You all probably know the story of the Davy Crockett episodes of Disneyland — and how they became the feature Davy Crockett: King Of The Wild Frontier (1955). Three black and white episodes on TV, re-cut and released to theaters, due to popular demand, as a 90-minute feature to big box office. In Technicolor and “Wide Screen.”
But what does “Wide Screen” really mean? Shot for television (Walt was sure smart to shoot in color), they were full frame 1.37:1. But how did it play theaters? Disney didn’t include projection instructions in their pressbooks, so it’s hard to say. Playing around with the DVD, a 1.66 or 1.78 cropping looks great. 1.85 seems a little crowded.
Maybe “Wide Screen” was just marketing, and it ran full frame.
Can anybody out there shed any light on this? If so, Fess up (sorry, couldn’t resist).
UPDATE: John McElwee at Greenbriar Picture Shows says Variety listed it as 1.85 in its review.
I went to the cinema to “Davy Crockett-King Of The Wild Frontier” as a nine year old in 1956 and I also ran it years later during my time as a cinema projectionist and I can tell you that the frame aspect ratio was 1.37:1 and it was projected on both occasions at 1.66:1. I also have a few clippings from the 35mm Technicolor print that I ran which confirms this, so it’s not just a case of relying on my memory.
Thanks for clearing that up. It looks really nice when run 1.66 on a 16×9 TV — wish the DVD had been mastered that way.