[ScottFromSpokane]

No, you're simply mistaken. They only started being made regularly in the 1950s, but there were widescreen movies made before that. Apart from the aforementioned 70mm The Big Trail, the best known is probably Abel Gance's Napoleon, which used a three-projector system.

http://www.in70mm.com/newsletter/2001/64/grandeur/grandeur.htm

[Borges]

Oh ok, I was aware that there were putative wide screen formats before the standard Scope format came into general use. Napoleon was the one I always associated with it. Just like there were various early attempts at color but 1935's Becky Sharp was the first film in the color process that's went into widespread use.