my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Odd Screen for 1929

Author Topic: Odd Screen for 1929 Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-24-2015 02:31 PM                        Anyone heard of other theaters with this feature, and more important, when and how it was used? Possibly in preparation for Grandeur films, but no indication (yet) it was installed here. quote: 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. I also presume this was done with masking, but who knows?  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-24-2015 02:55 PM                     I believe it was for MagnaScope  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-24-2015 07:45 PM                        quote: Article The screen ... may get narrowed for closeup 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?  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-24-2015 09:50 PM                        Sounds like MagnaScope, indeed: http://vitaphone.blogspot.com/2006/12/of-magnascope-and-vocalite.html  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 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)  |  IP: Logged Robert Koch Film Handler Posts: 93 From: Williams Ca USA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-25-2015 09:21 PM                        quote: Jim Cassedy I'm not sure these were "upgradable" when the Academy aperture arrived on scene in 1930 Presumably when the silent/Vitaphone and Movietone ratios went away (by 1933 or thereabouts), you just took the Vallen system out (or left it, fully retracted and powered down, to gather dust), got yourself a pair of slightly shorter lenses (of the focal distance needed to fill your old, silent screen with the Academy 1.37 image) and aperture plates cut for 1.37, and that was that for the next two decades. The main attraction of the Vallen system must have been to houses that were either showing silent and Movietone prints interchangeably, or both sound-on-disc prints and Movietone (or all three), and that would only have been happening for a 3-5 year period.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-26-2015 07:16 PM                     Old Ironsides was exhibited in Magnascope  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.