In 1954 the Century won the plum role: they'd be on the front line in the war against television. Cinerama!

Opening night was April 19, 1954. The mayor showed up, with his wife. Said the Star the next day:

"The most effective movie method yet of conveying sensation – not the sensational, just sensation – was unveiled Monday night before 1,100-odd applauding people at Century theater when Minneapolis became the 11th city in the United States to be host to Cinerama.

"The Cinerama grand opening, attended by bands, searchlights, television and the works, had the audience reeling and rolling as the scenes of “This is Cinerama,” the first and thus far the only film in the medium, were unfolded on the giant curbed screen and blasted from a battery of speakers surrounding the audience."

But all was not perfect. The review noted: “The match lines between the three sections of picture on the oversized screen are apparent sometimes because of jiggling. The engineers tell us that this fault is in the original camera, and not in projection, and that it will be remedied in the next Cinerama production. In the general reaction, however, this is but a detail.”

That’s like jaggies in Toy Story, when you think about it. But it didn’t matter.