Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Happy 50th Birthday HOUSE OF WAX!

This is topic Happy 50th Birthday HOUSE OF WAX! in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004771

Posted by Bernie Anderson Jr (Member # 410) on 04-10-2003, 11:02 AM:

Fifty years ago today, Warner Bros. premiered one of the greatest 3-D movies of all time: HOUSE OF WAX, starring Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Paul Picerni and Charles Buchinsky (a.k.a. Bronson.) Directed by Andre DeToth and produced by Bryan Foy, it told the story of a crazed sculptor seeking revenge for the fiery destruction of his wax museum.

Based on the 1933 horror classic MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, this WarnerColor re-make was the first feature film from a major studio to be photographed in Natural Vision 3-Dimension. (Arch Oboler's BWANA DEVIL, distributed by United Artists, had been the first.) Natural Vision utilized two strips of film, representing left and right eye views, and was projected in perfect synchronization on two projectors. This superior 3-D process utilized Polaroid filters and glasses, and should not be confused with the red/blue anaglyph 3-D system, which appeared primarily in comic books and magazines during that time.

It was also the first feature to be heard in WarnerPhonic Stereo sound, a new 4-channel process that utilized a full-coat 35mm magnetic track for the left, center and right speakers behind the screen, and a mono optical track for the surround channel. The 35mm full-coat audio was on a separate roll that was interlocked with the two projectors that ran the left/right 3-D images, and the surround track was on the right print of the feature. (The left print contained a mono optical composite track of the entire four channels, and served as an emergency audio back-up in case the dubber went out of sync with the picture.)

Sadly, this pioneering WarnerPhonic audio is lost today, due to studio negligence in preserving the magnetic stereo masters. The only surviving element of the original stereo mix is the mono surround channel. (The stereo sound that you are hearing on the film today is newly created by Chace Audio from mono elements. It is NOT the original WarnerPhonic sound.) The tragedy of this stereo audio not surviving is the fact that it was an important element in the original presentation of the 3-D film. With fully directional sound, and sound effects that emanated from the sides and rear of the auditorium (during the fire in the wax museum, for instance) it helped to immerse the viewer in the action, adding an important element to the superb realism of the dimensional photography. As an example of the important role of sound in this presentation, the New York Paramount installed 25 surround speakers throughout the huge auditorium.

The gala world premiere took place on April 10, 1953 at the magnificent 3,600 seat Paramount Theatre on Times Square. All the stars from the film were there, and the film proved to be a tremendous moneymaker for the studio. Boosting ticket sales was the stage show headlined by RCA recording star Eddie Fisher, making his first appearance back from a tour of duty in Korea. He performed such hits as "Any Time," "I'm Walking Behind You," "Wish You Were Here" and "Tell Me Why." The bobbysoxers lined up for hours to see the popular crooner, and filled the massive theatre for six shows a day!

The phenomenal success of this film opened the floodgates for 3-D movies. Within the next 14 months, Hollywood produced more than 50 features, and nearly two dozen shorts and cartoons, all in the Polaroid 3-D process. Titles include KISS ME KATE, HONDO, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, MISS SADIE THOMPSON, DIAL M FOR MURDER, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, CEASE FIRE, I THE JURY, and many more.

Happy 50th Birthday to HOUSE OF WAX!

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 04-10-2003, 11:12 AM:

If you believe the Ronald Haver "A Star is Born" book, Jack Warner, in his infinite wisdom, re-used the magnetic tape stereo audio masters of the early "Warnerphonic" films for 1960's TV work. Now, if we could only peel off the audio from one of the Maverick episodes we'd probably find "House of Wax"!

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 04-10-2003, 07:59 PM:

Long live the Paddle Ball man. (Oops...not ping pong!)

[ 04-11-2003, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Mark Lensenmayer ]

Posted by Bob Koch (Member # 1062) on 04-10-2003, 09:08 PM:

Bernie: It seems as though it were only yesterday when we installed "House of Wax" in the old Senator Theatre in Sacto,Ca. I forget the month, but it was after I struggled with a primative interlock installation of Arch Oberler`s "Bwana Devil" at the Alhambra in the same town.
We had an old Simplex C60,SH 1000 sound heads with some sophistocated selsyns they[Fox West Coast] sent us from LA. The interlocked reproducer[transport, coffin] was a Stancil- Hoffman also from Southern California. I forget the number of surrounds we hung, but plenty,we installed a separate rack of three AM 1026 amplifiers and with 3 Altec A2`s on the deck we were ready to trot. The sound quality was beyond anything any of us country boy`s had ever heard and I can remember it yet. Sadly it was short lived, and my subsequent servicing of Cinemascope`s skinny mag stripes always made me long for what could have been.

Posted by Bernie Anderson Jr (Member # 410) on 04-11-2003, 10:13 AM:

Bob, thanks for sharing that information. It's always great to hear first hand accounts from people working in the booth at that time. With all of the new technical innovations (widescreen, CinemaScope, Superscope, VistaVision, magnetic stereo, Perspecta, etc.) it sure was a wild time for film presentation!

Mark, the fellow with the paddle ball outside the wax museum just passed away a few months ago. His obituary claimed that he was quite popular with that shtick on the early TV variety show circuit. Too bad he didn't make it for the 50th anniversary!

Anybody else have first hand experience with running dual-strip 3-D in 1953/54?

Posted by Mark Nicol (Member # 839) on 04-11-2003, 10:53 PM:

By coincidence this is now playing at the Astor Theatre on a special silver screen specially made in the Academy Standard Ratio 1.37:1 here in Australia this week until Sunday 13th April:

http://www.astor-theatre.com/

Posted by Frank Aston (Member # 478) on 04-13-2003, 02:43 AM:

Many thanks to Bernie for a terrific post concerning the 50th anniversary of The House of Wax.

Facinating reading and a lovely word-picture of the days when good presentation is big theatres meant something.

I'd love to see more recollections relating to the introduction of innovative and pioneering technical processes especially Cinerama and Cinemascope.