Harrison's Reports (1952)

IN TWO SECTIONS— SECTION ONE Entered as Becond-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison’s Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: United States 315.00 U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.50 Canada 16.50 Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.60 Great Britain 17.50 Australia, New Zealand, India, Europe, Asia .... 17.60 35c a Copy 1270 SIXTH AVENUE New York 20, N. Y. Published Weekly by Harrison’s Reports, Inc., Publisher A Motion Picture Reviewing Service Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors P. S. HARRISON, Editor Established July 1, 1919 Its Editorial Policy: No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. Circle 7-4622 A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XXXIV SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1952 No. 40 HARRY “POP” SHERMAN The industry as a whole has suffered a grievous loss in the sudden passing of Harry Sherman, the veteran producer. Affectionately known throughout the industry as “Pop,” Sherman died Thursday night (25) in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood after undergoing what was believed to be two minor operations. “Pop” Sherman was a true pioneer of the motion picture industry. He began his career as an exhibitor, operating a theatre circuit in the Minneapolis area, and subsequently entered the distribution end of the business and operated exchanges in the midwest and northwest. At one time he controlled the western distribution rights to “Birth of a Nation.” Sherman switched to the production end of the business in 1916, and was associated with Pathe and MGM until 1935, when he formed his own Harry Sherman Productions, which turned out more than fifty of the popular Hopalong Cassidy westerns. In recent years he produced such pictures as “Buffalo Bill,” “The Kansan,” “Woman of the Town,” “Tombstone,” “American Empire,” “Ramrod” and “Four Faces West,” the latter, released in 1948, being his last film. At the time of his unexpected death, Sherman was about to conclude a deal for the production of twelve pictures, with shooting slated to start in December. Throughout the years Harry Sherman produced pictures that were, not only of good quality, but also decent and clean, as well as commercially saleable. It is indeed regrettable that the industry let him remain idle during the past four years, after he had served it so well by making box-office pictures. Harry Sherman had intelligence, brains and a heart as big as a mountain. His passing will leave the motion picture industry very much poorer indeed. He will be long missed by those who were fortunate enough to have been his close friends, as well as by all who were associated with him throughout his honorable career in the business. CINERAMA Entertainment history was made this week at the Broadway Theatre in New York City, when Cinerama, the new motion picture projection system that creates an illusion of three-dimensional effects, was unveiled for the first time to a highly enthusiastic audience that was startled and thrilled by breathtaking scenes of pageantry and action projected in a way that seemingly made them feel like participants in what they saw on the screen. The astonishing illusion of reality created by Cinerama is demonstrated fully by the depiction of a Coney Island roller-coaster ride. The feeling of realism is so intense that the viewer feels as if he is in the roller-coaster and experiences all the sensations that one gets in the pit of the stomach caused by the steep dips and hairpin turns of such a ride. The same holds true in the depiction of a cross-country airplane ride; one experiences the dizzy sensations of banking steep turns, flying under bridges, barely missing mountain tops and landing, just as if he were a passenger in the plane. To create these effects of real life, the Cinerama process utilises three standard projectors, six sound tracks, and a huge curved screen. The picture projected is made especially for the process with a special Cinerama camera that photographs three strips of film at the same time, with the camera adjusted to reproduce a picture that is almost a complete halfcircle, 146 degrees wide and 55 degrees high. Each of the three strips of film are projected onto the screen by the three standard projectors set up in three separate booths — one in the center of the theatre and two on the sides. Each projector throws a picture that fills one third of the giant screen, which measures 51 feet from tip to tip and is 25 feet high, and the three pictures thus projected dovetail into one big picture that is sharp and has great depth of focus. The screen itself is not one great sheet, but is made up of 1100 vertical strips of perforated tape set at angles like louvres of a sideways Venetian blind. To the audience, however, it looks like an unbroken flat surface. Another important feature that heightens the realistic illusion of Cinerama is its so-called “stereophonic” sound. Through speakers behind the screen, and on the sides and in the rear of the theatre, the sound itself moves from place to place along with the action on the screen. For instance, if a motor boat roars across the screen, the noise of its engine seems to travel across the screen and roar away in the actual direction it is following. To demonstrate Cinerama, Merian C. Cooper and Robert L. Bendick produced a series of Technicolored short subjects under the overall title of “This Is Cinerama.” The program includes the roller-coaster ride; a ballet at the La Scala Theatre in Milan, including the finale from Act II of “Aida”; a helicopter (Continued on bac\ page)