Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Were there many theatres with a Magnascreen in the early fifties?

This is topic Were there many theatres with a Magnascreen in the early fifties? 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=005016

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 06-22-2003, 01:14 AM:

When I was still in grade school in 1952, I got on a bus and went to the long defunct Princess Theatre in downtown Honolulu to see a movie on their "Magnascreen". Before the Princess put in this huge screen, the theatre had a regular flat screen with a stage but all of it was covered over with the Magnascreen that looked like IMAX and was almost as huge because it extended from the floor to the ceiling in a auditorium that had well over 1200 seats. Magnascreen was installed at the Princess Theatre because the auditorium was very unique with it's futuristic stadium seating. The film I saw on the huge Magnascreen was "THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO" with the deceased stars, Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward and I must admit, I was not too impressed with the picture because I felt it was very grainy due to the huge magnification from a full frame 35mm print. I now have a question. Was the Magnascreen something many large theatres in the country was set up for at the time or was it exclusive to the Princess, a Consolidated Amusement theatre?
The Magnascreen was gone late the following year when it was replaced with a much smaller scope screen for the "THE ROBE" in CinemaScope when it was moved over from the Kuhio. Six years after the CinemaScope screen went in, it was removed and replaced with a three strip Cinerama screen for the Hawaii premiere of "THIS IS CINERAMA" and all the other Cinerama travel films.

-Claude

[ 06-22-2003, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 06-22-2003, 08:18 AM:

Claude,

What you may have seen was “THE SNOWS OF KILIMJARO” on an old Magnascope flat wide-screen, which were installed in some of the larger cinemas at the beginning of the 1930s.

Following is from The Complete Projectionist 1943 publication.

Magnascope Effects

A favourite effect in some cinemas is the “Magnascope” or wide-screen effect, in which the width and height of the screen may be increased by 75 per cent. For the presentation of special scenes---large crowds or stage scenes, certain type of shots in the newsreel films, and so on.

This is achieved by the variable focus lens in conjunction with which is used an elaborate system of moving screen masks, all the screen edges moving outwardly on slides, their movement being produced either by hand or motor. If the alteration in lens focus and zoom carefully follows the enlargement of the screen, a very striking effect can be achieved; in certain types of scenes the screen should be opened out when objects are coming towards the camera, and closed when they are moving away from it. These effects, should, however , be used with discretion: the projectionist or manager may become so proud of the device that there is a risk of its being overdone and losing novelty.

I believe that some Magnascope installations did not have variable masking. The screen extended full size within the whole proscenium area.

The cine-variety theatre Regal, Kingston-upon-Thames, where I worked, had a Magnascope screen, which could be lowered from the fly grid in front of the 4 x 3 academy ratio screen, but was only briefly used during the 1930s. In 1953 a proper slightly curved screen frame was installed, which could also be flown for stage shows. The screen was masked full width to a ratio of 1.75. So the flat picture size was over 40 feet wide. Pictures had to be framed so that the titles fitted as best possible, then framed down so that there was no cropping of heads. Within a few months to much relief, pictures were made to allow for wide-screen projection. UK Cinemas advertisements boasted. ON THE GIANT WIDE SCREEN or ON THE GIANT PANORAMIC SCREEN. Until CinemaScope arrived as the new sensation!

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-22-2003, 12:17 PM:

Magnascope was one of a number of short-lived widescreen processes from the late '20s/early '30s. As Bernard describes, it was basically a ginormous screen and what was effectively a zoom lens on the projector. Zoom lenses were around in those days but were not used very much because the focus setting could not be changed without taking the lens barrel apart. For camera use these early models (e.g. the Taylor-Hobson 'Varo' of 1932) were really a labour-saving device allowing a sequence of medium-long followed by close-up to be shot without having to physically move the camera around the set. They were never really designed to be 'zoomed' during a shot.

Of course for projection this limitation didn't matter because the screen is always a fixed distance from the projector (unlike the action in a studio shot, which can move in relation to the camera position), hence Magnascope. AFAIK, there were only two Magnascope films which were shown on any significant scale: Chang, from the directors of King Kong, in which the zoom lens is used during scenes of an elephant stampede, and Wings.

Other widescreen systems in use during this period included RKO 'Natural Vision' and Fox Grandeur (both 1929-30). The latter introduced 70mm technology for the first time, and the 70mm Mitchell camera mechanism was dusted down and taken off the shelf two decades later and used virtually unaltered (the only significant modification was to increase the pulldown from four perfs to five) to shoot the first Todd-AO films.

The studios aggressively tried to introduce widescreen on the back of sound in the early '30s, but without success. My theory is that the Wall Street Crash in October 1929 happened at just the wrong time: a huge investment had already been made in equipping studios and theatres for sound and it was too late to back out. But widescreen was still at the prototype stage, and after the crash the venture capital just wasn't forthcoming for a mass-rollout of that as well.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 06-22-2003, 01:12 PM:

the only significant modification was to increase the pulldown from four perfs to five

You don't consider the conversion from 70mm to 65mm significant? Actually the pulldown is very nearly the same, .924" (70mm 4 perf .231" pitch) vs. .935" (65mm 5 perf .187" pitch).

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 06-22-2003, 11:30 PM:

Bernard & Leo.

The large screen presentation at the Princess was advertised as "Magnascreen" and the entire showing of " THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO" was projected on their huge screen. I was very young when I saw the presentation but I still remember how huge people's faes were in the closeups and how wonderful the wide angle views of the savannas of Kenya looked on the Magnascreen. The Princess never showed the films you mentioned but only presented mainstream pictures, Leo. As I had mentioned in my original post, I was not very impressed with Magnascreen but was a year later when CinemaScope was introduced with "THE ROBE".

-Claude

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-23-2003, 04:37 AM:

Steve: I've never seen the mechanism of the Grandeur Mitchell and so couldn't be sure, but I can't see how the change from 70mm to 65mm in itself would have needed any changes to the camera beyond repositioning the runners which hold the edges of the film through the gate.

The sprockets and pin registration system would have had to be redesigned to fit the new sprocket pitch and pulldown plus a new aperture plate used to change the exposure area from 70mm leaving space for the 8mm VD soundtrack track to 65mm 'full gate'.

Given that the total distance of the pulldown between the two formats is so close, then presumably you could reprint Grandeur originals onto modern 70mm quite easily by leaving a little extra space in between each frame and positioning them centrally (as with 35mm 1:1.85 blowups onto 70mm) to offset the optical track. But as it is, the only Grandeur films I've seen (The Big Trail plus three Fox Movietone newsreels) were converted to 35 'scope.

Claude: Presumably, then, cinemas which were originally equipped for Magnascope continued to use the system on normal 1:1.38 films even though they weren't intended to be shown with any zoomed sequences...

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-23-2003, 07:08 AM:

Link to information about the Grandeur and Todd-AO systems:

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingto1.htm