This is Cinerama (1952)

My first introduction to Cinerama was in NYC in 1955, I was 11 years old. A family trip to the Big Apple. Sitting in the 3rd row from the screen, surrounded by wine colored curtains, waiting for the show to start. I noticed 3 projection booths on the orchestra floor. Not knowing what Cinerama was, I thought it might be a new type of three dimension process. The lights went down, a b&w mono sound prologue starts. After about 10 minutes into the prologue, I started to get bored. Nothing different about this movie. Then the narrator said "Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy your Cinerama Holiday". The horizontal masking started to rise, the wine colored curtains started to open wider and kept going and going. We were flying through the sky, surrounded in picture and sound. WOW, WE DON'T HAVE THIS BACK HOME"

Since that Saturday night at the Stanley Warner Times Square theater, I have been a big time fan of Cinerama. Making sure I saw everything and any thing that was released in Cinerama. In 1996, my wife and I drove for 24 hours (1400 miles) to see a come back of Cinerama in Dayton, Ohio. I flew to Seattle for the "Reel Cinerama Festival". I have been to Pacific's Cinerama Theater (fondly refered to as the Cinerama Dome)to see Cinerama productions.

When "How The West Was Won" was released in "SmileBox" on Blu-Ray, I was over joyed. Now "This Is Cinerama", the first Cinerama production which changed forever the way we look at movies will be in my Cinerama Collection. I am a big Cinerama memorabella collector. I have one entire wall in my home theater dedicated to Cinerama. I can hardly wait to see it on my 92" diaganal screen. The Blu-Ray 1080p picture will show the great depth of field high quality photography Cinerama was famous for.

"This Is Cinerama" has no stars, no plot, but was the highest grossing box office hit of 1952, and it was playing in only one theater. "This Is Cinerama" gives you a breif history of motion pictures, takes you across our beautiful country and around the world. All in the "you are there" magic of the Cinerama Process. Cinerama definately "Puts You In The Picture" Thanks to the "Smile Box" process, it will look like you are watching on a curved screen, which adds to the enjoyment of the film so much.

I recommend "This Is Cinerama" to anyone who is a Cinerama fan, movie buff or just wants to own a piece of American Cinema history.

Yes it is not the same as seeing Cinerama in a Cinerama movie theater, but it is a great experience for any Cinerama fan, and there are thousands of us. No, tens of thousands of Cinerama fans around the world today.

You can have the full Cinerama experience this coming month, Sept 28 Oct 04, 2012. The Pacific Cinerama Theater in Hollywood, Ca will be having a week long festival in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the first public showing of Cinerama on Sept. 30, 1952. Twelve Cinerama Productions will be shown. Plus a new Cinerama film just completed called "In The Picture" This marks the first time that actual Cinerama cameras have been used in over 50 years. Five productions will be shown in the original 3 strip film process, Three digital presentations from the original 3 strip films, two digital productions from the 65mm prints and one presented in 70mm Ultra Panavision. All presented on the full 129 degree curved Cinerama screen. I beleive the screen dimensions are 89' wide and 32' high. I might be a little off on the screen size.

The BluRay release of "This Is Cinerama" is presented in the amazing SmileBox format, just like "How The West Was Won." The legions of Cinerama fans have been waiting for this release for what seems like a lifetime, so I rejoice that that time is near. When I was in high school, I had the privilege of working in a Cinerama theatre in Wichita, Kansas and I remember all of these wonderful films. The Cinerama process wasn't perfect visually, since one could see the lines where the three pictures joined on that huge curved screen, but once you became involved in what was going on, the lines seemed to disappear. And what spectacular sound! A full seven channels of directional stereophonic sound, coming at you from every direction and being reproduced on a separate audio magnetic playback machine. This was indeed thrilling cinema and was many years ahead of it time both artistically and technically.

There is a You-Tube preview of this release which was put together by David Strohmier and a host of other Cinerama "geeks" so if you haven't seen this yet, check it out. You will be amazed!

