quote:

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Film Daily - October 20, 1929 - Automatic Screen for Publix Ala. Theater - Montgomery, Ola.[sic] - An automatic screen which can be made to expand or contract in proportion to the size of the picture is to be installed at the new Paramount here, according to Hoxey C. Farley, director of the local house. The screen will permit the showing of life size pictures and may get narrowed for closeup. The new house is scheduled to open in December.

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quote: Article

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The screen ... may get narrowed for closeup

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Mr. Farley had a premonition that The Horse Whisperer would be released 59 years later and decided to get his masking system installed and tested in good time?
 

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-24-2015, 09:50 PM:
 
Sounds like MagnaScope, indeed:
http://vitaphone.blogspot.com/2006/12/of-magnascope-and-vocalite.html
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 01-25-2015, 10:53 AM:
 
I believe that Paramount Publix either owned or had controlling interest in
the Maganascope process, and they were installing it in many of their
"A-List" theatres in large cities built in the 1929-1930 time period.

The screen was equipped with both horizontal & vertical maskings:

(Sorry I can't make this larger, but original exceeds the size limit)

The masking changes were made by (union!) stagehands:


In addition to a large screen and masking system, a 'proper' installation
also used a 3rd projector.

According to old tech documents, Simplex built a special "72degree"
high speed intermittent movement for the Magnascope process:


To get the larger picture, the "Magnascope Projector" was equipped with
a lens that was half the focal length of the theatre's 'normal' projection
lens, thus giving an image that was almost twice the size:


The information above came from an article in a 1929 trade journal and
was written by the head of the Paramount Publix projection department.

The same article was also published in a 1929 issue of "International
Projectionist", which, I think, you can find online someplace.
 

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-25-2015, 12:52 PM:
 
Thanks, Jim. Good to know Montgomery, Ala was "A-List" in 1930;>
The Paramount Theater cited still stands. It is now the Davis and is a legit house. All of the film equipment, and anything related to film, was removed in the early 80's. Compared to the Alabama in Birmingham, which opened a couple of years earlier, the Paramount was quite mundane, but still a nice theater.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-25-2015, 01:16 PM:
 
So the Magnascope masking had to be adjusted manually using pulleys from behind the stage - they didn't have motorized masking with preset stops at that point.

I'm guessing that motorized masking with presets didn't arrive until the mid-1950s, when smaller theaters (of the sort that wouldn't have had backstage staff to operate pulleys) had to change aspect ratios during a show for the first time.
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 01-25-2015, 05:30 PM:
 
Leo- The earliest movable masking system I'm aware of was the "Vallen
Sound Mask" which came out in 1928. It only changed the masking on
the left side of the screen, which was necessary when projecting
"Movietone Aperture" prints, to eliminate the black bar you'd otherwise
have on the left edge of the image. I'm not sure these were "upgradable"
when the Academy aperture arrived on scene in 1930


1929 Advertisement:


Old ads & info I have on file show it was available in both manual
and motor driven models. Interestingly, tech info I found in one
old theater manual sez that the masking motor only ran in one
direction, leading me to believe there must have been an electrically
operated reversing gear as part of the driving mechanism.

In researching my earlier reply, it seems that most Magnascope
installations included something called a "Vocalite Sound Screen":


Don't know much about "vocalite" screens, other than that they
were "porous, but not perforated" . . however that worked


(As in interesting aside, I grew up in Roosevelt NY, but moved away
in the early 1960's, when I was very young, so I have no idea if the
"Beaded Screen Corporaton was still 'in town' back then)
 

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Posted by Robert Koch (Member # 3728) on 01-25-2015, 06:00 PM:
 
The Paramount in Oaland Ca had a magnascope screen which was used almost till Pearl Harbor day. It was motorized and controlled from the booth. They had A Brenograph effects machine which had designs on it and filled the area that had been covered by the masking. Very impressive. Although I`m 92, I never got to see Granduer or anything that filled the larger screen.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-25-2015, 09:21 PM:
 

quote: Jim Cassedy

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I'm not sure these were "upgradable" when the Academy aperture arrived on scene in 1930

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