Around The World In 80 Days (1956) (1 Viewer)

[David Norman]

Depends which dorms you're talking about, all of the Beacon Hill properties were sold around the time I graduated, now everyone is in generic modern buildings.

The Paramount Building is my favorite -- the ground floor is the theater and next door is the Opera House. At nightime with the front lit up is something unique. The rooms are pretty much dorm rooms, but the building it's housed it is unique. Colonial isn't bad place either.

 

[John Carver]

The Dome never had a louvered Cinerama screen, nor did it show true three-panel Cinerama until, I believe, the 90s.

 

[John Carver]

In 1963 for the November opening of MMMMW it did - in fact the Ultra Panavision 70 prints had extra squeeze on the side of the frame- this was done in the optical printer- when projected on the curved screen - the extra squeeze was stretched to normal by the curved screen- After Khartoum, (1965) Cinerama adopted spherical 70mm, and rectified prints ceased.

The individual floor to ceiling strips - allowed light to pass through and not have the sides spill over the center.

 

[John Carver]

Indeed. The dome has a 120 degree curved screen so avoided the light spill problem that necessitated the louvered construction of true 180 degree cinerama screens.

Cinerama covered 135 degrees not 180- FOV
The f/l of the taking lens did not allow that wide a field. Cinerama had 1 f/l taking lens for 3 strip.

As screen size and angle of coverage goes- MMMMW used a 56 degree field of vision taking lens
D-150 really covered 150 degrees - the circle of confusion is exceedingly small - meaning if you were in the frame - you were in focus.

Another Cinerama fact- if a person in the distance crossed from one panel to another- they would disappear- if closer they did not. The panel overlap was 2 degrees.

I am now in my late 70s and was an SMPTE member before the T word was added- and an electrical engineer with MS dual majors in math and physics. Further, multi generation family ties date back to Paramount-Publix - my avatar is a 2 year old picture- me by my favorite toy- a Philips / Norelco AA-II.


My favorite of the old 3 strip was 7 Wonders of the World - the Arabs in a Cadillac out of gas and the Floral Umbrellas sequence of Takarazuka dance theater and Junior's $ 27.00 ( cost of filming) roller coaster ride in This Is Cinerama --- if you look closely you can see the roller coaster sequence was shot with magazine ends and spliced together - the reason $ was tight.

One comical screw-up was Wonderful World Brothers Grim - the Baker booth projectionist bleeped-up and threaded R2 instead of R1- after the overture Leo was missing- Saturday full house- when you had a Cinerama stop - everything had to be rewound and started over - if a film repair was required- black frames had to be substituted- everything A-B-C and the 7 track dubber had to be in sync- anyhow the fan blades were heavily bent. When the Selsyn motors were interlocked for start - the motors would vary in speed and then hold sync in about 20 seconds- as the field windings were in series for all 4 motors.

 

[Pictureman]

After the Brothers Grimm finished it's run in Dublin, MGM had no further bookings for it and asked the cinema to keep the set of prints until they sent for them. They were still there in huge cans some three years later. I never heard what became of them when the cinema eventually closed.

 

[John Carver]

After the Brothers Grimm finished it's run in Dublin, MGM had no further bookings for it and asked the cinema to keep the set of prints until they sent for them. They were still there in huge cans some three years later. I never heard what became of them when the cinema eventually closed.

Today a 70mm print resides with a theater until shipping instructions are sent. The "film" companies have limited storage space. 3 year old prints are ordered destroyed - now a film print order is 80 to 100 prints- and for Disney zero. Brothers Grimm prints were IB- a lot of the 3 strip library was sold for sound spacer. my favorite cheap-S Warner refused to make any HTWWW prints until the printing was subsidized as a national treasure- our tax dollars at work- Warner does not know where their next billion is coming from...
Brothers Grimm had 2 film reels per projector and 2 full coat reels for sound.

One closed mall multi has a Rocky Horror Picture Show print- sitting on the platter collecting dust- and I am missing the end 500 feet of the last reel.

