Los Angeles Theatres: Cinerama Dome: projection

Cinerama Dome: projection

6360 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028 | map |

"How The West Was Won" on the Dome's screen in a three-strip Cinerama presentation at the 2012 TCM Festival. The photo appeared with a post about that year's event on a now-vanished blog from Daws Brothers Studios.

Screen size: 32' x 86' was evidently the original size of the 70mm picture with the deeply-curved screen having a chord depth of about 20'. That 86' width, of course, was measured around the curve. Those dimensions were used in a 2012 L.A. Times article (reproduced lower on the page) and also appeared on the ArcLight website as late as 2020. The actual image size in recent decades was noticeably smaller, with 70mm being about 63' wide. See more discussion lower on the page.

Screen material: Originally a Cinerama-style strip screen. That was replaced with a single sheet screen in 1973 and again during the 2001-2002 renovations. It still follows the original curvature.

Formats: Originally the house ran 70mm roadshows but in 1971 started showing films in 35 as well. Three-projector Cinerama didn't get installed in the wrap-around booth until 2002. The first digital presentation was in 2005. Michael Coate assembled a format timeline for his In70mm article "Cinerama Dome - Playdates Chronology - 1963 - Present."

Film projectors: Originally three Norelco DP70, later one Century JJ2 and a platter, now a Kinoton FP75E 35/70 machine and the Christie Autowind3 platter. Plus the booth has the three Cinerama projectors installed in 2002, three platters for those machines and a 7-channel sound dubber.

Projection throw: 115' to the center of the screen.

Original equipment for 70mm "Cinerama" at the Dome:

The first film at the Dome when it opened in 1963 was also the first film branded as Cinerama but not in their original 3 projector process. "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was photographed in Ultra Panavision, a 70mm process which took the 2.21 aspect ratio of TODD-AO and added a squeeze during filming and a 1.25 expansion anamorphic lens during projection to end up with a 2.76 to 1 aspect ratio image.

See the excellent discussion of 70mm Cinerama on Martin Hart's site Widescreen Museum. He notes that the Ultra Panavision films, when shown in Cinerama houses, didn't use an anamorphic but rather lenses ground specifically for the curvature of the screen. The resultant aspect ratio was evidently less than the full 2.76 to 1. Perhaps 2.55 measured around the curve while, from the back of the house, looking more like 2 to 1. In addition to special lenses, for some films there were "rectified" prints:

A frame from a rectified print of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World," shot in Ultra Panavision. Here, for a Cinerama screen we see this print has no squeeze in the middle and more and increasingly more compression closer to the sides of the image to yield a normal looking image on the deeply curved screen. Thanks to the American Widescreen Museum for the image.

Other 70mm "Cinerama" films were shot in "Super Panavision," a non-anamorphic process like TODD-AO only with lenses by Panavision. Like TODD-AO, the aspect ratio was 2.21 to 1. Many of these films didn't get special prints, even for Cinerama Theatres.

Three Norelco 35/70mm AAII projectors and Ventarc lamps getting readied for the Cinerama's opening. Thanks to long-time L.A. projectionist Paul Rayton for locating this item that originally appeared in Boxoffice. It can also be seen on the Cinerama Dome page of Roland Lataille's website InCinerama.com.

Inspecting the theatre's original Ampex 6/4/1 sound system. The photos are from the Boxoffice issue of February 10, 1964. See the full article for more details, reproduced at the bottom of the page. It's about the role that "sound experts" should play in new theatre construction.

See the history page for a list of 70mm presentations that were advertised as being "in Cinerama."

A lens for 70mm Cinerama projection. That aluminum collar it's in is for a Norelco AAII. Thanks to Kevin Charbeneau for sharing the photo from his collection. It was included in a post of 61 Cinerama Dome items on the Facebook page Lost Angeles.

Later film equipment:

The original Norelco projectors were replaced with Century JJ 35/70 machines and a platter system around 1988. There's now a single Kinoton FP75E 35/70mm machine. For 70mm, both DTS sound timecode synched with the film and 6 channel mag are options. There's Dolby Digital and Dolby analog sound processing for 35mm. "The Master" in 2013 and "Interstellar" in 2014 got 70mm runs. "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" ran in 70mm in 2019.

See the top of Michael Coate's "Cinerama Dome - Playdates Chronology - 1963 - Present" for a fine timeline of the different presentation formats the Dome has used over the years.

