How a Three‑screen World's Fair Spectacle Was Recut to Cheat the Oscars

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How a Three‑screen World's Fair Spectacle Was Recut to Cheat the Oscars

To Be Alive! / 1960s

To Be Alive!, the 1964 short documentary co‑directed by Francis Thompson and Alexander Hammid and commissioned by S.C. Johnson & Son for the Johnson Wax pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair, became the center of a prickly industry spat over what counted as a qualifying theatrical film. The picture was shot over eighteen months across the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa and presented in an audacious multi‑screen installation—three separate 18‑foot screens spaced a foot apart (deliberately unlike a Cinerama join). Because the pavilion installation was part of paid admission to a corporate exhibit, critics and cinephiles were already talking about whether this kind of “sponsored” non‑theatrical exhibition should be judged alongside conventional theatrical releases. The New York Film Critics Circle stunned the trades in late 1964 by giving the film a special award—the first time a non‑theatrical commercial production had been so honored—fueling the debate about exhibition formats and eligibility.