On this day in 1953, 20th Century Fox’s ‘The Robe’ premiered in New York. ‘The Robe’ was the first movie to be made in CinemaScope anamorphic widescreen, more than twice as wide as it was tall. CinemaScope used a custom lens to distort the image during filming and then another special lens at the theater to convert the picture into a panorama. CinemaScope was the innovation Fox needed to compete against the growing popularity of television.
