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The huge screen at the New York Paramount is seen. The theatre was one of the very first in the country to equip itself for the showing of horizontal VistaVision. The special projectors helped paint the screen with an image that was clear, no distortion, and excellent depth of focus.

New VistaVision Equipment for the Paramount will cost $100,000 - Source - New York Times - March 23, 1955.

New motion-picture equipment, including a screen sixty-four feet wide, is being installed in the Paramount Theatre to accommodate the VistaVision wide-screen process. Robert K. Shapiro, manager of the theatre, disclosed that work had been going on for several weeks. The first permanent set-up of Vista Vision, which will cost a reported $100,000, will be put into use in mid-April, when Paramount Pictures' “Strategic Air Command” opens.

The major part of the work concerns the VistaVision screen, which is 64 feet wide and 35 feet high. The screen on which “Cinerama Holiday” is being shown at the Warner Theatre is 67 feet wide and 24½ feet high. The Paramount’s new screen, a curved, seamless panel of metallic substance will fill most of the proscenium area, as shown in the accompanying sketch.

The curve will be greater at top than at bottom. This innovation is said to reduce the distortion inherent in the projection of films on wide, curved surfaces. Putting in the movable screen, has called for considerable rebuilding of the stage area; the removal of two yards of brick wall on each side of the proscenium arch is a major item. The work is being done in the early morning hours, after the last show.

In the projection booth above the top balcony, new projectors are being put into place. They were developed by Paramount to handle the Vista Vision film, which travels on a horizontal line, from right to left.

The film used in making VistaVision is of standard width, 35 millimeters, but each “picture" or frame is twice as wide as ordinary film frames. This gain in frame area, approximately 60 millimeters, is achieved by exposing two frames of the film as it moves horizontally “on its side” through the motion-picture camera, rather than vertically.

A 3,000-seat theatre will be the smallest in which this type of Vista Vision will be shown, because of technical requirements.

Another version of the process is available for smaller houses. The Paramount management states that the theatre will be able to show other types of film processes with ease by masking the new screen to the desired ratio of length to width.

An earlier version of the VistaVision horizontal-running film was seen last year in “White Christmas” at the Radio City Music Hall. That, however, was shown on a flat screen, and Paramount Pictures says that it was not as technically refined. Previously at the Music Hall Paramount (inspired by Cinerama) had screened “Shane” on a 50 ft x 30 ft screen (without a curve) utilizing a wide angle lense. Despite the fact that Shane had been shot in the standard 1.37:1 Academy ratio.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -