CINERAMA THEATRE OPENED IN CITY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30126, 9 May 1963, Page 17

CINERAMA THEATRE OPENED IN CITY

Five hundred persons relaxed in Christchurch’s Cinerama Theatre (formerly the Mayfair) last evening and were metaplioricailly whisked away on an arm-chair tour of the world. They gasped as they sped around a New York amusement park on a roller coaster, gripped their seats as they made a lowlevel flight through the Grand Canyon, and sat seemingly hypnotised by the splendour and colour of cities such as Venice and Edinburgh The sights they watched on the giant 65ft curved screen were made possible through the most complicated and advanced development in the motion-picture industry—cinerama.

Last evening’s gala performance of this new medium was in aid of the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society. It was the first time cinerama had been screened in the South Island, and the performance marked the culmination of almost two months’ work by carpenters, technicians, and engineers in converting the former Mayfair Theatre for the equipment. The programme began with

a 15-minute introductory film which was shown on a portion of the screen in the ‘‘old’’ standard size. This dealt with the development of the industry from the first lantern slides and “flickers” to the introduction of sound. With a flourish of his hands, the narrator announced: “This is cinerama. . . .” The curtain rolled back, and the giant screen was filled with colour as the patrons were taken on their roller-coaster trip. The intended effect of this medium that of one complete picture was spoiled at times by excessive movement in the images projected by the individual projectors. This unsteadiness where the images joined was distracting, especially when there was little action, such as the closeup sequence of the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

Cinerama’s engineer in charge of the installation work (Mr F. Vergata, of New York) explained after the show that little could be done to rectify the trouble, as the fault was in the photography itself. “This film was made about 12 years ago,” he said. “This trouble does not occur in later productions,” he added

Other sequences worthy of mention in the film were the water-ski-ing scenes in Florida, the extract from Verdi’s “Aida,” which was photographed in the La Scala Opera House. Milan, and the singing of the “Hallelujah" chorus by a church choir which revealed the extent of the theatre’s new 34-speaker sound system.