CinemaScope - Origins

Origins

A French inventor named Professor Henri Chrétien developed and patented a new film process that he called Anamorphoscope in 1926. It was this process that would later form the basis for CinemaScope. Chrétien's process was based on lenses that employed an optical trick which produced an image twice as wide as that produced with conventional lenses, using an optical system called Hypergonar, compressing (at shoot time) and dilating (at projection time) the image laterally. He attempted to interest the motion picture industry in his invention, but at the time the industry showed no interest. But by 1950 cinema audiences were declining due largely to competition from the new rival – television. However Cinerama and the early 3D films, both launched in 1952, were defying this trend and seeing success at the box-office. This persuaded Spyros Skouras, the head of Twentieth Century-Fox, that technical innovation could help to meet the challenge. Skouras tasked Earl Sponable, head of Fox's research department, with coming up with a new, impressive, projection system, but something that, unlike Cinerama, could be retrofitted to existing theatres at a relatively modest cost - and then Herbert Brag, Sponable's assistant, remembered Chrétien's "hypergonar" lens

The optical company Bausch & Lomb were asked to produce a prototype "anamorphoser" (later shortened to "anamorphic") lens, meanwhile Sponable tracked down Professor Chrétien. By this time Chrétien's patent had expired, however Fox purchased his existing Hypergonars from him and these lenses were flown back to Fox's studios in Hollywood. Test footage shot with these lenses was screened for Skouras who gave the go ahead for the development of a wide-screen process based on Chrétien's invention, which was to be known as "CinemaScope".

Twentieth Century-Fox's pre-production of The Robe, originally committed to Technicolor Three-Strip origination, was halted so that the film could be changed to a CinemaScope production (using Eastmancolor, but processed by Technicolor). Two other CinemaScope productions were also planned: How to Marry a Millionaire and Beneath the Twelve-Mile Reef. So that production of these first CinemaScope films could proceed without delay shooting started using the best three of Chrétien's Hypergonars whilst Bausch & Lomb were still working on their own versions. With the introduction of CinemaScope, Fox and other companies would be able to re-assert its distinction from its new competitor – television.

As Chrétien's Hypergonars proved to have significant optical and operational defects (primarily loss-of-squeeze at close camera-to-subject distances, plus the requirement of two camera assistants), Bausch & Lomb, Fox's prime contractor for the production of these lenses, initially produced an improved "Chrétien-formula" adapter lens design (CinemaScope Adapter Type I), and subsequently produced a dramatically improved and patented "Bausch & Lomb formula" adapter lens design (CinemaScope Adapter Type II), and, finally, produced "Bausch & Lomb formula" "combined" lens designs, which incorporated both the "prime" lens and the anamorphic lens in one unit (initially in 35, 40, 50, 75, 100 and 152mm focal lengths, and later including a 25mm focal length). These "combined" lenses continue to be used to this day, especially in special effects units, although other manufacturers' lenses are often preferred for so-called "production" applications on account of their significantly lighter weight, or lower distortion, or a combination of both characteristics.