silver screen

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silver screen (plural silver screens)

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)(historical) An early type of cinema screen which had a coating of silver or another shiny metal.
   • 1967, Herbert Scuorzo, The practical audio-visual handbook for teachers, West Nyack, NY: Parker, page 29:

     The smooth silver screen is well suited to color reproduction for its metallic particles emphasize colors and increase brightness above the level of the matte white screen.

   • 1999 March/April, Lawrence Kaufman, “Large Format Cinema Association Embraces 3-D at ‘99 Conference and Film Festival”, in Stereo World, volume 26, page 13:

     The Leonard H. Goldenson Theater at the Academy of Television Arts and Science (ATAS) was converted to a contemporary 8/70 venue, utilizing a projection system from MegaSystems and a silver screen from Harkness Hall.

   • 2007, Ray Zone, Stereoscopic cinema & the origins of 3-D film, 1838-1952, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, page 160:

     A single projector running Vectograph motion picture film, with a silver screen and the audience wearing Polaroid glasses, would have eliminated many of the difficulties and errors that can arise with both twin-strip and single-strip stereoscopic projection.

2. Any cinema screen onto which films are projected.
3. (idiomatic, by extension) Movies, or that which is related to movies or cinema.

   Stars of the stage and the silver screen gathered for the awards ceremony.

   • 1971, David Bowie, “Andy Warhol”, in Hunky Dory:

     Andy Warhol, silver screen / Can't tell them apart at all

   • 1984, George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley, “Careless Whisper”:

     As the music dies, something in your eyes / Calls to mind a silver screen and all its sad goodbyes

Often in the phrase on the silver screen, used identically to big screen.

• big screen
• silver sheet (dated)