Natural Vision was a large-format widescreen process that was presented in different forms over the years, as its technology evolved. Initially envisioned as 3-D or stereoscopic, the Natural Vision camera utilized two lenses to capture a greater depth of field onto one film frame. Despite numerous trade screenings, adoption by a major Hollywood studio, and two high-profile feature films produced over its 20-year development, the format’s prospects of widespread adoption remained limited. Plagued by poor management, limited investment, a string of bad luck, and the format’s reliance on special cameras and projectors meant Natural Vision stood slim chance of succeeding in an industry already committed to 35mm production and distribution.

Natural Vision was the brainchild of Swedish inventor Per Johan Berggren, an electrical and mechanical engineer, originally from Stockholm. Berggren approached George K. Spoor with his invention in 1916 – which he claimed produced stereoscopic results – and convinced the co-founder of the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company to finance the development of a prototype camera. Spoor believed strongly enough in the possibilities of Berggren’s design that he purchased the interest of his Essanay partner, G. M. Anderson, ceased further production at the Essanay studio in Chicago, and transformed his properties into a motion picture research laboratory. Tests with the new camera were reportedly made on one scene of Young America in 1918 (Anon., 1918).

By 1923, Spoor and Berggren had spent over US$1,500,000 and had redesigned the camera multiple times. The earliest tests had been with 35mm film, but due to definition problems, the film’s width was increased to 63.5mm (2.5 in), which necessitated all-new camera and projection equipment. This new film, with a frame six-perforations high, instead of the normal four with 35mm film, created a wider than normal image, with an aspect ratio varying over the years between 1.85:1 and 1.95:1. The first press screening of this new system was held at the old Essanay film studios in Chicago on August 18, 1923, onto an enlarged screen measuring approximately 40 ft x 20.5 ft (12.2m x 6.2m). The specially designed screen apparently enabled the actors to stand out in relief from the background, creating depth (Anon., 1923).

Spoor announced commencement of a self-produced feature in 1925, based on Margaret Hill McCarter’s The Pride of the Prairie, but severe storms destroyed the film’s sets on location in South Dakota and the film was abandoned. Two years later, Spoor did succeed in filming The Flag Maker in Natural Vision. The feature was shot in Hollywood, starred Charles Ray and Bessie Love, and was directed by stalwart J. Stuart Blackton. Four Natural Vision cameras, each weighing 200 lb (91kg), were brought down from Chicago for the production. The film was to premiere at the newly opened Roxy Theatre in Manhattan, but it missed its announced premiere date and was later shelved and destroyed. Spoor was reportedly deeply disappointed in the picture, believing that it did not do the Natural Vision process justice (Anon., 1927).

In 1929, Spoor and Berggren signed a contract with RKO Radio Pictures following a successful Photophone synchronized sound test. This deal came at a time when most of the major Hollywood studios were exploring widescreen or large-format processes following the Fox Film Corporation’s ambitious plans with Fox Grandeur. RKO made the short Campus Sweethearts, featuring Rudy Vallee and Ginger Rogers, as a production test in 1929, and the studio’s first Natural Vision feature followed in November 1930 with Danger Lights. The railroad drama premiered at the State-Lake Theater in Chicago before moving to the Mayfair Theatre in New York a month later. The State-Lake projectors had to be removed and reinstalled in New York as they were the only working pair in existence. Audiences at the time did not embrace widescreen, and RKO chose not to continue its contract with the Spoor-Berggren process (Kahane, 1930).

Undeterred, George K. Spoor revived Natural Vision once again at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. At a cost of $150,000, a specially designed 1,250-seat auditorium named Spoor’s Spectaculum was constructed on Northerly Island, on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront, with an enormous screen measuring 64 ft x 38 ft (19.5m x 11.6m). But the venture was unsuccessful, and the Spectaculum attraction did not return for the World Fair’s second year in 1934. Spoor subsequently defaulted on his loans, was forced to close his Argyle Street studios in Chicago, and soon after, Natural Vision Pictures, Inc. was dissolved.