70mm Grandeur film, also called Fox Grandeur or Grandeur 70, is a 70mm

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...

film format developed by William Fox through his Fox Film and Fox-Case corporations and used commercially on a small but successful scale in 1929–30.

Filmography

In 1925, with the advent of television on the horizon, William Fox of the Fox Film Studio empire envisioned a "grand" cinema experience to keep the public coming to the movie theaters. As such, he soon put full efforts behind enhancing the silent 35mm film showings by the addition of sound to be coupled to a wider than 35mm end product, with the hoped for result being a grand and lifelike experience for the viewers. This wide screen vision of William Fox soon resulted in his creating a partnership with Theodore Case and his assistant, Earl Sponable, pioneers of Sound on Film, with the partnership to be named the Fox-Case Corporation. The result was, first, the advent of Movietone Sound, then soon combined with the 70mm "Grandeur" wide screen camera, with the Grandeur film process becoming the first theatrically successful wide screen film process when Fox Film Studio's released their epic made-for-Grandeur film, ''

The Big Trail ''The Big Trail'' is a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. In 2006, the United States Libra ...

'', in October of 1930. The 70mm Fox Grandeur cameras were manufactured by

Mitchell Camera Corporation Mitchell Camera Corporation was a motion picture camera manufacturing company established in Los Angeles in 1919. It was a primary supplier of newsreel and movie cameras for decades, until its closure in 1979. History The Mitchell Camera Corpor ...

, and were based on the Mitchell Studio Standard 35mm camera, enlarged to accommodate 70mm 4-perf film. The cameras were designated as Mitchell Model FC cameras, the FC designation most likely originally standing for Fox-Case, as the technical specifications and orders for the cameras were submitted to Mitchell by the Fox-Case Corporation. The first three Fox Grandeur production cameras to be delivered were FC-1, FC-2, and FC-3, delivered to Fox-Case Corporation in New York on May 1st, 1929, eventually followed by a total of 8 or 9 Fox Film Studio Grandeur Cameras. An additional four Grandeur cameras were delivered to MGM in 1930, plus one additional camera that was delivered to Feature Productions, also in 1930. William Fox himself had purchased the Mitchell Camera Corporation in mid 1929, with expectations of cornering the market on the cameras and equipment necessary for producing wide screen cinema. A small number of shorts and features were produced in 70mm wide Fox Grandeur in 1929, while Fox Studios prepared for their big release of a film specifically created to be shot in 70mm widescreen. The 1929 shorts and features included several issues of

Fox Movietone News Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Australia and New Zealand until 197 ...

called ''Fox Grandeur News'' first shown May 26, 1929. Features shot in Grandeur include ''

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 ''Fox Movietone Follies of 1929'', also known as ''Movietone Follies of 1929'' and ''The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929'', is an American black-and-white and color pre-Code musical film released by Fox Film Corporation. Plot George Shelb ...

'', the

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most su ...

'' (1929), directed by

Benjamin Stoloff Benjamin Stoloff (October 6, 1895 – September 8, 1960) was an American film director and producer. He began his career as a short film comedy director and gradually moved into feature film directing and production later in his career. Directo ...

, '' Song o’ My Heart'' (1930), a musical feature starring Irish tenor John McCormack and directed by

Frank Borzage Frank Borzage (; April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an Academy Award-winning American film director and actor, known for directing '' 7th Heaven'' (1927), '' Street Angel'' (1928), '' Bad Girl'' (1931), ''A Farewell to Arms'' (1932), '' Man's ...

('' Seventh Heaven,'' ''

A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the a ...

''). By April of 1930, Fox Film Studios was prepared to begin filming for their greatest Grandeur epic film and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

'' (1930), directed by

Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He wa ...

, cinematography by

Arthur Edeson Arthur Edeson, A.S.C. (October 24, 1891 – February 14, 1970) was a film cinematographer, born in New York City. His career ran from the formative years of the film industry in New York, through the silent era in Hollywood, and the sound era the ...

ASC, in which

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Go ...

at age 22 played his first starring role. ''Song 'o My Heart'' was double-shot in both conventional 35mm and Fox Grandeur, with all action and singing performed separately for the two processes. Production began in November 1929, and the 35mm version debuted on March 11, 1930, in New York. The Grandeur version, however, shipped from the labs on March 17, 1930, was never released and may no longer survive, according to film historian Miles Kreuger.
where Kreuger lays out an interesting history of early sound film recording techniques, and the audio advantages of Fox Grandeur. Filming of ''The Big Trail'', which began in April 1930, was shot simultaneously in Grandeur and conventional

35mm movie film 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width ...

. Both versions survive, and differ significantly in composition, staging and editing. When the film was released on October 2nd, 1930, the only theaters equipped with the Grandeur projectors and wide screen were Grauman's Chinese Theater in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

and the Roxy Theatre in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The Fox Grandeur process was first and foremost of a small number of widescreen processes which were developed by the major Hollywood studios alongside sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Although the format proved to be successful, due to the Great Depression that began with the fall of Wall Street in October of 1929, the Grandeur format then proved financially unviable for an industry still struggling to invest in the switch to talking pictures. Other theatres were resistant to making the large investment necessary, and the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

put paid to the system's prospects. Ultimately, the widescreen aspect ratio did become established by the early-1960s. Fox used the Grandeur name again on a re-release of ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the chil ...

''; this re-release was a

Todd AO Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. For more than five decades, it was the worldwide leader in theater so ...

compatible 70mm reduction of the original CinemaScope 55 negative, advertised as being in “Grandeur 70”. Unlike the later

Todd-AO Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. For more than five decades, it was the worldwide leader in theater s ...

system (which printed onto 70mm film), Grandeur did not use the same perforations as 35mm film, but instead had larger perforations on a longer pitch of 0.234 inch (5.95mm) compared to the 0.187 inch (4.75mm) pitch used by both 35 mm film and modern 70mm film. Although Grandeur used a four perforation pulldown (i.e. each frame occupied the height equivalent to four perforations on the film) rather than the five of Todd-AO, because of the longer pitch the height of the image, at 0.91 inch (23.1mm), was slightly greater than that of the 0.816 inch (20.73mm) Todd AO image. The image width was 1.84 inch (46.74mm) giving an aspect ratio of 2:1 and providing enough space for a

Fox Movietone Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Australia and New Zealand until 197 ...

variable-density optical

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

of approximately double the width of that used on a 35mm print.Lobban, Grant "Preserving Wide Film History", , ''Journal of the BKSTS'', 67:4, April 1985

References

* John Belton, ''Widescreen Cinema'' (Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, 1992), {{ISBN, 0-674-95261-8

External links

Magnified Grandeur - The Big Screen, 1926-31
David Coles, 2001

Motion picture film formats 70 mm film Fox Film 20th Century Studios

Filmography

See also

References

External links