Archives: Timeline Express Announcements

The Screen Writers Guild has called for a strike. It is demanding that its members receive a percentage of the television rights for films.   The “King of Hollywood”, Clark Gable, has died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack. Gable had just finished filming John Huston’s…

The Motion Picture Association of America has repealed its 1957 ruling that forbids persons sympathetic to Communism, or those who refused to give evidence to the House Un–American Activities Committee (HUAC), from being nominated for an Academy Award.   Succumbing to a life of alcohol and drugs, the actor Errol…

Paramount has sold the television rights for its pre–1948 film catalogue (750 movies) to the Music Corporation of America (MCA). The price is said to have been $50 million.   The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against 23 victims of the blacklist who instituted proceedings against the studios that had…

Humphrey Bogart dies after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 58 years old.   20th Century–Fox claims that there are now 46,544 CinemaScope installations around the world, with 17,644 in the U.S. and Canada alone. (There are a total of 20,971 movie theaters in the U.S.)   There…

Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures’ television subsidiary, has begun to release its pre–1948 feature films to TV.   Harry and Albert Warner are selling their holdings in Warner Bros. to a group of investors headed by the First National Bank of Boston. Jack Warner, however, is holding on to his stock,…

Most studios have switched from using Technicolor’s three–strip color process to using Eastman Kodak’s “Eastman Color” negative film stock. Kodak’s single–strip color negative film can be used in any camera, and processed and printed by conventional means.   Attempting to match and surpass Cinerama, Mike Todd and American Optical introduce…

Paramount introduces its own “big–screen” process that they claim is better than CinemaScope because it is more flexible and produces much better image resolution. Called “VistaVision”, this process does not shoot the film through an anamorphic lens, but rather produces a wide–area negative by exposing standard 35mm film horizontally, thus…

The Academy Award ceremony is broadcast on television for the first time. The show draws the largest single audience in television’s five–year commercial history.   After holding a public demonstration of its new widescreen process called “CinemaScope”, 20th Century–Fox announces that all of its future films will be shot using…

Howard Hughes announces the temporary closure of RKO Studios to facilitate the dismissal of close to 100 employees suspected of having Communist sympathies.   The actor, John Wayne, calls the movie “High Noon”, “The most un–American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” Wayne, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando and…

Acetate/Safety film, made from cellulose triacetate, has replaced the highly inflammable nitrate film as the standard for 35mm film production, distribution and film preservation.   Roy Rogers receives a temporary injunction preventing the sale of his Republic features to television. He claims that the advertisements shown during the commercial breaks…