Looking in along the Kinoton machine. The theatre was running at the time with a 4000 watt xenon lamp for 35mm and a 7500 watt lamp for 70mm. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

The Kinoton FP 75-E. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

Digital booth equipment:

Except for special presentations, it's been digital projection at the Dome for years. The first digital presentation was in 2005. Around 2014 it was two Christie CP 4230 4K projectors and two GDC digital cinema servers. They were using the XPAND process with active glasses for 3D films.

They got an upgrade for the December 2015 "Star Wars" release with an installation of the dual head Christie 6P laser projector and the Dolby 3D process. This both upped the light level as well as providing more comfortable 3D glasses than the heavier battery powered active glasses used earlier.

Hollywood Reporter had a story about the new equipment. They quote Joe Miraglia, the ArcLight director of design and construction, as saying the gear cost several hundred thousand dollars. He noted screen brightness was about 8 footlamberts for 3D with a 65' wide scope format picture and 14 footlamberts for 2D.

The lens in use: Konica Minolta - 116.5mm DLP 2.5/45.2 - 68.0 mm - 1.6-2.4:1(1.45-2.17:1 4K ) zoom HB.

Looking alongside the Christie laser projector. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

The screen and speakers:

The original image size was evidently 32' x 86' on a Cinerama-style strip screen. The original screen at the Dome was removed and replaced with a single sheet screen sometime around 1973. It was replaced again during the 2001-2002 renovations. The current screen is smaller but follows the curvature of the 1963 original. It's a white screen, not silver. For 3-D they now use the Dolby process. Even for 70mm, the size of the picture at the Dome in recent years doesn't use anything like the full width or height of the original presentations. For the December 2015 "Star Wars" run, their digital scope-format picture was reportedly 65' wide.

The first Cinerama screens c.1953 typically had 146 degrees of arc and (unlike the Dome's) did not have a consistent curvature -- they had a sharper radius in the center, sometimes as small as 25', and got flatter out to the sides. Different theatres got different variations. Later installations were frequently around 126 degrees and had a consistent curve. If 126 degrees was the design standard, the shape of the screens would be consistent from theatre to theatre although the radius used, and thus the size of the screen, would differ. That angle of 126 is what is seen from the nodal point, or center of the circle that is described by the arc of the screen.

Some sources assert that the Dome was a 126 degree installation. Kurt Wahlner debates this and asserts that it was more like 105 degrees. His report, based on what can be deduced from structural plans in the collection at the Getty Research Institute:

"Figuring that the Cinerama Dome is 142 feet in diameter (that measurement is irritatingly missing from the plan I'm using, but I've taken the measurements which ARE there, and scaled accordingly).

"Radius: The radius from the center of the screen curve to the screen is 44.5 feet. Distance at the Dome from left edge to right edge: At the very widest before you are projecting onto the exits would be 74 feet. Depth of chord: This one will surprise: 20 feet.

"Using this model, I can also tell you that at this widest opening, the degree of curvature is only 105 degrees. I know this is going to be disputed by lots of Dome fans, but this is what the plans reveal. The screen contour is only indicated on one of the plans in the Getty collection (Structural #3).

"Theoretical projection throws for single- or three-machine formats are not indicated, and so, all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt. The plans are dated June 12, 1963, so we are pretty close to go time. I had always thought that the edge-to-edge for 70 at the Dome was in the 68' range - essentially a dead-heat with the Chinese in the 1990s."

A source who worked at the Dome near its 2020 closing provided some measurements. Thanks to longtime L.A. projectionist Paul Rayton for sending these along:

Screen size: 40' x 73'

Cinerama image size: 29' 6" x 68' 8"   Chord: 18' 2 3/4"

70mm image size: 29' 6" x 62' 7"   Chord 13' 9 1/2"

35mm 1.85 size: 29' 6" x 53'   Chord 9' 3 1/2"

35mm 2.39 size: ? x 66'    Chord 16' 3 3/4"

Now that 40' screen height may look like a typo but here's Paul's investigation:

"I spoke with my source again, and he said that, yes, the screen is 40' high -- BUT the additional screen is at the bottom, not the top. As you'll recall, the bottom area is sloped up to about 5' or 6' above the floor. Behind all that is, actually, actual screen. Apparently, the original idea was for a 'floor-to-ceiling' screen image. Of course, doing that would take (for one thing) a heck of a lot more light, and I guess it was just overall ungainly to have it so big.

"He said you can see it when one is back of the screen (as he has been), adjusting the bottom masking. The current set level is up quite high. He said the screen has about 8½' at the bottom, and around 1' at the top of unused screen area (approximate measurements). Who'd a thunk it? Makes ordering a new screen a bit more expensive! So the 40' measurement is not an error, but it's an 'underutilized' aspect of the place!"