 

[John Carver]

John Carver...

Please check your HTF mail.

I can not find HTF mail- I did ask RDH to send my e-mail to you- I apologize for the delay.

 

[John Carver]

This is the variable prismatic anamorphic used for MMMMW at the Dome - this dates back to early CS-and unlike ground optics- there is no chromatic aberration.

When MMMMW ran at Ohio State U - Wexner hall ( DP75) both anamorphics used for H8 were tested there. The film was booked from Criterion- and they did not know it was UPV-70 until we spoke about upcoming 70mm product.

 

[Charles Smith]

I can not find HTF mail- I did ask RDH to send my e-mail to you- I apologize for the delay.

Look at the top HTF menu bar. To the right of your name there's a little symbol that will say "Conversations" when you hover or click on it. That's the HTF mail. I think this should be the case regardless of the computer or tablet you're viewing on, but post again if you don't see it.

 

[nara]

Cinerama covered 135 degrees not 180- FOV

My apologies, slight senior moment. Cinerama screens have a 146 degree curve.

 

[RolandL]

My apologies, slight senior moment. Cinerama screens have a 146 degree curve.

That was the original plan but, actually varied from 90 to 146 degrees depending on the theatre.

 

[haineshisway]

In 1963 for the November opening of MMMMW it did - in fact the Ultra Panavision 70 prints had extra squeeze on the side of the frame- this was done in the optical printer- when projected on the curved screen - the extra squeeze was stretched to normal by the curved screen- After Khartoum, (1965) Cinerama adopted spherical 70mm, and rectified prints ceased.

The individual floor to ceiling strips - allowed light to pass through and not have the sides spill over the center.

From what I've been told, and I've been told this repeatedly by people who were there at the time and are experts in everything The Dome, the Dome NEVER had the louvered screen. I didn't ask about the prints or the squeeze or anything else - I merely told you the Dome never had a louvered screen because from what they said - it didn't. Perhaps I'll invite one of these gentleman to respond to you.

 

[OliverK]

Looks like there were a total of 3 different screens at the Dome:

https://sites.google.com/site/hollywoodtheatres/cineramadome

The Screen: Current screen size is 86' x 32' encompassing 126 degrees of arc. It's not the original Cinerama louver style but with the size and curvature of the 1963 original. The first (c.1953) Cinerama screens typically had 146 degrees of arc and (unlike the Dome's) did not have a consistent curvature -- they had a sharper radius in the center and got flatter out to the sides.

The original louvered screen at the Dome was removed and replaced with a flat sheet sometime around 1973. It's a white screen, not silver. For the December 2015 "Star Wars" run, their scope format picture was 65' wide.

The L.A. Times ran a 2002 article "Big Screen Furor-Rama..." when the screen was scheduled to be replaced (again) in 2002 after a remodel. The Times also has a few comments about the article. Purists wanted a louvered screen again. Pacific wanted (and ended up putting in) a big screen but as a single sheet -- claiming their massive new sound system would cause the strips to vibrate excessively.

Somebody who has seen both the Bradford louvered screen and the single sheet screen of the Dome was very impressed how much better the picture quality was on the screen at the Dome - he said the louvers were too visible to him.

 

[haineshisway]

Not what I've been told all these years, but if I've been told wrong, well, a lot of experts don't know squat. Oh, well.

 

[Bryan^H]

From what I've been told, and I've been told this repeatedly by people who were there at the time and are experts in everything The Dome, the Dome NEVER had the louvered screen.

Your sources are wrong. You are wrong.

 

[John Carver]

My apologies, slight senior moment. Cinerama screens have a 146 degree curve.

Let us resolve to keep field of vision degrees and degrees of arc subtended by a chord as separate non-interchangeable apples and oranges. The ratio of the depth of the curve to screen width for Cinerama and Todd-AO had standards (different for each process)- A Cinerama screen NOT CURVED will have bent horizontal lines--- This is true for 3 strip and composite reduction prints of 3 strip to 70mm. How may Cinerama theaters have you installed ? How may 70mm prints have you run ? How may Todd-AO installs worldwide ? How many 70mm prints do you own ?

