Theater Screen Changes Over the Years

To start with, movies were all shot in a 3:4 (1:1.33) aspect ratio. This is exactly the same ratio of the TVs you grew up with. No surprise! When TVs first came out they were simply being a copy of the standard size theater screen people loved. When you watch old movies - like Gone with the Wind or Casablanca - on a standard TV, you're not missing a thing. That's exactly the ratio they were. This is called "Academy" ratio.

In the 1950s, a wonderful new change took place. The directors started using a new type of technique that gave a much wider image. Because human eyeballs are located side by side, it means we see much further left-to-right than we do top-to-bottom. A wider image gives us more of a feeling of "being there". The new ratio was first brought to the public by 20th Century Fox, at a 1:1.66 ratio. Other studios immediately came out with their own versions with sizes ranging from 1:1.66 to 1:1.85. The sizes used were:

1:1.66 - Fox, Paramount, Republic, RKO
1:1.75 - Disney, MGM, Warner
1:1.85 - Allied Artists, Columbia, Universal

As 1:1.85 was the largest, the group settled on this by the late 50s. Then SuperScope was developed, with an even larger screen size - 1:2.35. All modern movies, like Gladiator and Lord of the Rings, are done in 1:2.35 ratio.

Modern widescreen TVs and high definition are created with a 9:16 (1:1.77) ratio size. This means that old TV shows and old movies will be shown with grey on the left and right, since they are "not wide". That is of course proper - you don't want your image stretched out so that the people all "get fat"! On the other hand, movies that are shot in 1:235 are going to be TOO wide for your widescreen TV. This means you will have a grey bar on the top and bottom, because your movie image is wider than your TV is. Again this is fine, because if you stretched the image to fit, you would have tall, skinny people.

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Note - Lisa Shea wrote this content for the genealogy site at BellaOnline.com - you might still find this content there as well. That's fine :) I gave permission!