This is Cinerama (1952)

Cinerama Productions
Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Gunther von Fritsch
Starring: Lowell Thomas

Honors:
National Film Registry

It was a showcase of two “new” innovations that helped push major motion pictures to its next evolutionary phase. It was not just another movie, it was Cinerama, a special widescreen experience that expanded the view of audiences punctuated the yet to be embraced stereophonic sound. Neither a narrative, nor a true documentary, this feature spectacle was a pageant for this new company and motion picture medium looking to change movies as they were seen by transporting audiences to places most had never seen with stunning audio and visuals. The “groundbreaking” process featured would ultimately give way to the future of widescreen picture and stereo sound, but this picture lives on a testament of how medium would push itself technically in the mid-20^th century.

 

This is Cinerama is documentary feature showcasing a brand-new form of wide screen filmmaking, taking audiences to various locations and scenes all over the world. Unlike other features this film was presented as an experience where viewers could only visit specially constructed or fitted theaters to view it. Audiences were seated in theaters with a specifically curved screen where upon three projectors were used to present a fused extra wide image. The film opens with a standard sized black and white prologue by our host, the popular newsman Lowell Thomas, where he delivers a brief history of motion pictures before introducing the new medium to unfold before their eyes, exclaiming “This is Cinerama!”

 

The black and white image gives way to ultra-widescreen, color splendor and surround sound as the audiences are taken for a ride, in this case literally, with a point of view upon a rollercoaster, giving audiences the first of many immersive experiences. Thomas continues to narrate viewers through places and events as Cinerama transports audiences all around the world. Included are scenes from then famous international operas, visits to Venice, Edinburgh, and Spain where we visit an authentic bullfight before a traditional theatrical intermission. The second half showcases the sights and experiences of America, first of the Florida tourist destination Cypress Gardens, featuring its beautiful grounds and water ski show, before giving way to breathtaking visuals of many American landscapes shot from the nose of a plane, grazing over and under impressive sights to a stirring score as the picture swells to it close.

 

Lacking any true narrative elements, this feature is not a typical motion picture experience. It also genuine message, making it difficult to truly name it a “documentary.” At its core the film is a showcase of Cinerama as a new medium. With its large scope, visuals, and sound it was sure to take the breath away from those that saw in the early to mid-1950s. An event one would have to seek out, plan their day around, and experience in a theatrical setting. With visuals were vast with crystal clear stereo sound to match, Cinerama was something new and exciting, a bit rough around the edges, but innovative, ushering in a new age in filmmaking.

 

Inventor Fred Waller helped innovated the use of multi-camera recording first in the form of a domed show at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and refining his idea with use in constructing American World War II bomber simulators for the armed forces. Taking what he learned from these motion picture ventures Waller fine-tuned a three camera synchronous system which filmed across each other that when played back on curved screen with synchronized projectors would to mimic an average person’s field of vision of 146 degrees. The idea of widescreen processes for movie companies was nothing new, but with the rising interest in television to rival for audience attention  it appeared time for a widescreen idea such as Waller’s to become a viable idea to attract people to the theater.

 

Cinerama was not cheap, as it needed a specially constructed rig of Waller’s own design, and theaters to build or retrofitted with specifications to showcase this new synchronized projection system. Everything was over three times the cost in making a single film with three cameras, three reels to edit, and three projectors to play back on. It was clearly a costly investment that no Hollywood studio would undertake. It was film entrepreneur Michael Todd and popular news figure Lowell Thomas who came aboard to invest and make the dream a reality and together delivered to the world Cinerama.

 

The hefty investment was a gamble, and This is Cinerama was the trail to prove this new process could work. On the filmmaking side ideas started of simple, first test the camera and stereo equipment with simple setting of a church choir assembling around a large organ, which one finds in the picture as the only black and white segment. With proof of concept working the influence of Lowell Thomas’ world traveler image inspires what the rest of the picture is. The Cinerama camera and crew is taken all around the world capturing the sights and sounds most average viewer could only dream of seeing in real life. Recorded are scenes from famous European performances of Aida and the Vienna Boys’ Choir while elsewhere the camera is used to capture the sights and sounds from Italy, Spain, and Scotland to name a few, allowing audiences as close as they can to experiencing the authenticity of being in these historic places.

