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Topic: 2004 50th Anniversary of Fox Cinemascope

Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-06-2002 10:44 AM

The TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM CinemaScope short (1953) that is being shown before SLEEPING BEAUTY at the El Capitan currently is in optical mono. I assume the original was mag 4-track only in the original 53 release, as Fox had not yet started offering Mag mono or optic mono prints of CinemaScope films. (This Disney short originally went out with Fox's HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, also accompanied by a Coronation Day CinemaScope short. These were billed as the first two CinemaScope shorts.)

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

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

posted 09-06-2002 01:24 PM

"TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK & BOOM" was first released in mag and the stereo version can be seen and heard on the deluxe "FANTASIA" DVD box set.

I read that "GRAND CANYON" was also scheduled to be shown with "SLEEPING BEAUTY" at the El Capitan. Was this also in mono? It was shown in mag stereo the last time I saw it with a 70mm print of "SLEEPING BEAUTY" in the seventies here in Honolulu.

-Claude

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-06-2002 03:03 PM

Grand Canyon wasn't shown (or even on the schedule). The film release schedule was wrong.

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Peter Kerchinsky
Master Film Handler

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

posted 09-08-2002 04:49 AM

I may be completely wrong on this, but I thought the first CinemaScope short was LAND OF THE BIBLE which was shown with THE ROBE in 1953?

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

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

posted 09-08-2002 05:23 PM

I first saw "THE ROBE" in 1953 at the now defunct Kuhio Theatre in Honolulu when they were the first theatre in Hawaii to install CinemaScope with four track mag sound. Because of "THE ROBE"'s two hour fifteen minute running time, I doubt very much if 20th Century Fox included a short subject except the special Movietone News edition about CinemaScope which ran only a few minutes. After the short, the screen went dark and a man's voice said "20th Century Fox and the management of this theatre takes great pleasure in presenting the first feature film in CinemaScope, "THE ROBE". The intro continues for a few more senonds about the wide screen process and concludes with "------ and now "THE ROBE" in CinemaScope"! After watching films in flat and mono up until that time, seeing a new concept in motion picture exhibition like CinemaScope was an unforgettable experience.

-Claude

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-08-2002 05:43 PM

The New York Times ads for "How to Marry a Millionaire" (at Brandt's Globe and Loew's State, BOTH a block from each other on Brodway) advertise the EXTRA! The Girst Great Shorts in CinemaScope...Walt Disney's Technicolor Cartoon "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" and 20th Century-Fox presents "The Coronation Parade" - Technicolor.

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Peter Kerchinsky
Master Film Handler

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

posted 09-09-2002 04:58 AM

If memory serves, I saw TOOT, WHISTLE the first time in Scope with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the Paramount in Newton Corner, just outside Boston. I'm having a problem thinking Disney would put a Scope short on another distribs feature. They may have handled it differently in certain parts of the country?
American Movie Classics had been running alot of Fox Movietone CinemaScope shorts a while back. but haven't seen any lately.

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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

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

posted 09-09-2002 01:00 PM

Both "TOOT, WHISTLE, PLUNK & BOOM" and "20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA' are Disney pictures.

-Claude

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Paul Linfesty
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1383
From: Bakersfield, CA, USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-09-2002 01:25 PM

Well, I have the ad from the NY Times advertising this short as showing with MILLIONAIRE, PLUS the DVD of Fantasia 2000 (which features the short) gives a world premiere date of November 10, 1953 for it (the exact same date Millionaire opened in NYC).

Back in the "old" days, featurettes, shorts, cartoon, etc, would usually be booked seperately by the theatre, with no connections whatsoever to the main attraction. Same for second features (there were MANY instances of Disney pictures playing first-run with other studio's second features attached. And many a Disney feature played as the second half of a double bill with another studio's film advertised first. That's the way the theatre business worked in those days. There was a second-run theatre in Bakersfield that always advertised one or two Disney shorts with the regular release run of a long single feature attraction (in lieu of a second feature). I remember the T-L SEAL ISLAND playing with AIRPORT, for example. And DUMBO played as the second feature with PEPE at that theatre.

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