The Exhibitor (1953)

EXHIBITOR 17 What’s New In 3-D . . . (Developments in the rapidly changing third dimensional picture will he found in this regular department. — Ed.) The Theatre Equipment and Supply Manufacturers Association announced that it had pledged unqualified support to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to have technical standards established in the third-dimension field. J. Robert Hoff, head of the organization, said, “Present proposed divergent pro¬ cesses create huge engineering expenses for all manufacturers of sound and pro¬ jection equipment, theatre screens, projec¬ tion lenses, and allied lines, and we would welcome a single standard that would enable us to produce the desired equip¬ ment at the lowest possible cost to the exhibitor.” Perfection of a three -dimension process for color television pictures was an¬ nounced by Henry Donovan, producer, Telemount-Mutual Productions. The pro¬ cess is ready now, although still awaiting Federal Communications Commission okeh on the color test, Donovan said. However, he added, a series of 13 films in BolexStereo 3-D will be made starting on March 15. The process will require Pola¬ roid glasses for the home viewer. Donovan said the system will require little in¬ crease in production costs. A special stereo¬ scopic lens is placed on the camera to get a three-dimensional effect, and the image is projected by twin projectors. A patent was granted by the U. S. Patent Office on a 3-D illusion process invented by Ralph L. Huber, Seattle. It is claimed that in the Huber system, the right eye and left eye views are projected on a screen so constructed that each view is reflected respectively into the proper eye of each member of the audience regard¬ less of location in the theatre. Paramount stated through vice-presi¬ dent in charge of production Y. Frank Freeman that it hoped for success of a three-dimensional illusion technique which would allow the current studio backlog of two-dimension films to be converted into films with a 3-D illusion. “Results of ex¬ periments are very encouraging,” said Freeman. “Our process will be made available to all theatres. The average cost for theatres’ conversion would run around $2,500. The three-dimensional illusion will be possible on any screen with dimensions over 20x24 feet, and no glasses will be needed for viewing.” UA officials claim they have been as¬ sured of a supply of Polaroid glasses necessary for the current 35 engagements of “Bwana Devil”, in addition to 50 to 60 set within the next 45 days. Walter Mirisch, Allied Artists' executive producer, announced that his company will make its debut in April in three Hollywood Gets 3rd Cinerama Show Hollywood — “This Is Cinerama” will have its west coast premiere at Warners’ Hollywood late in May, according to an agreement concluded last week between Joseph Kaufman, director of exhibition, Cinerama Productions Corporation, and Harry Kalmine, general manager, Warner Theatres. The Hollywood engagement will bring to three the number of key city showings of Cinerama scheduled for the first half of 1953, with the Music Hall, Detroit, cur¬ rently being remodeled. The first feature to be filmed for Cinerama will be “Paint Your Wagon”, Broadway musical, to which Louis B. Mayer has owned film rights for some time. Shooting is planned for June. Cinerama may open at Eitel’s Palace, Chicago, in the spring now that differences between the Chicago theatre and the Chicago union have apparently been ironed out. A scale has been set up for the showing of “This Is Cinerama,” the union coming down from demands of a 17 man crew to 12, with the pay scale remaining at $200 per man as originally demanded. dimensional film production with “The Maze”, recently acquired English mystery novel, by Maurice Sandoz. Mirisch plans to film it in black and white with Natural Vision. At the national drive-in theatre con¬ vention on March 24-25-26 at the Schroeder Hotel, Milwaukee, there will be a three-dimensional business session and a three-dimensional equipment trade show as well as sessions on advanced vending techniques, improved showmanship, and improved construction methods. In Hollywood, Edward L. Alperson, and Milton Bren, through Brenco Pictures Corporation, filed suit against Arch Oboler and his associates, charging that they had a binding agreement to sell Brenco the Natural Vision three-dimensional feature, “Bwana Devil”, for $2,000,000. Alperson and Bren seek minimum damages of $3,500,000. The plaintiffs charge that Oboler violated the agreement in selling the pic¬ ture to United Artists, and ask an injunc¬ tion to halt the distribution of the film and a fulfillment of the alleged agreement. David Coplan, International-United presi¬ dent, disclosed in New York that the company had arranged to produce two three-dimensional pictures in Europe this year, using the Stereo-Techniques process. One feature will be made in France and the other in England. Producer Sol Lesser announced in Hollywood that new screen equipment, which will give Hollywood’s $300,000,000 inventory of 2-D films depth and pano¬ ramic size, has been perfected, and will be made available on a franchise basis. The equipment is a British invention called “wide vision surround,” to which Lesser and his associates, including Wil¬ liam Forman, president, Pacific Drive-In Theatres, and Mike Rosenberg, president, Principal Theatres, have obtained United States rights. “Surround”, with which a special British Stableford lenticular semispecular screen is used, permits a pro¬ jected 3-D picture to bleed off the center screen onto the front-angled surface on all sides, creating an illusion of both depth and panoramic size. The image created is one and one-half times normal size, audi¬ ences do not need special glasses, and no special projection or lens devices are re¬ quired, it is claimed. Allied is directing further attention to the importance of standardization in 3-D. President Wilbur Snaper said that a series of bulletins will be issued pointing up the need for uniformity. The bulletins will augment the work of Allied’s special com¬ mittee on 3-D, which is seeking answers to questions and problems. The committee is made up of Snaper, Trueman Rembusch, Jack Kirsch, Leon Back, John Wolfberg, Nathan Yamins, and Sidney Samuelson. Producer William Pine arrived in New York to supervise a special demonstration of the new three-dimension process in which he and his co-producer, William Thomas, are currently filming Paramount’s Technicolor adventure, “Sangaree.” The demonstration of cut footage and daily rushes from “Sangaree” was held for executives, exhibitors, and trade news¬ paper editors in the New York Paramount. Warners announced that its first 3-D feature employing the Natural Vision process, “The House Of Wax”, will be re¬ leased on April 25. Warners’ second Nat¬ ural Vision film will be “Burning Arrow”, in WarnerColor. It is down for an August release. Alvin M. Marks, president, Depix Cor¬ poration, Whitestone, N. Y., filed a suit in federal district court in Boston chal¬ lenging the right of Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, Mass., to manufacture the three-dimensional viewers used in Natural Vision, Stereo-Techniques, and other three-dimensional processes. Marks claims that patents controlling the manufactur¬ ing process used in making the viewers belongs to him. He asserts that the first patent was filed in 1933, and issued by the U. S. Patent Office in 1938, that the patent is still valid, and that, since 1948, a long series of patents relating to the polarization of light have been issued to him. Dickson Staging VCI Dinner Mexico City — Dick Dickson, general manager, Roxy, New York, for National Theatres, will stage the Humanitarian Award dinner, which will climax the Variety Clubs International convention from May 18-21, it was learned last week. Seton Porter Passes New York — Seton Porter, 70, a mem¬ ber of the 20th-Fox board, died last fort¬ night in Roosevelt Hospital. February 18, 1953