Pop Culture Flashback: The First Movie in CinemaScope (Sept. 16)

How do you improve upon an epic biblically themed movie like The Robe? Have it film in CinemaScope. What’s CinemaScope? Read on.

1953 – CinemaScope Made ‘The Robe’ Even More Epic

Jean Simmons and Richard Burton in "The Robe" — Jean Simmons and Richard Burton in *The Robe (20th Century Fox via TVDB)*

Billed as the “First motion picture in CinemaScope – The modern miracle you see without glasses!” The Robe was based on the novel of the same name written by Lloyd Douglas. Douglas said that the reason that he wrote the novel in the first place was to answer the question, “What happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus’ robe through a dice game?”

Directed by Henry Koster, The Robe starred Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie. The film earned an estimated $17.5 million in North America, which warranted it for a sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators which released the following year and to date is the only biblical epic with a sequel, unless you count Evan Almighty.

Essentially, CinemaScope filmed movies with a widescreen lens – almost twice as wide as the regular. An adapter was being made so that theaters could show the new pictures with their existing equipment. However, since CinemaScope was a whole new process in filmmaking, many theaters would not be ready with adapters to show The Robe in its more epic form. For that reason, two versions of the movie (CinemaScope and the regular “flat” version) were shot with scenes filmed back-to-back.

The Robe was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. Bausch & Lomb won an Oscar for the development of the CinemaScope lens.

OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY:

The Xerox 914 photocopier *(Wikimedia Commons)*

1959 – Making Copies for the First Time

The very first commercial plain paper photocopier was put in use on this day in New York. Introduced by Haloid/Xerox, the Xerox 914 changed the document-copying industry. This may not seem like exciting news, but it was fairly big news. Even a live demonstration was shown on TV.

Soleil Moon Frye then and now as Punky Brewster. *(NBC)*

1984 – Little Girl, Big Girl, Same Drama

Young Soleil Moon Frye was only seven years old when she landed the part of Punky Brewster for the NBC sitcom. Despite playing the happy-go-lucky girl with pigtails, the Punky Brewster show had a dark backstory. First, the little girl’s father walked out on the family. Then, while buying groceries, her mother abandoned the poor girl at the shopping center.

The plucky girl began squatting in the apartment with her dog Brandon across the hall from widowed Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes). After learning of her story, Henry took her in to live with him. Punky also made friends with Cherie Johnson, another young girl played by…Cherie Johnson.

Six episodes of the Punky series were just 15 minutes in length as the show would play right after football games on Sundays. NBC didn’t want its young audience to miss out of the first half of show being shown “already in progress”.

In 1985, an animated version of the show by Ruby-Spears Productions began airing on Saturday mornings. The cartoon was voiced by the same cast except for Glomer, a “leprechaun gopher” which was added.

Although a hit with young fans, the original show was never a ratings winner and was cancelled after just two seasons (with the ending episode focusing on Punky watching the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of all things!) However, the show was picked up by syndication with new episodes airing in the fall of 1987.

Both Soleil and Punky returned to TV on February 25, 2021, with a new series (but the same name) airing on Peacock. Punky’s life hadn’t improved all that much. Although she was still best friends with Cherie, she was now a divorced mother of three living in the same apartment she grew up in Chicago. Freddie Prince Jr. played Travis, her ex-husband. The revival series was cancelled after 10 episodes.