The L.A. Times ran a February 2002 article "Big Screen Furor-Rama..." when the screen was scheduled to be replaced (again) after the remodel that also added the ArcLight multiplex. The Times also has a few comments about the article. Purists wanted a louvered screen again. Pacific wanted (and ended up putting in) a big screen but as a single sheet -- claiming their massive new sound system would cause the strips to vibrate excessively.

A view of an original style louvered Cinerama screen -- designed to prevent light on the sides of the screen from washing out the picture on the other side. It's from Greg Kimble's great article "This is Cinerama" on the widescreen site In70mm.com.

One of the 1" wide strips that made up a Cinerama screen. Thanks to John Schmuhl for sharing his photo in a post on the Friends of 70mm private Facebook group.

A typical early Cinerama sound installation using 5 Altec A-2 Voice of the Theatre speaker systems with double 90 degree HF horns for the stage channels. The photo is in Lee Sound Design's Altec photo gallery. It also appears in a 1953 SMPTE paper on speakers and amps for stereo theatre sound that can be viewed on the American Widescreen Museum site.

The Cinerama Dome originally had Voice of the Theatre speakers. That's all been replaced with newer JBL equipment with the screen speakers mounted in a THX-style infinite baffle. There are 44 surround speakers, also by JBL. Sound absorbent material was added in each of the ceiling's hexagons during renovations.

The screen removed for the upgrade to a JBL 4675 speaker system. The photo from John Sittig's collection appears in the Cinerama Photo Gallery on the site in 70mm. Also see John's fine 2018 article "Pacific's Cinerama Dome...Where Movie-going is an Event," also on In70mm.com.

A flat screen going in in 1996 for "Evita." The photo from John Sittig's collection appears in the Cinerama Photo Gallery on the site in 70mm, where there are also several additional photos of the installation.

3-Strip at the Dome:

In addition to the conventional 35/70 equipment, there's the gear for 3-strip Cinerama presentations using 3 Century/Cinerama projectors fed by platters and the separate full coat 35mm mag dubber for the 7 channel stereophonic sound.

Originally Selsyn motors were used keep the 4 units in synch. And when they drifted out, there were knobs to turn by the tech sitting at the control panel in the auditorium to retard or advance the machine in trouble. For the Dome's installation a more modern servo system was designed by Paul D. Smith.

The 3-strip installation only dates from 2002. The original wide, wraparound booth layout was designed for that equipment but by the time of the theatre's opening Cinerama had gone to a 70mm format. The Dome has hosted revival screenings of "How The West Was Won," "This is Cinerama" and other titles. On In70mm.com see the article about the initial three strip presentations at the Dome: "Cinerama Dome 2002."

A left frame (projected from the "Able" booth) from a "This Is Cinerama" scene shot in Venice. It's from Greg Kimble's "This is Cinerama" article on the site In70mm. Note the 6 perforations per frame pull-down. You can click on these for enlarged views.

The center frame from the shot, projected from the "Baker" booth.

The right frame from the "This Is Cinerama" shot, projected from the "Charlie" booth.

The "Charlie" Cinerama projector at the house left end of the Dome's large curved booth booth threaded up for a December 2002 screening of "How The West Was Won." The photo comes from an In70mm article about the event by Rick Mitchell.

Another look at the house left end of the booth. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

A closer look at one of the Century projectors used for three-strip Cinerama presentations.The photo is from an article on the December 2002 screening of "How the West Was Won" on the site In70mm.com.

A 2002 view of the center of the booth with a Kinoton 35/70mm projector beyond the platter and the center Cinerama projector behind that. The photo is on the Film-Tech.com page on the theatre which you can find by going to pictures and scrolling down to the Cinerama Dome listing under "singles, twins, trios, quads."

The center Cinerama projector. It's a photo from Film-Tech.

A closer look at the Century head. Straight gate, water cooled. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

The 35mm full coat mag sound reproducer for three strip Cinerama presentations. It's a 7500' reel. For this installation platters are used for the 3 projectors. Originally the 3 film sections were on huge reels as well -- about 34" in diameter and holding almost 12,000 ft. of film. The picture is 6 perforations per frame, running at 135 feet per minute. The sound runs at the same speed.

The "Able" projector at the house right end of the booth. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

Visit the Film-Tech site for many more booth photos by Mark Ogden and John Sittig. Head to pictures and scroll down to the Cinerama Dome listing. There are also photos of many other theatres to browse as well as equipment manuals and more.

