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For some time Fox insisted on magnetic sound
only for their ‘Scope releases. Their idea was
to force cinema owners to install
magnetic multi-channel sound if they wanted
to screen their ‘Scope product. Other studios
developed their own lenses and versions
of CinemaScope and started to release their
‘Scope films with an optical sound track.
The original Fox – non optical sound – ‘Scope
films had an image ratio of 2.55:1, but when
an optical track was also added, this ratio was
reduced to 2.35:1, (later 2.39:1) which became
the standard ratio of CinemaScope films,
and also later versions such as Panavision,
etc.
Other companies came up with various
names and widescreen formats,, mainly to
get around the Fox patents on
CinemaScope. Some of these
were MetroScope, SuperScope, RKO
Scope, etc.
Although ‘CinemaScope’ remains as
the generic term for any film produced in an
anamorphic (squeezed) format, it
Top: The squeezed image as printed on the 35mm film. has long been superceded
Bottom: The unsqueezed image as would be seen on by other superior processes,
screen. notably Panavision.

This article first appeared in the
December 2023 issue Cinema
and Theatre Historical Society’s
magazine CinemaRecord. My
apologies to readers who have
already seen it.

REEL DEALS December 2023 23