Page 30 - CINEMARECORD-96

CAME TO AUSTRALIA by Earl Martell

th
n 1953, 20 Century Fox unveiled its new
Ianamorphic wide screen process,
CinemaScope, with the movie The Robe. The
process was described as “3D without glasses,
because the curved screen brings the audience
into the action”. Originally CinemaScope had
an aspect ratio of 2.66:1, nearly twice the size of
the ‘academy’ ratio flat screens used until then
which had a ratio of 1.37:1. However, the
addition of multi channel magnetic sound tracks
reduced the aspect ratio for CinemaScope to
2.55:1

A demonstration in Hollywood, prior to release
of The Robe in America on 16 September 1953,
was shown on a curved screen 63 feet wide by
25 feet high - larger than any of the screens
installed in Australian theatres.
The Robe, advertised as being shown on “an
outsized screen with thunderous stereophonic
sound”, opened in Australia at the Hoyts Regent
theatres in Melbourne and Sydney in December
1953, with previews in Sydney on 25 November
and in Melbourne on 28 November. The Sydney
Regent was equipped with a screen that was
51 feet wide by 20 feet high, while in Melbourne
the screen was slightly larger at 54 feet by 21 feet
(compared to the 15 foot by 14 foot ‘flat screen’
it replaced). Both theatres were also fitted out
for four channel stereo sound: three front
channels (centre, left and right) and one
surround for the side and rear speakers. by the Regent Adelaide on 18 December (the The Robe was so successful (cost $5 million
screen there was just 40 feet wide) and then the to make, and took $36 million world wide)
th
As a result of its association with 20 Century Perth Ambassadors on 31 December, where that Hoyts quickly commenced the
Fox, Hoyts was the first Australian theatre chain the screen was 39 feet wide by 14 feet 4 inches CinemaScope installation expansion - both
with CinemaScope and its £1.5 million roll out high and with an 18 inch curvature (14 front the Plaza theatres in Sydney and Melbourne
(at a cost of £20,000 per screen) continued seats had to be removed to fit the screen in were upgraded in early 1954. The Plaza
nation wide with the Brisbane Regent the next place). In all, Hoyts announced it would be Sydney opened with How To Marry a
to be fitted for showing The Robe which opened equipping 110 theatres nationwide with Millionaire on 21 January 1954, while the
there on 11 December 1953. This was followed CinemaScope. Melbourne Plaza opened with Beneath the
12 Mile Reef on 18 February.
The Metro Collins St. became Melbourne’s
first non-Hoyts theatre to be fitted out for
CinemaScope, with Knights of the Round
Table in April 1954. The film was also being
screened in Sydney at MGM’s St. James
Theatre which had been CinemaScope
equipped as well.

The first suburban theatre in Melbourne to
get CinemaScope was Hoyts Regent South
Yarra also in April 1954, to be followed by
Hoyts Padua, Brunswick, Hoyts Regent
Thornbury and Hoyts Broadway in
Camberwell. The first independent theatre in
suburban Melbourne with CinemaScope was
the Roxy in Maidstone. The largest
CinemaScope screen in suburban Melbourne
was installed at the Victory in St. Kilda.

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