Making the big screen bigger

Fifty years ago this week, Salt Lakers attending the premiere of "The Robe" at either the Lyric Theatre downtown or the Villa Theatre on Highland Drive were the first to locally experience the new widescreen process known as CinemaScope.

It was billed as "The Modern Miracle You See Without Glasses!" — to let moviegoers know that CinemaScope was not to be confused with the 3-D films that had flooded theaters throughout much of 1953.

It was also Hollywood's latest desperate attempt to stay the tide of falling box-office receipts caused by the ever-increasing popularity of television, as the studios experimented with ways to entice customers away from the little black box and back into theaters.

Up to this point, the various ingenious methods moviemakers had tried were just gimmicks that gave the industry a short-term shot in the arm but didn't necessarily serve the art of visual storytelling.

1. A year earlier, "This Is Cinerama" had created a sensation in New York, using three synchronized projectors to project a spectacular 146-degree panoramic image on a huge curved screen, which put the viewing audience into the middle of the picture.

But the process was so expensive to install — requiring extensive remodeling of the theater auditorium — that only the largest populated cities had a Cinerama theater.

Still, wherever "This Is Cinerama" opened, customers flocked to experience the visual sensation it provided.

To more immediately reach out to the masses, Hollywood's quick fix was to reintroduce movies shot in 3-D, a gimmick that had first been used briefly in the 1930s for some short films.

By overlapping two images on the screen and having the viewer wear polaroid glasses, each eye would detect a separate image that appeared to give the picture depth and roundness. Polaroid glasses were a great improvement over the red-and-green glasses previously used (though were revived for the recent "Spy Kids 3-D").

Beginning with "Bwana Devil" in late 1952, and after the Vincent Price thriller "House of Wax" in April 1953, the onslaught of 3-D thrills came fast and thick. If it wasn't "a lion in your lap" or "a lover in your arms," it would be ping-pong balls or flaming arrows — anything to give the sensation of something coming right off the screen and into the audience.

Most of the studios cashed in quickly by turning out cheap B-movies in 3-D, which could get into theaters fast, while taking their time to develop more prestigious 3-D films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder," John Wayne's "Hondo," Rita Hayworth in "Miss Sadie Thompson" and "Kiss Me Kate." But by the time those films were ready for release, moviegoers had tired of the gimmick, preferring films shown "flat," minus the 3-D process.

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