Remembering Cinerama (Part 39: Tampa)

Hi Michael. Am amazed that a conversion to 3 strip Cinerama was realised as late as 1962. The limited play dates indicate that this was well near the end of the “use by” date. Don’t get me wrong – I loved 3 strip Cinerama – but this truly was at the dawn of “Super Panavision” single lens, and I’m surprised that any theatre chain would have agreed to the cost of installing 3 strip so many years after the initial introduction. Cinerama Dome I can understand, as it was a new building, but the expense of converting a standard auditorium at such a late date has me bewildered.

bercy…

Actually, I see nothing unusual about Tampa not getting Cinerama until 1962. The period of 1960-63 was quite active with new Cinerama installs (in the U.S. and Canada), even more-so than the early 1952-54 period. In fact, 1961 and 1962 were the two years with the most markets initiating Cinerama presentations, and Tampa falls right into that timeframe. (If I had posted the entries in this series in the sequence of the original installations, this trend would be more apparent. Alas, I’ve been posting in a random order, primarily based on the sequence in which the research was completed.)

This early-1960s spike in Cinerama installs was largely due to (1) an increase in reserved-seat “roadshow” productions and markets showing such, (2) the introduction of “Super Cinerama” (i.e. larger, wall-to-wall screens in many of the new installs), and (3) MGM’s announcement that they would produce two narrative Cinerama features (THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM and HOW THE WEST WAS WON).

To further illustrate my point, here is a year-by-year breakdown (for the U.S. and Canada) of how many markets began showing 3-strip Cinerama.

1952: 1
1953: 8
1954: 5
1955: 1
1956: 6
1957: 2
1958: 3
1959: 1
1960: 6
1961: 16
1962: 9
1963: 5
1964: 1

In addition, during the early 1960s, numerous markets re-installed Cinerama after de-installing it in the ‘50s following a brief period of booking Cinerama product. This further enhances the figures I just provided, suggesting that Cinerama was alive and well in the early '60s.

Getting back to Tampa… You may have noticed a gap in the mid 1960s. This was due to the Palace not showing Cinerama product exclusively, and during that timeframe they booked, among other films, THE SOUND OF MUSIC (which played a whopping 77 weeks), and because the Palace was the only Cinerama venue in the “Tampa Bay” area, the mid-60s Cinerama titles had to settle for general-release bookings in other venues.

Tampa wasn’t the only market in which this occured; it also happened in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Dayton, Nashville, Syosset, and a couple other markets.

I find it interesting, and rather odd, that a 3-trip installation was completed as late as 1972!

JSA

Michael,

Your comment on “not many” or “no responses” from the locals is well taken.

When I discovered Cinema Treasures in 2006 I found there was no listing for the Palace. So I added the theatre along with a short history, and to this day there hasn’t been a single response from any of the locals…just unbelievable!

This theatre was considered a “deluxe house” and was extremely popular especially during the early 60s to early 70s time frame. On any given day you’d generally find a near-full or sold-out house for Cinerama as well as standard films. So with the number of people who frequented this theatre you’d surely expect to see comments from a few locals. But alas, not the first one…none…so sad :(

The passionate postings here-in regarding people’s apparent lack of interest in these grand road-show type theaters make me jump in here, although I’m not from Tampa. However, I do hail from Buffalo, N.Y. where we had the Teck Theater which also was a Cinerama 3-strip (yet to make the listing on ‘Remembering Cinerama’).

I think the vast majority of the patrons simply wanted to see the movie showing — a truly horrifying realization for those of us who were captivated by the theater ambiance and technical strides that came with it. Certainly, in the early days of film, leaving your home that today somewhat resembles the ‘dark’ ages of stimilus input was easily half the experience. What with grand and overly pretentious interiors, a large black & white picture with loud – if technically poor – sound was way cool compared to a wireless set with earphones or a Zenith table model radio.

Then, we all know how it changed over the years, until people were lining up outside the shopping mall to watch what frequently amounted to a road-show film projected in what looked like a rectangular shipping container – out of focus and frame – and with sound that barely rivaled the Zenith table radio.

The thing is, as generations progressed, things just kept on morphing into the home – going out to the theater was the main motivation, or the social stimulus if you will, more that the actual film viewed. Hence, we’re sorta left with the mid-generation of theatergoers who were the last to appreciate what they had with the grand old houses and formats. Notice that today, theaters are again becoming technically spiffy. Sure, they have to be to compete with home screens nearly as big as early multi-plex ones – not to mention 5.1 etc.

Now, stop to ask yourself, in about 40 years – how many of these patrons aregoing to wax nostalgic on the AMC 20 lobby and it’s 2
giant screen theaters?

I mean, I call the AMC today when they are running 5 prints – or downloads (gotta keep up here) to find out what theater has the largest screen and THEY CAN’T EVEN TELL ME!

I guess, bottom line, is you’ve either been hit by the magic or you haven’t — and if you have, you’re probably of a generation that doesn’t exactly hang around electronic web sites like this frequently. Obviously, for some strange reason, I have and I do —– for whatever consolation that may be.

So – I look foreward to the write-up on the Buffalo Cinerama one day — and just wonder if anyone reading this was ever at a showing when one of the film reels broke during projection — as I was way back when…………..not an easy fix!