On the site Ominous-Valve.com pay a visit to Hugh's article "Cinerama II: The Revival" for his informative review of a 2012 three-strip screening of "How the West Was Won" at the Dome as well as a discussion of the technical aspects of the Cinerama process itself. Bonus feature: aspect ratio chart. Also see the site's Altec page for a discussion of the original sound system at the Dome.

An article that appeared in the L.A. Times on April 12, 2012:

Note that they used the 32' x 86' original image dimensions instead of the smaller picture size actually in use. And, of course, that representation of the booth leaves a lot to be desired. Thanks to Roland Lataille for including this article on the Cinerama Dome page of his extensive site InCinerama.com.

The Cinerama Process at 60:

The Dome had a a 3 strip festival in September 2012 to celebrate Cinerama's 60th Anniversary. It featured both new and vintage three strip Cinerama footage as well as 70mm presentations. See the In70mm.com article for many photos. Also see the photos of the event on the same site from Anders Olsson.

A three-strip Cinerama camera back in action in 2012 -- for the first time in over 50 years. On YouTube there are several shorts by Michael Cahill about film historian Dave Strohmaier shooting new 3 strip Cinerama footage in Los Angeles for his film "In The Picture." | "Cinerama 2012" Part 1 | Part 2

A three strip Cinerama camera displayed at the Dome during the September 2012 "Cinerama at 60" festival. The photo on Photos of Los Angeles is by Mark Tipton.

The lens end of the Cinerama camera. It's a 2012 photo by Mark Tipton.

A closeup view by Mark Tipton of the three very tiny Cinerama lenses. Thanks, Mark! See the trailer on YouTube for "The Last Days of Cinerama," a documentary about the 2012 shooting of three-strip Cinerama footage in Los Angeles. And from What Happens Next Productions, the full 24 minute short: "The Last Days of Cinerama."

The crew of the Cinerama short "In The Picture" gathered in front on April 23, 2012 following the 3-strip showing of "How the West Was Won" for the TCM Festival. Thanks to theatre historian Kurt Wahlner for providing the photo.

Standing, left to right: Cinerama Camera Restoration/Technician Ken Stone; Co-Director of Photography John Hora, A.S.C.; Camera Operator Lance Fisher, S.O.C.; Co-Director of Photography Douglas H. Knapp; Cinerama Camera Number 3; Camera Film Loader David Tondeur; Gaffer Joe di Gennaro; Sound Recordist Lincoln Morrison; Co-Producer Tom H. March. Kneeling front left to right: Production Assistant Mike Cahill; Producer/Director/Writer/Editor David Strohmaier; Camera Assistant Kurt Wahlner; Producer Anthony Saenz.

Additional information:

More 70mm Information: See the Egyptian Theatre page here on the Los Angeles Theatres site for lots of data about TODD-AO, the 70mm process that kicked off the big screen roadshow era in 1955. The Egyptian was the first theatre in the area equipped for the process. For a rundown on 70mm engagements at Los Angeles theatres, go to Michael Coate's terrific site FromScriptToDVD.com. Head for the main 70mm page.

More Cinerama Process Information: For more information on the history of the Cinerama projection process see the Cinerama section on the film and theatre technology resources page. Check out the main Warner Hollywood page where there's lots of Cinerama information. Prior to the opening of the Dome, the Warner was the Cinerama theatre for southern California.

Michael Coate's From Script To DVD site has a great This Is Cinerama in L.A. page with a history of three-strip and 70mm Cinerama engagements in Los Angeles. See Roland Lataille's InCinerama.com web site for lots more data and Cinerama memorabilia. And for lots of fun check out the site about the documentary "Cinerama Adventure" -- the site also has information about the 2012 Cinerama production "In The Picture."

The site In70mm.com has lots of Cinerama information. See their Cinerama index page and the article on Cinerama pictures on digital. For the latest Cinerama filming in Los Angeles there's the article "Cinerama 2012." Also on the In70mm site is Michael Coate's "Cinerama Dome - Playdates Chronology - 1963 - Present." Michael's 2024 article "The 70mm-equipped cinemas in North America (2023-present)" lists the houses currently equipped for either 5 perf or Imax 15 per 70mm.

And don't miss the six page Cinerama section on Martin Hart's amazing site Widescreen Museum. The name "Cinerama" and the distinctive zig-zag logo are trademarks of Cinerama Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific Theatres.

