Production Slate from "How the West Was Won"

Production Slate from “How the West Was Won”

/ Accessories, History / Cinerama, John Hora

I am hoping the people that are reading these posts find this relic from John Hora’s collection as interesting and amazing as I do. Shown here is an original 3-panel slate from the epic western adventure “How the West Was Won” (1962) shot in Cinerama. For those unfamiliar with it, Cinerama was a widescreen format that made use of an amazing piece of engineering that incorporated 3 separate film transports and lens assemblies to shoot 3 synchronized film panels at the same time. These were later projected simultaneously to make up the widescreen image. “How the West Was Won”, produced by MGM, was directed by John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall (who appears on this slate) and starred James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, and Debbie Reynolds, among many others. How exactly John came to own this slate, I am not sure, but I do know that he was fascinated by the Cinerama process and was involved in a project that restored one of the Cinerama cameras and actually shot test footage with it. A very cool piece of movie history!

  • Production Slate from "How the West Was Won"
    Production Slate from “How the West Was Won”
  • Production Slate from "How the West Was Won"
    Production Slate from “How the West Was Won”
  • Production Slate from "How the West Was Won"
    Production Slate from “How the West Was Won”