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With no additional width available, the only way to present a ‘scope film at the correct screen ratio
is to reduce the height of the image by either masking the top and bottom or in many cases, simply
just the top of the screen.

Either way, the end result is that the ‘scope picture is smaller that the regular image, certainly not
the intention of those who developed CinemaScope all those years ago. Of course, if queried, the
former choc-top maker, recently promoted to cinema manager, will tell you that’s the way it is
intended to be seen. In other words, he/she hasn’t a clue about the history of the Industry.
Mike Trickett

More on Cinema Facts

Peter Adamson

Cinema Facts supplied by Alan Vogt (Reel Deals, page 10, December 2018) under the heading
“1896: First film projected in Australia” cites films shown at Harry Rickard’s Opera House,
Melbourne.

I suspect that 1896 may have seen nu-
merous ‘first’ screenings. In South
Australia, for example, on 19 October
1896 Adelaide’s first picture show
screened at the Theatre Royal. As this
screening occurred in October it is
unlikely to be the very first on Austral-
ia.
After one show the programme was
successfully relocated to a shop in the
Beehive Building, on the northeast cor-
ner of Rundle and King William
Streets. The films shown were almost
certainly not by the Lumière Bros.
Adelaide’s Theatre Royal. Image: CATHS Archive
The Theatre Royal, built in 1878, was
for live theatre, and in this was similar to Harry Rickard’s Opera House.

My information comes from page 1 of Dylan Walker’s Adelaide’s Silent Nights … 1896–1929.

Bombshell, an 18 minute documentary on the life of Hedy Lamarr, is now available on DVD. Most
important, amongst its highlights, it includes the documentary proof of Lamarr’s very significant
contribution to the development of the communications technique called frequency-hopping.
The world as we know it depends on this communications technique, as it is used by the world’s
militaries, mobile phones, Wifi, Bluetooth and other techniques.

REEL DEALS March 2019 9