From the February 10, 1964 issue of Boxoffice --

The February 19, 2002 L.A. Times article by Robert W. Welkos:

"Big Screen Furor-Rama in Hollywood -- To a generation of moviegoers, the Cinerama Dome at Sunset Boulevard and Ivar Avenue in Hollywood was a Los Angeles cultural landmark, its quirky, geodesic-shaped theater a place where one could see wide-screen movies as they were meant to be seen, and a place that helped inspire filmmakers entranced by movies like Steven Spielberg’s 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.' But now, just as Cinerama’s unique method of movie projection is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, a debate is raging in Hollywood over plans by the dome’s owners to install a new giant curved screen that critics guarantee will make Cinerama movies, as well as many conventional ones, appear out of focus.

"Only in Hollywood, with its heavy concentration of film industry professionals and serious movie buffs, could the design of a movie screen provoke such concern, and even outrage. In March, Pacific Theatres Corp. plans to reopen a refurbished Cinerama Dome after a multimillion-dollar face lift that began after the theater was closed in the summer of 2000. The project is not far from Hollywood’s other major redevelopment projects of recent years--the El Capitan Theater and the new Hollywood and Highland mall, where the Kodak Theater will play host March 24 to the Academy Awards. With its New York World’s Fair-style design, the 250,000-square-foot Cinerama Dome site will include retail shops, a 24-hour health club and a seven-level, 1,750-space parking structure that cost $32 million.

"An additional 14 theaters will be built at the site. Although Hollywood is home to a handful of historic theaters--Grauman’s Chinese and the El Capitan--the area is considered 'underscreened' compared to other neighborhoods. It was the public’s long-standing affection for Cinerama that persuaded Pacific Theatres and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency to restore 'three-projector' or 'three-strip' Cinerama movies at the Dome as part of a $100-million-plus renovation now underway. Joined by local preservationists in their crusade, industry observers and film buffs complain that despite the expenditure of millions of dollars on the project, movies at the new Cinerama Dome will have the same visual distortions that plagued the old dome for many years.

"They are frustrated that Pacific Theatres, which has roots in Southern California dating to 1946 and has owned the rights to Cinerama since the early 1960s, has decided to install a solid-sheet screen in the refurbished theater rather than a louvered screen like the one that graced the dome when it opened in 1963 and remained there for a decade. They fear that if Pacific Theatres uses a solid-sheet screen, it will create the same focus problems that caused movies in the old dome to appear washed out as a result of light bouncing from one side of the deeply curved screen to the other.

"Conflict of Image vs. Sound System -- 'It’s sad,' said Robert W. Nudelman, director of preservation issues for Hollywood Heritage, a group dedicated to preserving Hollywood’s past. 'They spent a bundle putting that all together. Then they get to the 5-yard line and fumble the ball.' But the conflict appears to pit a vintage film technology against today’s state-of-the-art sound systems. Pacific Theatres says its massive new sound system would cause movement in the screen’s louvers, which also could distort the projected image. Although the Cinerama Dome has been a mecca for fans wanting to see wide-screen movies, there was a certain irony to the fact that it never actually screened any of the classic three-projector Cinerama movies. The 1962 epic 'How the West Was Won,' for example, was shown at the old Warner Cinerama Hollywood.

"By the early 1960s, Hollywood came to favor one-projector, wide-screen formats like CinemaScope, Todd-AO and VistaVision. The first movie to premiere at the dome was the 1963 madcap ensemble comedy 'It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,' which was hyped as Cinerama but was actually filmed in single-camera Ultra Panavision 70. Only a few classic, three-projector Cinerama films were ever made. They include 'How the West Was Won,' the 1962 fairy tale adaptation 'The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm' and a handful of travelogues. There aren’t any new Cinerama features in the works.

"Still, there was something about seeing movies at the Cinerama Dome that could draw large crowds. When the theater closed for repairs two summers ago, throngs of fans turned out for a special final weekend of screenings of 'Ben-Hur,' 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day.' 'There were people out in the street smacking each other around trying to get tickets,' said film editor Jack Tucker. 'This is an example of how much people care about this theater. Pacific seems to think this is just another theater. To me, it’s almost a holy place.'

"Pacific executives say they are passionate about Cinerama and remain fully committed to building the finest theater venue possible to showcase it, one that will not only screen original three-projector Cinerama movies, but also offer today’s wide-screen films while restoring the tattered theater complex to the glamour of its heyday. 'We’ve really gone to all efforts to make sure we can bring back the majesty of the original building,' said Nora Dashwood, chief of theater operations at Pacific Theatres, which operates about 450 screens in California and Hawaii. When asked whether she could guarantee that the films shown in the renovated dome will be crystal clear, Dashwood replied: 'I guarantee we will have a clear presentation, which has to be in order for it to be a top-grossing and favorite place to go see a movie.'

