IATSE-2nd2018_web

In addition, movie chains owned by the major studios made
it even harder for independent theater owners to compete. In
1948, the Supreme Court ruled (in U.S. v. Paramount Pictures,
Inc.) that the studios had to divest themselves of their theaters.
That effectively eliminated the guaranteed out let for the studios’
product, no matter how good or bad that product was. These
rulings effectively eliminated the studio system.
At the same time, more and more Americans were buying
television sets and staying away from movie theaters. Television
promised work for IATSE members (after jurisdictional and
technical problems were resolved), but initially the new medium
had a very negative impact on studio workers.
The movie industry went into its own kind of great
depression. Thousands of studio workers were laid off. Sound
stages and outdoor sets were left empty. The larger studios,
which had acres of sets and hundreds of players under contract,
were hit the hardest.
Smaller studios like Columbia managed to survive. And in
1951, Columbia had the wisdom to establish its own television
division, Screen Gems. Ultimately, thousands of IATSE members
would work for Screen Gems, making the transition from movies
to TV.
Sadly, one by one, the great movie palaces began to close
down. The shift of the population to the suburbs and away
from the city centers where these palaces were located hastened
the decline of the movie industry and cost thousands of IA
projectionists their jobs.
INNOVATION SAVES THE DAY
Alliance members’ skills and our ability to adapt to rapid
change were tested during the 1950s and 1960s, as the movie
industry attempted to find ways to win back consumers who now
sought their entertainment through television, sports events and
outdoor activities.
One of the first innovations IATSE members had to contend
with was 3-D, a three-dimensional, stereoscopic novelty that
was produced by shooting the same scene through two separate
lenses set apart but contained in a single camera. Alliance
camerapeople and projectionists alike enthusiastically did their
part to make the new process successful.
Cinerama was another novelty that came on the scene at
about the same time. This process, developed around 1953, held
great promise since it did not require the uncomfortable and
awkward glasses of 3-D. The Cinerama experience brought the
audience into the action, as opposed to 3-D, which brought the
action to the audience. It created the sensation that the body was
in motion. It was, in its day, like a wild ride at Disneyland.
Again, IATSE members eagerly embraced Cinerama despite
its shortcomings, one of which was its complex projection process,
which meant only a few theaters in major cities were equipped for
it. It was marketed much like the road company of a Broadway hit,
with reserved seats, scheduled performances and high ticket prices.
Cinerama ran into trouble when producers tried to use it as a
legitimate process for feature production. Films such as How the
West Was Won and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World were simply
overwhelmed by the grand scope of Cinerama.
And there was increasing competition from another new
process — Cinemascope, which was touted as offering 3-D effects
without expensive lenses and costly alterations to projection
equipment. Theaters would need special screens developed by
Cinemascope’s creator, 20th Century-Fox. The screens were
sixty-four feet wide by twenty-five feet high and curved to a
depth of five feet, giving the feeling of being surrounded by the
action. Accompanied by stereophonic sound, Cinemascope, it
was claimed, would engulf the viewer.
These new processes required some adjustment by directors
and IATSE camerapeople. The wide frame now had to be filled
in with sets, props, and action. Actress Lauren Bacall said that
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