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'The Robe,' First Widescreen Film in Utah

On 1 October 1953, the Lyric and the Villa became the first theaters in the Salt Lake area to show widescreen movies with stereo sound. Both theaters showed The Robe, the first movie filmed in a new process called CinemaScope.  The Lyric later became the Promised Valley Playhouse.

A newspaper advertisement in the Deseret News said, ". . . a screen so large a viewer has to turn his head to see from end to end . . .  CinemaScope, the new movie process which was introduced with "The Robe," is quite as impressive as the picture itself.  It projects to the audience a panorama bigger than life itself. Looking at the wide, curved screens, viewers have the impression they are part of the picture.  The sound, emanating from where it is spoken, is another feature that's interesting, new and intriguing.  Whatever faults, a slight blur at times, a slight buzz in the sound, are more than compensated for by the over-all splendor of the new CinemaScope screen.  'The Robe' and CinemaScope, now on view at the Lyric and Villa Theaters, truly are experiences that should not be missed."[1]

The Robe in CinemaScope at the Lyric and Villa Theatre.  "The New Dimensionalal Photographic Marvel You See Without Glasses!"  The graphic "shows how the flat ordinary screen is dwarfed by the newly created curved Miracle Mirror Screen" and "how CinemaScope
The Robe in CinemaScope at the Lyric and Villa Theatre.  "The New Dimensionalal Photographic Marvel You See Without Glasses!"  The graphic "shows how the flat ordinary screen is dwarfed by the newly created curved Miracle Mirror Screen" and "how CinemaScope's superior new Stereophonic Sound enhances the scope of audience participation."
Deseret News, page F9, 1 October 1953

After the debut of Cinerama in 1952, studio executives raced to develop a similar widescreen process. 20th Century Fox acquired world rights to Anamorphoscope, a filming process developed by Prof. Henri Chrétien, and renamed it CinemaScope.

CinemaScope used an anamorphic lens to squeeze a wide image onto traditional 35mm film during filming. Movie theaters were equipped with large wide screens, with a slight curve, and then the image was stretched back out using another lens. The result was an image twice as wide as traditional movies, without the extra complication and expense of using three separate cameras and projectors as with Cinerama.

A widescreen image from <em>The Robe</em>, with its width squeezed by the CinemaScope process to fit within the narrow frame of 35mm film. - , Utah
A widescreen image from The Robe, with its width squeezed by the CinemaScope process to fit within the narrow frame of 35mm film.
Courtesy of The American WideScreen Museum - widescreenmuseum.com

A scene from <em>The Robe</em>, as presented on screen after being restored to its proper width by CinemaScope. - , Utah
A scene from The Robe, as presented on screen after being restored to its proper width by CinemaScope.
Courtesy of The American WideScreen Museum - widescreenmuseum.com

CinemaScope also provided stereo sound using four magnetic tracks on either sides of the sprocket holes. Three channels of sound were behind the screen and the fourth used speakers on the side and rear walls of the auditorium. Although movie studios expected this stereo sound format to become the standard, movie theaters operators resisted the high expense and an optical mono soundtrack was later added to CinemaScope prints.

Although the term CinemaScope is not longer used, many widescreen films today use the anamorphic process.  It is referred to now simply as "scope."

1. "'The Robe' in CinemaScope Declared Film Spectacle", Deseret News, 1 October 1953, page F9