Henri Chretien(1879-1956)

A French inventor, Professor Henri Chretien developed the anamorphic wide-screen process that resulted in CinemaScope. Although similar systems had been patented earlier, Chretien developed his during World War I for use in tank periscopes. In the 1920s he applied it to film in Construire un feu (1930) and other shorts directed by the innovative French director Claude Autant-Lara. Chretien named his process "hypergonar" (from gonos=generation ?) and his lens an "anamorphoser". However, Chretien's process languished until 20th Century-Fox president Spyros Skouras acquired rights to it in 1952. Fox personnel further developed the process, and the US optical firm Bausch & Lomb perfected the lens to reduce distortion. The first film to use the refined CinemaScope process was The Robe (1953) in 1953. For creating the process, Chretien received a 1953 Academy Award.