That's right, WOR first ran it on Million Dollar Movie around 1963. At that time there was apparetnly no pan & scan version around because channel 9 ran it in CinemaScope -- but not widescreen. Instead, they showed the entire film in its "squeezed", un-anamorphic look, the film as it was on 35mm stock before being unsqueezed by the lens back to normal shape for widescreen viewing. So everybody looked about nine feet tall and very, very skinny! But you did see the entire picture, however distorted...something never again seen until the film came out on DVD in 2008 and TCM began running it.
But I disagree that this film is pretty bad. It's really pretty good. Sure, some of the effects were a bit dicey, but this was 1956 and a medium-budget film after all...not exactly The Martian sixty years later. WWE was the first sci-fi film shot in CinemaScope. That and color were big deals for a small studio like Allied Artists, so credit where credit is due.
In the late 90s I went down to the film forum in NYC to see this movie at their last science fiction festival. I'd never seen it properly and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, when I arrived there was a notice that they didn't have the final reel of the film in 'Scope so would substitute a pan & scan print for those last ten minutes. (Despite this they didn't lower the admission price!)
Anyway, the audience watched the first 7/8 of the movie in its proper widescreen format. Then, the film was interrupted, the screen went dark, the curtains were drawn to accommodate a 4x3 image, and the film resumed (with a bit of overlap) in a p&s print. Because of the reel change the image was a bit blurry at first, and as often happens in such cases someone in the theater called out, "Focus!"...whereupon someone else yelled out, "Width!"
DVD NOTE: The two-film disc with Satellite in the Sky released in 2008 is still available separately, but this disc is also available in a four-film set (TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection, Sci-Fi Adventures), along with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and Them!, those two also released separately as a two-film disc (and before that, individually). The TCM set is usually cheaper than the single, two-film releases, and you get four great 50s sci-fi movies...okay, with Satellite in the Sky, three and a half.
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