 

Finally, and perhaps most famously, Cinerama’s cameras were installed on the nose of an American bomber to capture a wonderous bird’s eye views of many American landmarks that with the arial maneuvers of an adventurous pilot to help create some of the most stirring visuals of the picture.

 

This is Cinerama’s directorial credit was attributed to fellow producer Merian C. Cooper, the filmmaker best known for directing King Kong, who too was excited about the new widescreen process. Cooper would not be hands on with the actual filming, but did deliver the visual idea for the various segments, leaving the camera technicians with the task of carrying out the true performance works, as well as Gunther von Fritsch who directed the Venice scenes.

 

A costly and troublesome endeavor Cinerama called for special theaters to be viewed in, meaning hefty upfront investments and troublesome mechanics to even watch the picture. This meant This is Cinerama was going to play to very limited audiences, primarily larger metropolitan cities. Despite the limitations This is Cinerama was presented in a roadshow format which proved to be highly successful, attracting multitudes with runs that extended for weeks, month, and in some cases years. The impressive box office numbers lead to more theaters being retrofitted with projection and sound needs as the feature practically ran until Cinerama would develop a follow up production.

 

The biggest detractor of Cinerama was the cost of the production and the limitation of the theaters since a dramatic amount of theaters would never entertain retrofitting their single projector and flat screen with a Cinerama specification. Studios would not want to over triple the cost of production with the three cameras and reels over the traditional motion picture means that had led to this point.

 

Michael Todd, one of the original champions of this widescreen process would leave Cinerama before release, attempting to find a more cost effective way of producing similar effects, developing the large format known as Todd AO. Widescreen would become a popular means to make movies appear bigger with the eventual development of CinemaScope at Fox and VistaVision at Paramount as examples of how studios adapted, utilizing anamorphic lenses to expand the frame while still using the common 35mm film reels. Cinerama’s three film strip process would allow for more clarity from using more celluloid space, but the blending of the three images would be a great hinderance as the melding of the images would never be perfect, always leaving two blurry lines on the screen.

 

It may have been expensive and cumbersome, but This is Cinerama was a resounding success. Cinerama would begin to work on follow-ups instantly leading to 1955’s Cinerama Holiday, a sequel that follows a similar structure style. Despite the grandeur and success of the format, it would soon become clear Cinerama had limitations with the bulky camera housing, theater limitations, and visual imperfections making it difficult to conceive of a use for a narrative feature. Cinerama would eventually produce a couple of narrative features, most famously 1962’s star studded western How the West Was Won, but the process would eventually be abandoned for a single film strip format of Cinerama.

 

Cinerama in a way would be the predecessor to large format films that rose in use and popularity decades later, leading to 65mm, 70mm, 85mm, and IMAX formats. On a contemporary level it was moving from standard definition to high definition, but with more flaws. Cinerama was but a step in very important growth period for movies when they were experience identity issues while dabbling in other theatrical promotion s use as 3D or smells being pumped into audiences, with widescreen and stereo manifesting how movies were still larger and worth going other to the theater instead of staying home to watch television.

 

The Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

Cinerama may be mostly forgotten now, but it was an event of its age. Being in the audiences when the curtains opened up on the rollercoaster scene must have been the closest thing one could experience that was similar to people watching images of  a train coming rolling by in a storefront nickelodeon in the late 19^th century, when Al Jolson first spoke in 1927, or when Dorothy walked from sepia tones into Technicolor Oz. Cinerama was, but only a step in movies, but an exciting one for those lucky to have experienced it in 1952 when the theater opened up a world to them.