When we first thought of getting a customized snipe of our logo, the question came up, what do we put on the soundtrack? Some stock Filmack soundtrack (nice as some of their stuff is)? No. We were a rep house and I wanted something that harks back to the era of the great classic films that we show. We hit on using all the studios themes and rotating them. Charles Gerhardt, who had been recording some teriffic CDs of classic movie scores, had released one that had all five studio themes on it. MGM (including the lion roar), Warner Brothers, Universal, Selznick (also Newman) and of course Fox. Our program notes always explained that we play these themes as the curtain opens, covering our Brooklyn Center Cinema logo snipe, only out of deference to the great cinema classics and because they capture a feeling of the Hollywood of old.

But I have to admit it: the thing is, I do rotate them, yes, but it's like this: Fox - Unviersal - Fox - MGM - Fox - Selznick - Fox - Warner - Fox....etc. You get the picture. The only time I don't cover our logo with it is if the picture is from Fox and they are playing the Fanfare, then the BCC snipe plays in silence. And naturally, I turn up the level for the Fox opening, And it STILL can give me goosebumps after all these years.

Oh, for the salivating copyright lawyers in the audience, we have ASCAP and BMI banket licenses which means we can legally play anything in the theatre as long as it is licensed by either licensing entity.

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Michael C: All the Star Wars movies -- including the 1997 re-releases and Episode 1 -- have used the 1953 CinemaScope fanfare.

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Not true, though I don't need to elaborate on why as Steve Kraus has already corrected you (thanks, Steve).

I will simply add that if you get an opportunity to watch the "Star Wars" movies again, pay attention to the Fox Fanfare and you will clearly note the Fanfare audio for "Star Wars" ("Episode IV") is different from the others.

The video versions (VHS, Beta, laserdisc, selectavision), however, of "Star Wars" released at various times between 1982 and 1984 did have a DIFFERENT fanfare (both picture and sound) from the original theatrical prints. It appears they used the (then) current version. Upon the first widescreen laserdisc re-issue (1989) the original picture and sound logo could be seen and heard again.

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With today's theater sound systems that 1953 recording sounds cheesy.

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True, but many of us remember and know the movie with that sound. To change the audio just because it might be outdated is to change the movie. (Let's not give Lucas any ideas...)

For those 1997 Special Editions, the original fanfare audio was retained for each film, though the picture portion of the Fox logo was changed to a modern version (albeit a stationary one to accommodate the transition to the Lucasfilm credit that has the "CinemaScope Extension"). Given the numerous content changes made to the movies, I'm kinda glad they kept the original fanfare audio (even if it is a somewhat "lo-fi" recording).

There was a four-disc CD soundtrack set issued in 1993 that used the wrong version of the fanfare on the "Episode IV" disc. Perhaps this influenced you in thinking that all of the movies in the series used the same fanfare.

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The Sound of Music opens without any Fox fanfare -- extended or otherwise. That's because Fox largely abandoned the fanfare by 1965 (cost-cutting?) and The Sound of Music was filmed in Panavision.

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First, John Pytlak has saved me from correcting you on the "Filmed in Panavision" slip-up. Second, please read my comment about there not being very many Fox films that used the fanfare with extension more carefully. I thought I had clearly referred to the '70s and '80s. I'm aware of the numerous Todd-AO, D-150, and Panavision films Fox made in the '60s that didn't use the fanfare ("The Sound Of Music" being among them, as you pointed out); my comment wasn't about those productions or that era. And the last official Fox CinemaScope release was in 1967, so there's a reason why the fanfare with extension was "abandoned" around that time. ("reintroduced" for "Star Wars" in 1977...though perhaps a film or two may have used it between '67 and '77).

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The 70mm print of "Die Hard" had a horizontally stretched (and very very grainy) version of the Fox logo, even though the audio quality was excellent. I never saw the 35mm version, but I assume the same abberation was present on the standard Dolby Stereo release too.

When I saw "The Abyss" in 70mm at NYC's Ziegfeld, I noticed the Fox logo was very very cropped. If I remember right, the "20" in the logo was about the only thing visible. Much of the rest of the logo was cropped off the bottom and a little off the top.

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The 70mm print of "Die Hard" had a horizontally stretched version of the Fox logo, even though the audio quality was excellent. I never saw the 35mm version, but I assume the same abberation was present on the standard Dolby Stereo release too.

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Yes, the "stretched" logo was in both the 70mm and 35mm prints. (Saw the movie once in each format.) If I remember correctly, it was "corrected" for the VHS (pan-and-scan) release, but left "uncorrected" for the first laserdisc version. It was "corrected" (again) for the Dolby Digital remastered laserdisc and subsequent DVDs.

I originally thought it was just a simple lab error, but when the laserdisc used the stretched version and when the "Die Hard 2" prints had it too, I thought, well, maybe it was intentional, or at least thought the mistake was funny or acceptable so they kept using it.

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Brad´s idea with the extension lead is the way to go. That whole rack is run off only one breaker from memory.

The sound of course on the dts and the fox tag would have sounded the same as it does on every other dts release though. According to Karen at dts, the file is the same for every film.

Of course, the fox tag does change, but give it some grunt anyway...

Nice to see you back here, by the way.

Did they advertise that screening as the 80th anniversary? I was wondering why it was back out of the blue...how did it go by the way?

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I believe the first time I heard the extended Fox Scope logo was HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE.

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Nope. "How To Marry A Millionaire" *does* have the fanfare but *not* the CinemaScope Extension.

>>Of course, the fox tag does change, but give it some grunt anyway...<<

Thanks, though...

But I was under the impression that Newman wrote the extension for THE ROBE (although it was not used)...that they commissioned him to write it when he was working on THE ROBE score.

So if they didn't use it on THE ROBE and they also didn't use it on HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE which was the first CinemaScope film, when WAS it first used? Where are the film historians out there?

And I am curious as to how they placed the CinemaScope frame after the Fox logo in MILLIONAIRE, yet had no extension music to cover it?

Frank

I see the light....and it's carbon arc.

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So if they didn't use it on THE ROBE and they also didn't use it on HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE which was the first CinemaScope film, when WAS it first used? Where are the film historians out there?

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I've checked the DVD versions of a few Fox CinemaScope titles from 1953 and '54 and, assuming the original logos are present on the DVDs, here's a brief rundown that may help determine which film was the first to utilize the full fanfare with extension. (I'm unsure of the order these were completed and released.)

"Beneath The 12-Mile Reef" - silent logo

"Carmen Jones" - no logo

"There's No Business Like Show Business" - fanfare with extension

"River Of No Return" - fanfare with extension

"Demetrius And The Gladiators" - I don't have access to a copy at the moment, so cannot check (anyone out there have the DVD?)

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And I am curious as to how they placed the CinemaScope frame after the Fox logo in MILLIONAIRE, yet had no extension music to cover it?

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I don;t even trust what they say in video liner notes, unless they are written by someone older than a generation X-er.

You remember the saying....Never trust anyone under 30.