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VistaVision in Australia
The first screening of VistaVision in Australia was on 17 December 1954. White
Christmas opened simultaneously at the Price Edward and at the Capitol theatres in
Sydney. It opened 6 days later at Melbourne’s State and Kings theatres.

For months before the first release of a VistaVision film, the newspapers printed a
number of articles on this new “miracle” process. The article from the Melbourne Argus
of Saturday 20 March 1954 (right) is typical. Despite it’s numerous errors of fact, it
would have raised the public’s expectations that
this new process was something special. Alas.
Paramount’s promotion of their first release didn’t
match the pre-release hype. At the time, much was
made of “wide-screen” as a new cinema presenta-
tion medium,
The ad below mentions three programs to be
shown on “The Giant Lustrous Wydascope
Screen”. Even poor old Ma and Pa Kettle (black
and white Academy ratio) was presented in that
format, probably with considerable slices of the
top and bottom of the frame missing.

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