Buy This is Cinerama (1952) Now

I was one of the last projectionest to run this monster called Cinerama. It was a thrill. Of course this also shows my age. You will not be disappointed by this film and the vast places that this film will take you on your two hour travel log. The smile box format will give you the impression of what a curved screen feels like. If you would like to see a preview of the film go to You Tube This is Cinerama. Enjoy

Read Best Reviews of This is Cinerama (1952) Here

Wow, this Blu-ray was a gift from my son. The SMILEBOX sure works great for me. 5 stars for that

I remember back around 1955 seeing this film at the Tennessee Theater in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

It was just amazing. The minor joint lines and optical distortion on some of the A and C frames are normal to me as they were on the original showing at the theater. I actually expected them. However, it was no big deal. In most of the shots the joint lines did not even show up.

Excellent editing and restoration. 5 stars for that too. I think it is great that Amazon has sold out of the first offering of this disc.

I believe that if you actually saw the film in a theater, you can understand and appreciate the Smilebox presentation. As with the Blu-ray, I could see the stage and above the top of the screen. Smilebox is so realistic to represent the actual theater event.

I would always try to sit in row 5 or 6 and as close to the center as possible. It was overwhelming. HOW THE WEST WAS WON was great in the

theater. I would love to see THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIM in the SMILEBOX format too. I have it on laserdisc, but it is rather poor picture quality when projected on my 92" screen.

The 19 minute restoration part of this Blu-ray disc is so interesting to me. I was amazed at the challenges in restoring the film on a limited budget. Makes me feel a bit better about the $39.95 price tag. I hope all involved were paid fairly for their excellent efforts. Again, 5 stars for the restoration.

Now then, I would appreciate some comments on my next observation. This is the reason I gave it a 3 star rating. If that caught your attention, maybe you can help me. I had just finished watching the new release(UK) of Lawrence of Arabia, 50th anniversary Edition on Blu-ray and and then I watched THIS IS CINERAMA. Must have been a mistake on my part. I normally sit 10 feet from my 92" screen, then, as suggested by an earlier reviewer, I put a chair about 6 feet from the screen to get the full CINERAMA impact as I remembered it back in the 1950s. Was I ever dissappointed. The picture was soft and almost looked a bit out of focus. Some of the scenes were better, but overall, the picture resolution was at best like some older DVD releases. The color was always great. I am sorry to be critical on this , but maybe I AM expecting too much. Perhaps I am doing something wrong. Positive suggestions are welcome.

EDIT-EDIT-EDIT. One month later I have discovered an excellent solution. I just happened to take the disc downstairs and watch it on our 37" LCD TV. Made all the difference in the world. Much sharper picture. Much better. Problem solved!!!

Thanks

Want This is Cinerama (1952) Discount?

The package includes two discs. First is the Blu-ray of the movie and all the extras. The second disc is a two-sided DVD. One side is the movie (also in Smilebox format) and the other side contains all the extras. Also included is a booklet copy of the opening night program with a lot of information about the Cinerama process, Lowell Thomas and several of the men involved in creating the film, production photos of the filming, and more.

The color and sharpness quality of the film is much higher than I ever expected. In the "making of" extra David Strohmaier and Greg Kimble explain in pretty good detail how they were able to pull natural color out of extremely faded scenes, remove the scratches, and reassemble the multitude of scenes into a presentation as close to the original presentation as possible.

"Smilebox" love it or hate it. Frankly, I cannot think of any other way to present Cinerama films and remove some of the tremendous distortion inherent in showing the 3-panel film on a flat screen. I had seen the Blu-Ray "How the West Was Won" and was used to the Smilebox format, but newcomers might not like it at first and see it as a gimmick of some sort.

The stereo and fidelity of the sound is also startling. The guys at Chace Audio handled that part of the restoration and the result is worthy of a new soundtrack CD album.

This is a film you should watch on as large a screen as possible, and do sit closer to the screen than usual. The Smilebox seems to work best when you do. After you watch it all the way through, watch it again later with the audio commentary turned on. Strohmaier and others provide 2 hours of very informative facts and even trivia of behind the scenes stories on each scene.

The only reason I don't give it a full five stars is the entertainment value of the content. It's simply a man presenting an illustrated lecture on the wonders of a new film process (as truly amazing a process as it is, especially at the time). Today's young audience may find it incredibly boring with no plot or message and be puzzled by its fame.

But as someone who saw several Cinerama films in theaters back in the day, I think this is as close to the experience as possible. I say give us more!

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