multiscreen (cinema)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

* multiscreen, a. (OED3 1967)

1961 _Film Quarterly_ 14 (Spring) 35 At the Brussels and Moscow
Expositions multiscreen arrangements were displayed.

1964 _New York Times_ 10 May 10 X12/8  True, the multiscreen projection
provides some fascinating cinematic tricks, but not much more than could
be done with multiple images on one large screen area.

1965 _New York Times_ 13 Feb. 10/2 While "To the Fair" does not have the
novel multiscreen aspect of "To Be Alive," it does have much the same joi
de vivre and lively pictorial momentum that were so pleasing in the
Johnson's Wax film.


* multiscreen, a. = multiplex (OED3 1991)

1971 _Lima News_ (Ohio) 29 Aug. B14/1 (heading) Multi-screen theater idea
cuts employees, ups profits.

1974 _Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly_ 14 Oct. 39/2 It
will then concentrate on the first-run multi-screen units in shopping
centers.

1976 _Wall Street Journal_ 14 July 7/2 United Artists Theatre Circuit
Inc., San Francisco, agreed in principle to purchase 12 multiscreen motion
pictures theater locations from Carrols Development Corp., Syracuse, NY.


* multiscreen, n. (OED3 1975)

1962 _News Record_ (North Hills, Penn.) 22 Aug. 21/1 Most of the film is
in color, but the producers have not hesitated to use black and white film
when it was the best available to make a certain point. Thus, the
multi-screen often reflects five color scenes and one black-and-white one.

1964 _New York Times_ 10 May 10 X1/8 I speak of such unconventional items
as ... the breath-taking combinations of mechanical conveyors and
multiscreens displayed in the United States Pavilion and in the
International Business Machines show.

1967 _Los Angeles Times_ 13 July IV1/1 Stan VanDerbeek's exercise with
multi-screens and live dancers proved as graceful as it is complicated.


* multiscreen, n. = multiplex (OED3 1999)

1974 _Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly_ 14 Oct. 39/2 Of
that total, only 58 will be single screen units, after allowing for
conversion of 24 houses to multi-screens.

1988 _Guardian_ (London) 15 Oct. (Nexis) It is also spending Pounds 20
million over the next two years converting the bigger cinemas in its
80-strong chain into multi-screens.

1990 _Times_ (London) 27 Feb. (Nexis) Enthusiasm for the cinema helps and
the company is keen to promote from within; the general manager of
Britain's first inner-city multiscreen, at Bayswater in London, started
with UCI as an usher.

1993 _Buffalo News_ (New York) 15 Jan. 3 (Nexis) If so, consider that for
a couple months now adults and uncompromisingly serious movie-goers have
seen mall-theater multiscreens tied up with "Aladdin," "Home Alone 2" and
other choice holiday cookies.


* multiscreening (various senses - not yet in OED)

1960 _Los Angeles Times_ 9 Jan. II7/3 Jerry Wald's "Beloved Infidel," the
bitter-sweet love story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham, opens
Wednesday for multiscreening at 18 theaters and drive-ins including the
Los Angles, Iris, Century and Englewood.

1992 _Guardian_ (London) 6 July 34 (Nexis) In its heyday there were more
than 5,000 cinemas in Britain. If you discount the distortions caused by
multi-screening there are now around 1,000.

2001 _Time_ 3 Sep. 81 (Proquest) But if viewers sample the smart, expertly
filmed pilot, which interweaves its stories using supercool multiscreening
reminiscent of movies like Timecode, 24's would-be assassins should have
as little luck as Squeaky Fromme.


* multiscreened (various senses - not yet in OED)

1964 _Film Quarterly_ 17 (Spring) 39/2 Experimentation in general, as in
Lehky's multi-screened _The Parasite_, is more in evidence than it is in
the typical Hollywood cartoon.

1974 _Washington Post_ 9 Apr. B2/4 There is a multi-screened thematic
film, several films of animal competition and cooperation, and an animated
film on the transference of energy.

1978 _New York Times_ 5 Feb. 15/1 The downtown movie house has declined,
but there has been an increase of about 25 percent, to 15,000, in the
total number of theater screens in the country because of a rapid growth
of multiscreened theaters in suburban shopping centers.

1986 _Toronto Star_ 6 Sep. S17 (Nexis) I'm sure some electronics geniuses
are hard at work on just such a commodity and this is the time of the year
that a multi-screened set would be a much-wished-for item among you
hard-core sports fans.


--Ben Zimmer