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Author
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Topic: 60 Years of Cinerama
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Bill Brandenstein
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1632
From: California
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 28, 2012 03:48 PM
A fun morning! Just attended a Hollywood world premiere... of the first true Cinerama film shot in 50 years. What's the big deal about Cinerama? When it opened precisely 60 years ago on September 30, 1952, it became the first commercially successful widescreen movie presentation. Until Imax came along, it had the largest movie image area on film. Also notable was the use of 7-channel stereo sound, which was also a brand new thrill to the public. It's hard to imagine a world accustomed to 1.33:1, mono film seeing that for the first time. Eventually it would be displaced by 'scope, and especially 70mm, but for a decade it held many notable distinctions, and gave many a thrill.
This morning's premiere was the kickoff to the weeklong 60th Anniversary Celebration of Cinerama, at Hollywood's Cinerama Dome, which will be the home to 12 3-strip, digital/restored, or 70mm Cinerama pictures over the next several days.
So the premiere was a 30-minute tribute called In the Picture, taking its cue from the Cinerama motto (which puts YOU in the picture!). A travelog of charming, quirky, and old-fashioned Los Angeles tourist sites, it's a bit corny -- which is to say, precisely and appropriately in the spirit of the vintage Cinerama documentaries. It was directed as a labor of love by Cinerama historian David Strohmaier, and hosted by Cinerama/Pacific Theaters guru John Sittig. Great fun. And yes, the sweeping vistas are spectacular to see, for example the ocean sailing segment featuring the Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson (magnificent sailing ships) of the TopSail Youth Program. But the wide-angle view of simply driving a twisty mountain road in Griffith Park is dizzying enough.
All the film's cast and crew, plus volunteers from TopSail, were present at the screening.
We then got to see a terrific making-of video documentary, The Last Days of Cinerama, which makes you appreciate even more the perilous and humorous work it was to deal with a huge camera weighing hundreds of pounds - and it doesn't even have an accurate viewfinder! (There is a scope on top that suffers from parallax and limited vision, so the only way to be certain of what would be seen was to remove the film magazine and look through the aperture. No wonder the format tanked after "How the West Was Won." But I digress.)
If any forum members were present, sorry that I missed you. Of the people around me, I was the only one who lives somewhat locally. The others were from northern California, and one came all the way from Hawaii, wanting to relive the thrills of his youthful viewings at the Hollywood Warner theater.
John Sittig told me that the print of Search for Paradise came from John Mitchell in Australia by boat, and Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm from the Bradford, England Media Museum, with shipping costs of several thousands of dollars! And we thought shipping for eBay wins could be expensive!
[Edit:] Some pictures have now been added below.
[ September 29, 2012, 02:09 AM: Message edited by: Bill Brandenstein ]
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Bill Brandenstein
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1632
From: California
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 29, 2012 02:04 AM
Here are a few photos to look over. This is the view from the screen to the back, with Able, Baker, and Charley booth windows visible:
This to-the-screen view is neither wide enough, nor bright enough to do the place justice, but it's the best my camera could do. Projector realignment is being performed in preparation for a digital screening of South Seas Adventure:
Film critic Leonard Maltin and Cinerama guru John Sittig are looking over Cinerama Camera #3, used to make the new movie:
This is the writer-director of "In the Picture," noted Cinerama historian David Strohmaier, standing in front of one of the two amazing display cases full of Cinerama memorabilia:
Finally, at the Arclight Hollywood there's a huge gift shop, an area of which was selling Cinerama-related t-shirts, glasses, and other gifts, but I thought most surprising were original Cinerama projector lenses (they have red caps but these are sperical, not anamorphic). These lenses weigh 20 pounds or more, for $99.95:
There are more and more photos I could post of people, memorabilia, and other technical stuff, but I think that would get excessive.
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Larry Arpin
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 953
From: Sunland, CA, USA
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted September 29, 2012 02:30 AM
It was a grand evening. There were 2 from the movie, the head stuntman, I believe he is on the DVD commentary, and Stanley Livingston, who played the young son of George Peppard. They told stories of the director, Henry Hathaway, who Stanley described him on his first meeting as Santa Claus, then when he worked with him he was totally different and yelled at him when he did something wrong. But said the director took him out to lunch and went to a toy store and bought him a whole rock collection which was about $200. The stuntman said the director treated the stuntmen very well. But the director's favorite was Carroll Baker, didn't yell at her and called her 'Baby Doll', a character she played in the fifties.
The film looked fabulous, especially for being 50 years old. The print was struck in 2001 and I remember Crest shut down not long after that. Ron Stein who owned Crest also owned a DVD/CD duplicating business so I think since business fell in the lab he decided to close it.
I'm not sure how the sound for the 70mm The Master was done but it was great. I'll do some asking maybe on the 35mm forum.
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Bill Brandenstein
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1632
From: California
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted September 30, 2012 11:10 PM
Larry & John, thank you for adding your interesting reports (and thanks a lot, John, for looking me up while you were here! No excuses next time!).
Graham, thanks for the photo, and I would've liked to have seen South Seas Adventure but didn't get to. However, its digital restoration means the lack of that yummy old film look, but at the same time, means it's now a highly repeatable presentation, and without the 3-panel join seams. So it will be back. In fact, all the Cinerama negatives are in the process of being scanned at something like 8K (about 100MB per single strip frame according to Dan Sullivan of Image Trends).
Anyway, that plane picture is amazing, with the 250-pound (not including case) Cinerama camera on the right wing, and what I presume is dead counterbalancing weight on the left one. What a great story. There are some other great adventure stories about their shooting expeditions, such as a capsizing with camera on board while shooting a whitewater sequence on the Indus River in Tibet for "Search for Paradise" (1957), and there was a fatality. Did that footage end up in the release? Haven't seen that one either.
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There is quite a story to that part of filming many folk would not be aware of. It was taken from his the book called Ski-Plane Adventure 1965 by Harry Wigley who did the flying in the Auster for Carl Dudley.
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