Even the blocking of where actors stand is very different if you are on the set and look down. Looking straight on gives a different perspective. Next time HTWWW is shown on TCM or any flat screen- watch the flat rafts going down from the bank into the river or how the push poles bend when they cross panels.

I have a friend in England who worked in large format projection- he just finished a full restoration of 2 Philips DP70 to as built for Todd-AO corp.- he has a full machine shop- perhaps you would wish to speak with him. If so I will ask Steve to get together with you.

.

 

[John Carver]

Look at the top HTF menu bar. To the right of your name there's a little symbol that will say "Conversations" when you hover or click on it. That's the HTF mail. I think this should be the case regardless of the computer or tablet you're viewing on, but post again if you don't see it.

Thank you, contact made.

 

[RolandL]

Below from Film.tech.com :

"But now, just as Cinerama's unique method of movie projection is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, a debate is raging in Hollywood over plans by the dome's owners to install a new giant curved screen that critics guarantee will make Cinerama movies, as well as many conventional ones, appear out of focus."

"They are frustrated that Pacific Theatres, which has roots in Southern California dating to 1946 and has owned the rights to Cinerama since the early 1960s, has decided to install a solid-sheet screen in the refurbished theater rather than a louvered screen like the one that graced the dome when it opened in 1963 and remained there for a decade."

"They fear that if Pacific Theatres uses a solid-sheet screen, it will create the same focus problems that caused movies in the old dome to appear washed out as a result of light bouncing from one side of the deeply curved screen to the other."

 

[John Carver]

Your sources are wrong. You are wrong.

You are correct
Cinerama had the standard curve, the strips negated light spill across reflected from the sides.
It was that way, when I left LA and last saw the screen from the projection room. I used SMPTE RP-91 70mm alignment film - this is expensive as it is examined with a microscope for accurate printing- this is used to align both projectors to hit the same spot on the screen, center image aperture plate, and have focus uniform.

Did you see the 1963 picture of the Dome's projection room ? They opened MMMMW in Nov 1963 -
I can only wonder how many were present for the opening night, or even born then.
MMMMW had 3 edits during the roadshow run.- Criterion has the 70mm prints- the sides have greater anamorphic squeeze - this was added by the printer and the sides of the curved screen stretched the rectified side image back to normal. feel bad for they who missed out on showmanship demanded of a roadshow venue-
Mike Todd did not allow popcorn to be sold during the run a of Todd-AO show- he wanted to have a classier venue than popcorn like all others.

Below is courtesy of Jeff Joseph from Marin Hart's widescreenmuseum.com- his web site is a storehouse of knowledge- notice the sides of the frame- without the Cinerama standard curve screen - they would be skinny.
I have run every Ultra Panavision 70 film made ( except H8 )- originally MGM Camera 65

 

[John Carver]

Below from Film.tech.com :

"But now, just as Cinerama's unique method of movie projection is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, a debate is raging in Hollywood over plans by the dome's owners to install a new giant curved screen that critics guarantee will make Cinerama movies, as well as many conventional ones, appear out of focus."

"They are frustrated that Pacific Theatres, which has roots in Southern California dating to 1946 and has owned the rights to Cinerama since the early 1960s, has decided to install a solid-sheet screen in the refurbished theater rather than a louvered screen like the one that graced the dome when it opened in 1963 and remained there for a decade."

"They fear that if Pacific Theatres uses a solid-sheet screen, it will create the same focus problems that caused movies in the old dome to appear washed out as a result of light bouncing from one side of the deeply curved screen to the other."

The Naify family had control of Cinerama, Todd-AO, D-150, Western Theatrical Supply, United Artists Theater Corp and United Artists Cable - Liberty Media in Denver acquired the assets and divested everything except UA - The worse focus offenders are highly reflective silver screens. Today carbon arc have been replaced by xenon lamps- The easy to transfer Cinerama titles are on Anchor Bay DVD- a division of Liberty Media.