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Cinerama Test Shots
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in70mm.com
The 70mm Newsletter
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Written
by: Lowell Thomas |
Date:
20.06.2010 |
Mr.
Lowell Thomas - in pink.
To Accompany Cinerama Test Shots
L.T. This picture is thrown on the screen merely to remind you of
something with which you have so long been familiar. Not my face. I
refer to the conventional 35mm motion picture. For forty odd years 35mm
films have played a vast role in entertainment and education almost
everywhere on this planet. But after two score years, perhaps it's time
for something new to appear on the horizon. We are starting off with
this 35mm picture so you may the better judge of what you are now to see
and her. We call it --
C I N E R A M A
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More
in 70mm reading:
in70mm.com's Cinerama page
This is Oyster
Bay
Internet link:
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Cinerama
frame blow-up
(After a brief pause L T to continue with something like the following)
L.T. The MacArthur welcome in New York caught us napping. That night we
all remarked that it would have been a natural for CINERAMA, for a few
test shots. So, out to the middle West went our camera for a few feet of
the Far Eastern Commander's welcome by the people of Chicago. We decided
to do this no matter what the weather -- favorable or unfavorable. It
was unfavorable -- murky, dull, not a day for color.
Note: Natural sound or no sound at all on to the end of MacArthur
sequence.
L.T.'s voice over the Cinerama sound but with no picture
--)
L.T. The next voice you will hear - and you have noticed of course that
our sound system is coming to you from all parts of this room - the next
voice will be that of the inventor -- Fred Waller. Fred and I worked
together at Paramount twenty years ago.
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Cinerama
frame blow-up. Lowell Thomas is seen in black suit.
Since then he has been busy on
the engineering side both the motion picture, and radio. During the war
his talents were used by Uncle Sam, working, with timing devices, bomb
sights and so on. It was during the war that he first made wide use of
his invention, CINERAMA, which played a large part in the
training of
our airmen - enabling them to practice gunnery just as though they were
in combat. For a few minutes now we are going to run some of Mr.
Waller's earlier test shots, both in black and white and in color. Okay
Fred --
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Cinerama
black and white frame blow-up. Filmed inside Fred Waller's Huntington home.
Note the head in lower right corner of frame.
(Waller's voice is to cover aircraft carrier, winter scene, autumn shot
of car entering estate, water skiing in Hudson, and the roller coaster)
L.T. In imagination many of you no doubt are several jumps ahead of these
pictures by now. I suspect you are thinking of spectacles you would like to
see, spectacles that would be well nigh overwhelming on a Cinerama screen
and with this new sound system. For instance, a great Shakespearean drama, a
spectacle of Quo Vadis type with its Mt. Vesuvius finale, Ben Hur, DeMille's
King of Kings, a Verdi opera, a great ballet - list is endless. Can you
imagine a great choir before you now such as the Vatican Sistine Choir?
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Same
place in 1997. Mrs. Catherine Monroe (Now Clarke) holding Fred Waller's
portrait. Image by Thomas Hauerslev
As a modest preliminary test a
neighbourhood Long Island choir was asked to
come over to the room where you are sitting. Hurriedly a few simple black
and white test shots were made right here. They will appear on the screen
now. Then, after you have seen them, we will conclude this brief
demonstration for you with a few shots we made the other, a CINERAMA picture
of something that didn't involve a long journey, something right here in New
York state. The conclusion scene, following the Long Island home talent
singing, will demonstrate to you, we hope, how the sight of this planet can
be brought to you in a new and impressive way. Or, perhaps I should say,
take all of us right to them. Someone recently made the following comparison
between 35mm and CINERAMA: 35mm to which we are so accustomed, is like being
outside a building looking in through a window. With CINERAMA you have the
feeling of being inside, virtually a part of it all.
Now first, a few more black and white scenes, and then a few final test
shots in color.
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28-07-24 |
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