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The cast was not in the least the movie´s main In February 1953, The Robe was the first pic-
attraction. This was a very special project for ture released in CinemaScope (aspect ratio
MGM, in fact a unique one: they not only 2.66 to 1). Shane, premièred at the Radio City
wanted to make an outstanding musical, but Music Hall in April 1953, was to follow; it was
also to show the world what they were capable filmed in Technicolor and in the regular acad-
of doing with the “new” ravishing technolo- emy ratio (1.37 to 1), but the image composi-
gies of the 50s, widescreen and 3D. tion was such that it could be screened onto
1.66 to 1 panoramic screen.
In the 1950s television had become a major
challenge to cinema going. Sales of home TV
devices were increasing, despite being briefly
limited by law, and cinema had to explore new
strategies to offer audiences better options
than comfortably staying at home watching
TV. Technicolor and wider impressive screens
were now the bet. Attempts had been made
before (Fox Movietone Frolics and Happy
Days in 1929, for example), but now with
CinemaScope they were here to stay. Many
cinemas were refurbished, adapting and en-
larging their screens.

As for 3D (three dimensional), Bwana Devil
was the first long feature to be released in
1952. Although, same as with wide screen,
there had been some precedents. As early as a
Yosemite Valley documentary from the 1920s,
composite sequences from silent Phantom of
the Opera which result in stereoscopic vision,
or some presumably lost sequences in Na-
poléon d´Abel Gance (not to be confused with
the famous tryptich).

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