. But that makes me wonder if there were any more "temporary" horizontal setups created for later VV films or if that was abandoned after the VV novelty wore off.
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