Hollywood Filmograph (Jun-Aug 1929)

HOLLYWOOD FILMOGRAPH 33 liird Dimension Films Shown in New York * ar amount Magna film Viewed by Representative Group NEW YORK, July 26.— What was Tailed Thursday, by a specially ini-ited audience, as another revolutionary development in motion pictures, comparable to the advent of dialogue films, was a demonstration by the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation at the Rivoli Theatre of the Paramount magnafilm, which threw a picture on the screen that filled the entire width of the sage and for he first time gave proof that the efforts of scientists to develop commercial stereoscopic picures were near fruition. The demonstration which included scenes of the seashore and a country road as well as a four-reel talking and singing feature, lasted for more than an hour and was atended by an audience of three hundred publishers, editors, bankers, scientists and motion picture executives. »Use 56 m.m. Film The pictures photographed on fiftysix rnilimeter film were projected on a screen forty feet wide and twenty feet high. Standard film is thirty-five millimeters and the normal size of a picture shown on the regular scVeen at the Rivoli is seventeen feet, four inches wide and thirteen feet, six inches high. This demonstration of Paramount magnafilm climaxed experiments which were begun fifteen years ago by Adolph Zukor at the old twentysixth street studio of the Famous Players Company in 1914. Mr. Zukor and Edwin S. Porter, now consulting engineer for the International Projection Company began experiments with the view to eventually developing a wide film which would give greater depth of focus than the regular film in use. The results of the experiment were burned in the fire that destroyed the studio in 1915. Projected on Wide Screen The exigencies of the situation at the time forced Mr. Zukor to give up temporarily his plans for the development of a wide film that would give a full stage picture. However, Mr. Zukor did not give up his dream that some day he would be able to show motion pictures on a wide screen which would give greater sterescopic values than those obtained in the present thirty-five millimeter film. Yesterday, he realized the fulfillment of his plans made fifteen years ago. Paramount magnafilm has passed the experimental stage. The feature shown yesterday, "You're in the Army Now,'' featuring Johnny Burke, well-known vaudeville star, is now ready to be shown in the theatres. The first public showing will be given on Broadway soon. Public attention was focused on the increased entertainment value of the large screen on the night of December 6, 1926, when Paramount introduced the magnascope in connection with the showing of "Old Ironsides." The effect on the audience at the premiere of that picture was electrifying when suddenly the screen filled the entire stage width. The increased size of the picture through magnascope was obtained by the use of magnifying lenses and not from increased film width. New York Theatre Guild Adds Four Cities Enlargement Plan Is Justified as Result of Experience Last Year NEW YORK, July 26.— (Specail.)— The New York Theatre Guild has announced the extension of its subscription plan to four additional cities this coming season. Six cities were organized on a subscription basis last year and the success with which the guild shows met in all of them is the justification for the enlargement of the plan this coming season. The four new cities to be added to the guild "road" this year are St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati and Washington. Those which are already established are Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Of these six, Cleveland was the only place in which the subscription plan of the guild did not come up to expectations, but the box office business done by the guild productions were such as to make it list Cleveland as a good money town. Chicago has 10,000 subscribers, Boston and Philadelphia each have 6000 signed on the dotted line to pay for tickets for each production, and Baltimore and Pittsburgh each affixed 3500 to the guild rolls. The productions scheduled for the coming year include Bernard Shaw's "The Apple Cart"; Leonhard Frank's "Karl and Anna"; Romaine Rolland's "The Game of Love and Death"; Turgenov's "A Month in the Country," and Sil Vari's "The Genius and His Brother." "Meteor," a ne wplay by S. N. Behrman, said to have a leading character very similar to Jed Harris, the producer, will be presented by the guild in January as a vehicle for a welcome home to Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine after their present London triumph. In addition to these two performers, the guild has the following players under contract and will use all of them ni productions during the coming season: Alice Brady, Otto Kruger, Dudley Digges, Elizabeth Risdon, Elliot Cabot, Tom Powers, Glenn Anders, George Gaul, Philip Leigh, Henry Travers, Helen Westley, Earle Larimore, Douglass Montgomery, Ernest Cossart, Morris Carnovsky, Frank Conroy, Friedy Inescort, Percy Waram, Joseph Kilgour, Ernest Lawford, Brandon Evans, Judith Anderson, Pauline Lord, Ralph Morgan, Alexander Kirkland, Sir John Dunn, Jane