The Capitol Theater will reopen July 23 after a temporary closing for remodeling and now will offer several motion picture innovations to Salt Lake theater audiences.
"Gone With the Wind," probably the most reputed motion picture ever made, will be shown - its fifth release. The lengthy (3 hours and 40 minutes) feature, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh will be seen this time on a new wide screen process and in Perspecta sound.
Latest Sound Type
The latest type of motion picture sound, the Perspecta process is based on the same idea of stereophonic . . . where the sound projects from the exact point of action on the screen, automatically permits diminishing and increasing intensity of sound and also allows conventional pictures to be amplified without special changes.
The effect created by the revolutionary Perspecta process is comparable to a live presentation by music or voice as it is actually being performed. A note of realism comes through not heretofore attainable.
A new marquee also will be another feature of the Capitol opening. Ray M. Hendry, vice president and general manager of Intermountain Theatres, Inc., reports the marquee will be one of the finest in the area. The theater also has been equipped with CinemaScope facilities.
David O. Selznick's production of "Gone With the Wind," one of the greatest motion pictures of all time has gone down in history as the film which started a whole new trend in motion pictures.
A Technicolor production, its magnitude has never been equalled in artistry, brilliant performance or sheer bulk. In 1940 it won most of the Academy Awards. Directed by the late Victor Fleming, the picture is an all-time box-office hit.
Lineup of Statistics
As to the bulk of statistics totaled up during its production, the magnitute exceeds even such present-day spectacles as "Knights of the Round Table," "Ivanhoe" or Quo Vadis." For example, 3,000 sketches had to be approved before the art, wardrobe and costume heads could start to work, and once the cameras started shooting, approximately 449,512 feet of film were used before the picture ended. Seven Technicolor cameras were employed just to film the first scenes in Atlanta, Georgia, during Sherman's historic march to the sea. Finally, more than 100,000,000 persons have seen the picture since its premiere in Atlanta on December 13, 1939.
The cast is one of the most impressive ever enlisted for a motion picture. Fifty-nine principal players, plus an army of extras for the battle scenes, were used, while the technical staff employed a list of names a column long. Heading the cast are Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. In supporting roles are Thomas Mitchell, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford and Victor Jory, among many other well known movie players.
No soothsayer is needed to observe that "Gone With the Wind" proved a springboard to launch most of these on their meteoric careers. Gable, who plays Rhett Butler, is currently among Hollywood's top male stars, with his recent "Mogambo" one of the year's most successful pictures. Vivien Leigh, who achieved overnight stardom as Scarlett O'Hara, has since won wide fame both in England and in the United States. Her last Hollywood hit was "A Streetar Named Desire."