"Taking Pains to Restore Projection Booth -- To that end, the owners are dusting off the projectors and restoring the projection booth just so it can have three projectors for Cinerama. Warner Bros. is also restoring MGM’s 'How the West Was Won' while Pacific is restoring the original Cinerama feature, the 1952 'This Is Cinerama.' In conventional filmmaking, movies are shot with a single camera equipped with a single lens, then projected onto a screen with one projector. Three-strip Cinerama required the use of a single camera outfitted with three lenses and three separate negative elements, and it was shown in theaters by using three projectors.

"One of the key features of the new Cinerama Dome will be the use, at long last, of all three projection booths, which were originally designed to show Cinerama movies in all their breathtaking sweep. Under a 1998 agreement reached between Pacific Theatres and the Community Redevelopment Agency, which are partners in redeveloping the site, Pacific agreed to retain the curved screen. However, the agreement makes no mention of what type of screen Pacific would install. To get around the visual distortions inherent in a curved screen, early Cinerama movies were projected onto louvered screens, which consisted of a series of perforated vertical strips. Until last fall, Pacific Theatres had indicated it would install the signature louvered screen. But the controversy places today’s film exhibition technology at odds with the process invented back when Harry Truman occupied the White House.

"Bunch of Little Black Scratches -- A key reason Pacific executives have decided against installing a louvered screen is the state-of-the-art sound system envisioned for the dome. If the sound causes too much vibration, Dashwood said, the vertical lines between the strips of a louvered screen can appear like a 'bunch of little black scratches' to the audience because the strips are moving.'Our experts came back and said: You cannot put this stripped screen in front of the sound systems of today and not expect movement to go along with it,' Dashwood said. 'They’ve tried different things. They tried to see if they could put fish line through them to kind of hold them in place. Velcro them. To date, there just hasn’t been a solution that we feel confident in.'

"Enthusiasts Seek to Pressure Owners -- But that argument doesn’t wash with critics, who say louvered screens work well if the vertical strips are properly braced. Pacific’s decision to use a solid screen, critics say, won’t solve anything because stretching a solid white sheet across a curved surface creates 'belly sag' in the center of the screen, making it difficult for a projectionist to achieve proper focus. 'We know it didn’t work before, so why would it work now?' film editor Doug Haines said of the solid-sheet screen. 'We are not telling them to make some sort of huge investment to make some perfect theater so that, in our fantasies, it would be the greatest theater in the world. Just make it acceptable so it doesn’t look horrible.'

"Film buffs are so concerned about getting Cinerama right at the dome that they are marshaling their forces, hoping to pressure Pacific Theatres into changing its stance. To that end, organizations representing Hollywood editors and cinematographers, as well as individuals such as Sam Raimi, director of this summer’s comic book action film 'Spider-Man,' and Allen Daviau, the cinematographer on Spielberg’s 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,; have written letters of concern to Pacific Theatres. Former studio executive Laura Ziskin, who is producing this year’s Academy Awards show and Raimi’s 'Spider-Man,' urged the theater chain in a letter dated Jan. 18 to 'finally resolve the image problems that have long plagued the historic venue.'

"But Dashwood said she is confident that when the theater reopens, audiences will sit down and their 'jaws will drop and they'll say: Oh, my gosh, this is just terrific!' She also dismisses criticism that Pacific might be going with the solid screen simply to cut costs. A solid screen, she said, costs $25,000--a drop in the bucket compared with the overall renovation costs at the theater--and a louvered screen would add only $20,000 more.

"But even if new audiences thrill to Cinerama, there is no way today’s audiences can ever relive what it was like when their parents and grandparents first experienced the wonder of seeing a Cinerama movie in its infancy. Narrated by broadcaster and adventurer Lowell Thomas, 'This Is Cinerama' made its debut Sept. 30, 1952, at the Broadway Theater in New York and went on to become the highest-grossing film of the year. There was never a need to rush out and see a Cinerama movie for fear that it would quickly be pulled by the exhibitor as so many movies are today. 'This Is Cinerama' played for three years without a break, and 'How the West Was Won' played for about two years."

The 2002 article can also be seen on the Times website. Also see a few comments about the article.

Los Angeles Theatres

Cinerama Dome: projection

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