First, with regard to Donna Cunningham's question about the availability
of "Rock Hunter":  the film was cropping (no pun intended) up regularly on
American Movie Classics, though I haven't seen it there lately; it was
indeed the pan-and-scan print of which Jeremy wrote, and seeing it made me
weep.  So if you wanted your own copy, you could tape it off the air from
AMC.
 
Now my question:  are there any groups devoted to the preservation of
CinemaScope films or, more broadly, of all widescreen aspect ratios?  A
couple of years age, when I last taught a course on the Hollywood star, I
was shocked to discover that certain 'Scope films were not available even
in 16mm ("A Star is Born," "Seven Year Itch," and "How to Marry a
Millionaire" were the particular culprits; Films Inc. actually had a
'Scope print of "Millionaire," but said it was so badly damaged that they
refused to let it go out -- and that they had no plans for restoring it!).
I know little about preservation, but would be very interested in helping
such an effort.  If anyone knows of any such group, I'd be grateful for
the info.
 
John
 
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*  John R. Groch         |                                   *
*  English/Film Studies  |  "Work!  FINISH!  THEN sleep."    *
*  Univ. of Pittsburgh   |       -- The Monster,             *
*  Pittsburgh, PA 15260  |          "Bride of Frankenstein"  *
*  [log in to unmask]       |                                   *
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