A small theater converted to CinemaScope in the early 1950's. Costs not normally associated with the requisite equipment are removal of several rows of seats up front and their relocation to the sides, major renovation of the heating and cooling system and removal of walls around the proscenium. The exit to the left of the screen also appears to have been eliminated. Note that the CinemaScope screen is not just wider but substantially taller than the original.
Photos borrowed from John Belton's Widescreen Cinema.

A pattern for the proper launching of CINEMASCOPE and STEREOPHONIC SOUND has been thoroughly worked out in the more than 1,000 theatres that have presented THE ROBE and other Twentieth Century-Fox CINEMASCOPE productions to date. For your guidance, as a new member of the select group of theatres equipped to show this new and revolutionary process in screen entertainment, this manual has been prepared. It outlines the many facets of the campaign that exhibitors, in large or small theatres, used so successfully for their premiere engagements. The enthusiastic response of the public to this new medium is now an established fact and the box office record of THE ROBE is the talk of our industry. The grosses amassed by it in the United States and all over the world are fabulous.

You can have the same results for your theatre by following the success formula used by your predecessors in launching CINEMASCOPE. First, and foremost, you must treat the presentation of CINEMASCOPE and STEREOPHONIC SOUND as the most important event that has happened in the field of motion picture entertainment in 27 years since sound was installed. Everything you do in preparation for the presentation and for the premiere occasion itself should reflect this attitude. With the coming of CINEMASCOPE your theatre becomes the hallmark of quality entertainment in your city and you should let your patrons know how proud you are in being able to bring them this new and improved method of motion picture production and presentation.

HOW TO PRESENT YOUR CINEMASCOPE PREMIERE

The following suggestions are offered for your guidance in presenting THE ROBE and other CINEMASCOPE productions in an atmosphere of outstanding showmanship.

Use the special introductory CINEMASCOPE PROLOGUE which you received with your print of THE ROBE, or other CINEMASCOPE productions, to give terrific audience impact to the first unveiling of this exciting new process. Splice it to your Newsreel as the last subject. It is important that you make sure to cut off the "end" title of the Newsreel before attaching the CINEMASCOPE PROLOGUE. This PROLOGUE consists of a resume of the development and progress of motion pictures. The last scene is followed by "THE VOICE OF THE THEATRE" which presents "CINEMASCOPE". There is no picture during the presentation. The operator should prepare the cue mark far enough ahead at the end of the picture part to allow him to signal the stage to close the traveling curtain and put a "click splice" before the end of "THE VOICE 0F THE THEATRE" which will tell him when the second projector motor should be started.