No it was the Civic Theatre in Auckland who at the time opening up with the Robe (the first scope film) had the largest Cinemascope screen in the Southern Hemisphere.
I was also a projectionist in Sydney for 20 years (never Melbourne), but I didnt see that scope neg flash problem due to not...
Most films that were not scope in commercial cinemas were shown in 1.85 ratio. The aperture plate was cut for every theatre to mask down the higher image on the frame. There were never theatres thats screened films in our so called talk of today, 1:1 pixel ratio.
Even scope films had to be...
I was a cinema projectionist in Australia and NZ for over 35+ years. Most theatre chains all over the world only had two ratios, 1.85 and scope. Every 1.66 and 1.75 film were all screened in 1.85, so whatever the so called director may have wanted he never got! 1.66 and 1.75 were all screened...