CINERAMA Memories

August 20th, 2007 by Scott Marks

When I was 6-years-old, the owner of my mom’s beauty parlor rigged a raffle and my family “won” tickets to a Sunday matinée of How the West Was Won presented in the glory of Cinerama. Dressed in a suit and tie, my parents accompanied me to Chicago’s McVickers Theatre for my first foray into Cinerama.

My adolescent senses kicked into overdrive as I soaked in the enormity of the three-panel screen and the wonder of directional stereo sound. The movie didn’t do much for me, particularly the noxious Debbie Reynolds songs, but the spectacle of the event still burns bright.

It wasn’t your conventional movie screen. First off, it had a deep curve and instead of a smooth surface the screen was comprised of tautly stretched individual slats. Considering the smaller throw, instead of a booth way off in the balcony, three little soundproof huts were constructed on the main floor to house the projectors.

Several years ago Hollywood’s CineramaDome brought back the three-projector system, offering me a return visit to this childhood staple.

It was torture.

Virtually every composition in the film became slave to the rigid process. Even John Ford’s segment dragged on like little more than a That’s Entertainment compilation of the director’s pet preoccupations.The camera(s) seldom moved, and after the first 15 minutes the most interesting part of the experience was observing how the filmmakers masked the seams by composing them behind whatever vertical object (a tree, the corner of a room, the side of a house, etc.) they could find.

I came across http://cinerama.topcities.com/index.htm , an exceptional, fully illustrated history of and resource guide to Cinerama. It even goes so far as rating an individual theatre’s facilities. I wonder if you got to use three stalls at once…