Wheatley, Phyllis Connard, Sidney Greenstreet, Richard Barbee and Gale Sondergaard. Development Slow It was then Mr. Zukor had Lorenzo Delriccio, who invented the magnascope, begin intensive experimental work on wide film. Work was carried on by Mr. Delriccio and a staff of assistants at the Paramount studios in Hollywood and New York. Just as they were perfecting their cameras and lenses for this wide film, the new element of sound projected itself into the picture. This brought forth an entirely new problem to meet. Mr. Zukor had Mr. Delriccio equip a new laboratory across the street from the Paramount studio in Astoria, L. I., and there for the last two years he has been perfecting the Paramount magnafilm which was demonstrated yesterday at the Rivoli. Wide film in itself is not new, having been used thirty-three years ago, but Paramount magnafilm is the first wide film to be developed along commercially practical lines. A wide film was shown to the public for the first time in New York in 1896, when Professor Latham projected film two inches wide by three-quarters of an inch high, at the old Daly Theatre, Broadway and Twenty-eighth street, according to Mr. Porter. Also the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight at Carson City and the Palmer-McGovern fight at Tuckaho in 1898 were photographed on wide film but on account of the special machines that had to be built, none of these earlier experiments were commercially successful. Protect Exhibitor Being mindful of these aspects to the early work on wide film, Mr. Zukor set down three points to be given first consideration by Mr. Delriccio in his experiments. First, there must be no change in sound equipment through the use of wide film. Second, the screen must not be so high that the balcony in the average theatre would cut off the view of the top of the screen and third, the changes in projection equipment should be kept in minimum so that the use of wide film would not put an expensive burden on the exhibitor. With these stipulations in mind, Mr. Delriccio developed magnafilm. It is fifty-six millimeters wide and nineteen and one-half millimeters high. The sound track is on the film the same as on the standard size film. The projection equipment has been so built that it can be put on the standard projection machine in five minutes and can be adjusted to throw a picture on the screen that will fit the special requirements of the individual theatre. At the Rivoli Theatre yesterday, the picture was twenty feet high and forty feet wide. The subjects which were demonstrated yesterday were photographed by a specially built camera, the first of its kind to be used in a motion picture studio. Paramount magnafilm gives third dimension to the picture on the screen, due to the increased area, Mr. Delriccio pointed out. The observer focusses his attention upon the center of action in the screen and in so doing the other portions of the picture resolve themselves into the original planes occupied by the characters or properties, Delriccio explained. Thus, the observer gets a new feeling of the relationship of planes that has not been evident on the smaller screen, where the eye of the observer could embrace the entire area. This new area does not produce any eyestrain because it is still less than the entire angle of vision of the normal eye. Stereoscopic values are also evident in magnafilm, due to new methods of lighting tha tthe cameraman uses for the wider angles now made possible. For the first time magnafilm will introduce an entirely new technique in the direction of motion pictures, according to Mr. Delriccio, who explained that with this new medium, the director will now be able to complete action within the angle of the lens, which heretofore he has had to show on the screen by resorting to different cuts in his action and in unusual photographic angles. The picture show n yesterday, "You're in the Army Now," was produced at the Paramount Long Island studio. Plans are now being made to produce Paramount-FamousLasky Corporation, in charge of production, has already ordered the organization of a force of mechanics for the purpose of building new cameras and equipment for the Paramount studios in Hollywood and New York City. 1 1 1 OPERATE IN ENGLAND NEW YORK, July 26.— Powers Cimephone Equipment Syndi c a t e, Ltd., of England, has been granted a franchise by the Powers Cinephone . Equipment Corporation of New York for the sale of cinephone equipment in the United Kingdom. In making the announcement P. A. Powers, president of Cinephone, said that the British company had already closed a number of important installation contracts. 111 HOUSTON IN N. Y. NEW YORK, July 26. — Walter Huston has returned to New York having completed his role in the talkie version of "The Virginian" at the Paramount studios, in Los Angeles. He will be starred during the coming season in a stage production "Commodore Trunnan'' produced by Arthur Hopkins. The play will go into rehearsal almost immediately. // // Is Good Enough for Filmograph It Sure Should Be Good Enough For You SARDI'S RESTAURANT Sard! Building 236 West 44th Street New York Filmograph's New York Headquarters — 903 Sardi Building And We Eat at Sardi' s