Postwar Hollywood

Mission Valley Shopping Center opened 1961, from SDHS

1. Hollywood's postwar problems:

• 1946 peak year - 90m weekly - $1.7B
  
• 1948 Paramount case - must sell off theaters (in 1986, studios again allowed to own theaters)
  
• 1949 MGM layoffs - studio expenses too high
  
• rise of TV, sports, shopping centers
  
• Cold War paranoia

2. Gimmicks to solve problems:

• Eastmancolor replaced 3-strip Technicolor
  
• 3D - Bwana Devil 1952, House of Wax 1953
  
• Cinerama - 3 screens, 7 soundtracks
  • from This Is Cinerama (1952) to How the West Was Won(1962)
• Cinemascope of S. Skouras used the Chretien lens
  
  • The Robe 1953 by Darryl Zanuck
    
• Widescreen by Paramount - 35mm film
  
  • "Paramount was the first to break with the Academy aspect ratio with the release of Shane in 1953. The film, which was photographed conventionally in the Academy aspect ratio, but was projected with the top and bottom cropped to achieve a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Theatres used new larger screens to sell the "new" wide screen concept to the public." (Horak)
• VistaVision by Paramount - horizontal film
  
  • White Christmas 1954 with Bing Crosby
    
• Panavision - adjustable lens, 65-70mm film
  
  • Raintree County 1957 by MGM
    
• Special Effects
  • single-frame animation of Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen
  • Mighty Joe Young 1949, Godzilla 1956
• Theremin electronic music
  • used by Bernard Hermann in Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
  • documentary film Theremin, An Electronic Odyssey (1995)

From Cinema to Cineplex - Byrd

3. Production code revised 1956

• Miracle case 1952 - 1st amendment protection for movies
  
• Moon Is Blue 1953 by Otto Preminger
  
• Man With the Golden Arm 1955 by Otto Preminger, titles by modernist Sam Bass
  
• And God Created Woman (UA, 1957) with Bridget Bardot
  

4. Epic films

• Ten Commandments 1956 by C.B. DeMille
  
• Ben-Hur (MGM, 1959) with Charleton Heston
  
• Spartacus (Universal 1960) in Super Technirama 70 with Kirk Douglas
  

5. Formula films

• science fiction formula used by Them! and The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds
• horror formula in King Kong
• teenpics of Samuel Z. Arkoff and AIP
  
• spy thriller formula in Manchurian Candidate

Hollywood Renaissance

Links:

• Cinerama films includeThis Is Cinerama (1952) to How the West Was Won
• Cinemascope
• Horak, Jan-Christopher. Introduction to Film Gauges. UCLA Film and Television Archive.
• Theremin film review
• article on the Cinerama Dome restored

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