Al Knobloch

Hey, it’s Al again –

Actually, when I experienced the breakdown,there was no ‘breakdown reel’ projected. It was during “How the West Was Won” and, like yours, the right projector film just ripped – screen went white. Next the house lights came up as the big red curtains closed and the remaining projectors shut down. There was no announcement, no music, nothing but the sound of fresh popcorn popping!

After about 15 minutes, the curtains opened again to nofanfare, totally exposing the huge blank screen – I guess as a cue to get you to return to your seat. Then all 3 machines started up at once. Only problem was that the right one was now out of sync and characters crossing over the overlaps would disappear and appear into thin air. Once again the house lights came up as everything – including the soundtrack – ground to an unceremonious halt.

I think it took them about 45 minutes to get it all up and running correctly again. As I mention in the comment section on this theater, it was a conversion in a large rectangular building and the left and right projection booths were added as little rooms literally outside the main building with the projection ports actually holes in the structure wall. To get to these elevated rooms, the projectionist had to walk a covered catwalk – like a fire escape – that was hung on the building’s sides (no other structure was build on either side) — no doubt a true ordeal during one of Buffalo’s famous winter storms since the only protection was that overhead covering. These daunting logistics no doubt added to the confusion and recovery time during such occurrances.

Maybe the AMC 20 isn’t so bad after all………

(just kidding – it was all worth it!)

YO N:

AS OF 2 YEARS AGO WHEN I WAS UP THERE, ONLY THE STREET FACADE WAS LEFT OF THIS THEATER. CHECK OUT IT’S WRITE-UP, IT’S LISTED IN THE BUFFALO N.Y. THEATERS AS ‘SHEA’S TECK’, AND LOST MEMORY HAS A NICE LINK TO AN INTERIOR SHOT SHOWING THE HUGE CURTAINS AND SIDE SPEAKERS.
THERE IS ALSO A PICTURE OF SOME OLD PROJECTORS, ALTHOUGH I WONDER IF THEY WERE ACTUALLY THE ONES AT THE TECK AS THEY ARE THE ARC UNITS – PROBABLY SIMPLEX E-7’S – CERTAINLY NOT THE NEW TECHNOLOGY. IN FACT, I USED TO BE A PROJECTIONIST AT MY COLLEGE (UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO) AND WE ACTUALLY CREATED OUR OWN PROFESSIONAL 35MM THEATER IN THEIR 250 SEAT STUDENT UNION AUDITORIUM BY BUYING WHAT LOOKED LIKE THESE EXACT UNITS FROM A CLOSED HOUSE IN TOWN – HENCE I’M VERY FAMILIAR WITH THEIR OPERATION.

AS FOR THE TECK, ONCE THEY FINISHED THE 70MM RUNS AND WENT TO A SECOND-RUN VENUE, THEIR FIRST ‘REGULAR’ FILM SHOWN ON THIS GIANT CURVED SCREEN WAS “VIVA LAS VEGAS” – WHICH WAS A ‘SCOPE FILM THAT LOOKED ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC UP THERE — I’M SURE 99 PERCENT OF THE AUDIENCE NEVER HAD A CLUE ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE SEEING TECHNICALLY, BUT THE MANAGEMENT STILL CARED, THE CURTAINS STILL WORKED, THE FOCUS WAS GOOD (I THINK THE UNION WAS STILL ALIVE BACK THEN) — AND IT WAS STILL A GREAT PLACE TO SEE A FILM.

THANKS FOR YOUR COME-BACKS – MAYBE WE CAN GET SOME OTHER FOLKS TO RELATE THEIR EXPERIENCES AS WELL BEFORE ALL OUR NEURONS GIVE OUT!!!

Here’s at least one site that mentions the Cinerama breakdown reel:
View link
At least one or two prints still exist of it as it has been shown at both the Cinerama Dome and at the Bradford. England Pictureville Cinerama installation.

Thanks CWalczak! Glad to hear the reel is still in existence. My guess is that during each showing of a Cinerama film it was probably threaded up on a separate projector and ready to run ASAP in the event of a breakdown. As I recall (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong) all the b&w prologues for the 3-strip films were on separate reels apart from the feature, and were run on separate projectors.

Al: thanks for the additional info…will check out the Granada.

Al: Thanks for the ‘breakdown reel’ update! Interesting why “This Is Cinerama” apparently didn’t have one. Quite possibly breakdowns weren’t taken into consideration at first, and when they began occuring a decision was made to produce one for the 2nd Cinerama travelog, “Seven Wonders”.
How I’d love to see the one made exclusively for “Cinerama Holiday” not to mention Renault!

A operator friend of mine who did some relief work at the Palace (he was called in one afternoon
to run “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 70MM ) told me that he never had a chance to run 3-projector Cinerama but said he remembers hearing that the system supposedly had a built-in mechanism which would automatically shut down all projectors if one malfunctioned. Now that would certainly explain all 3 machines going down within seconds of each other.

Al Knobloch, sorry to get off the subject folks, al knobloch of Buffalo, remember Mark Bouvier from about 25 years ago? lol if so drop me a line at

Thanks Tisloews.