Cinerama Hollywood

I finally made it back to the Dome last night after spending most movie weekends since last fall/summer at the Chinese or the Village (or the new Prime AMC Burbank). They finally were showing something I wanted to see that was not in 3D, X-Men FC. Wow, how depressing it was. The masking that they “fixed” the screen with last summer is even worse now. It is as if the screen looks like it is smiling, with the bottom right and left sides of the masking pulled up about 5 feet on either end. The screen looks small and distorted. It is as if you walked into a carved up theater from the 80’s where the screens didn’t really fit the space but they jammed them in.

It wasn’t that crowded so I walked around trying to find the sweet spot and couldn’t find it. From every part of the theater you can see how distorted the screen is. I guess they are trying to diminish the curve, but isnt that why we come to the Dome, to see a giant curved screen? It was hard to tell, but I cannot imagine it to be bigger then 70 feet now. I know it is supposed to be 86 feet wide, but that has got to be used only for 70mm showings such as when I saw IAMMMMW in fall ‘12. It is so bad (IMO) that the screen they used for Evita (when they put a flat screen in front of the curved screen) looked way better then what I saw last night.

I went out and complained and the manager told me that they had to do that since they “no longer show 3 projector movies anymore as they used to when they opened”. I sighed and walked away.

Anybody catch “JFK” in the Dome this past Tuesday night? If so, do tell.

Happy 50th anniversary to the Cinerama Dome, which opened for business fifty years ago today.

to bigjoe

It would be interesting to see an as close to possible roadshow version of Mad World. Stills in place of footage that is missing may annoy some people so I suppose both versions would be best. I assume the sound as well as the picture is missing. They did make some three projector prints of Mad World those should be close to road show length if any survived. As long the whole Ultra-Panavision frame is shown that is a given but the longest version available would be fine by me.

The 65mm negative for Cleopatra should be in pretty good shape. The Rivoli in New York paid a million dollars in advance to book Cleopatra. A large up front advance was required to play the film. The Rivoli did make its money back and the film had a long roadshow run at that theater. Many people traveled to New York City just to see Cleopatra. Theaters in smaller cities payed a smaller advance and many of those theaters did not make their advance back. The general audience did not appreciate the film. Cleopatra was a run away production there were huge cost over runs and producing a movie in Todd-AO was expensive prints were expensive; Fox was strapped for cash because of Cleopatra. It took years to get most of their money back. Of course Cleopatra was followed by Sound of Music and that was an instant hit and a cash cow in roadshow and in general release. What almost put Fox into bankruptcy was Star, Doctor Doolittle and Hello Dolly these three Todd-AO films did not do well at the box office. Easy Rider was shot in 16mm by anyone who could hold a camera and out grossed Hello Dolly. Viet Nam had made the country cynical. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was designed to roadshow but the public taste had changed it did not do well. While some theaters did well with a popular movie that movie may have been in four channel magnetic, or even mono optical others would get into financial trouble with a 70mm show like Chitty. The inflation of the 70’s and the increase in the cost of energy put many of these big roadshow theaters out of business. There was a roadshow theater in Boston called the Astor it was a Todd-AO theater and it lost money for years in the late 60’s and early 70’s. There now stands a multiplex run by AMC on the same site taking up the same area as the one theater once did.

After the initial release two scenes in A Clockwork Orange were replaced in order for the X rating to be reduced to an R rating. Kubrick would not let anyone view the original version once the change was made.

The cut footage was tossed in the trash like so many other things. Prints have faded. There is an an age old phrase and that was faded by Deluxe. The future use of the original negative and footage wasn’t envisioned in the twentieth century. I remember screenings in Hollywood where I met with people in control of this media and they questioned the reason for keeping these old films and negatives. Many a print has been run through a band-saw or used as slug in sound editing. Millions of feet went to be recycled. Some footage has survived and much has not. Cuts were made by the filmmakers and cuts were made by the studio.

Once a film was in general release there was little reason for the studio to cut it. The long films were a problem. Some theaters ran two shows a day some ran three but these long films couldn’t be run more than three times a day. An early show shortly after noon then a mid day show and an evening show. Managers anxious to cut theater payroll and reduce hours (union projectionists didn’t work cheap) may have trimmed some general release prints as much as possible by cutting the intermission (that takes fifteen minutes at least) but once a film was in general release I don’t know of any case where the film once in general release was officially cut by the filmmaker or the studio. Of course these films were butchered for television and could have been cut for re-release. Many a film was butchered for television. Yes, the powers that were in charge figured that once a film was televised that was the end of its useful life.

Star Wars ran almost twenty four hours a day in Los Angeles and other major cities when it was released and many a projectionist sent their kids to Harvard on the overtime pay. Managers were glad to pay the overtime. While Cleopatra bankrupted many a theater. It was a grand and glorious time.

Bigjoe in the days of film it took a little effort to tweak a film. Sound and picture had to be cut separately and new prints had to be made. Or sections of the print had to be replaced. If the films were shortened for neighborhood theaters it was done by the theater owners. Do you have any examples of films that were tweaked in their roadshow run? I know Mad World was and there was a longer version of 2001. The standard release print of Sound of Music was the same as the roadshow version and it was not unusual for managers to order the projectionist to skip the intermission.

to RogerA-

thanks for your reply but I am still a bit confused. I understand the studio’s mindset of tweaking a film when it finished its roadshow run and went to a 2nd run theater. then when it went to the neighborhood theaters around NYC being tweaked further. but i don’t understand tweaking a film when it was still in its roadshow run. at that stage it only had 2 shows a day anyway so what was the point? making a film 15mins. shorter say seems bizarre if they still only had 2 shows a day.

The Criterion.com pages show the release date of Mad World as January 21, 2014. The set will contain 4K transfers of both the general release version and a reconstructed 197 minute version.

to Peter A.–

thanks for the info about roadshow run of IAMMMMW. you seem quite knowledgeable so I have a question for you. in the prime roadshow period of Oct. 1955 thru Dec. 1972 it was common practice to tweak a film after it finished its initial roadshow run and opened on a popular prices continuous performance run at another theater. this was done in many cases by simply deleting the overture, intermission and exit music. then when a film went to neighborhood runs around NYC they would actually tweak the film itself to get in more performances per day. this is where my question comes in- what in God’s name was the point of tweaking a film when it was still in its quite popular roadshow run? there were only 2 shows a day anyway. this was also done to “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Cleopatra”. makes absolutely no sense to me.

also on this page a fellow poster noted that this coming January 2014 the Criterion Collection was going to release a Blu-ray of the film in the longest version available that approximates the original roadshow cut. Amazon will often list an upcoming blu-ray disc long before the release date, sometimes 3 to 4 months. but they have no listing for a Criterion Collection blu-ray disc of IAMMMMW at all let alone one with a January date.

bijoe59… the film would have been a United Artists property, if not owned by Kramer himself. MGM’s ownsership of UA (and therefore IAMMMMW) would not have occured until some 15 or 16 years after the film was edited for general release.

the 6 channel mix sounded better 5 behind the screen and one surround channel with no sub. That is how is was released

Hello-

what version of IAMMMMW is being shown? the general release print or the closest approximation to the original roadshow cut?