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Author Topic: How The West Was Won...Reissue Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-15-2003 11:13 PM                        While in Hollywood, the wife and I went to see "How The West Was Won" at the Cinerama Theater, 8PM Sunday the 14th. At this point you should drop what ever you are doing and run down to your local airport and hop on a jet to LA to see this film. This was a brand new print. No scratches. No fading. The original 3 projector Cinerama system WITH 7 channel full coat mag sound. Wow! This presentation brought tears to my eyes...several times. A nice introduction was made by the manager (I guess). The projectionists and hardware/software wranglers were named (all 5 of them). It was a wonderful magical evening. It is a beautiful clean well managed theater. You guys should be proud of yourselves. PS It had reserved seating, too.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-16-2003 12:30 AM                        It is good to know the original three strip projection equipment from the long defunct Cinerama Theatre in Honolulu is once again being used at Pacific's Arch light Cinerama Dome Theatre in Los Angeles. I visited a good friend who was working in the booth at the Cinerama theatre here a few months before the theatre closed and I was surprised to see the original three strip projection equipment was still there. When I asked my friend Alan Sakaida at Consolidated what was going to be done with the equipment, he told me that they were all going to be shipped to LA and installed at the dome after they were fully refurbished. It is good to know the fond memories I have for Honolulu's Cinerama Theatres still lives in Los Angeles. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Don Furr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 509 From: Sun City, Ca USA Registered: Nov 2002 posted 09-16-2003 05:26 AM                     Greg is right!! If you live anywhere close you owe it to yourself to see this incredible new print. What a great show! We saw it at the first screening last Friday at noon. It included a lengthly tour of the booth. DON'T MISS IT.  |  IP: Logged Peter Kerchinsky Master Film Handler Posts: 326 From: Seattle, WA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 09-16-2003 03:35 PM                     Greg I had the same WOW! feeling when we ran that print at the Cinerama here in Seattle. Seeing HTWWW and This is Cinerama on that giant screen gave me goosebumps. I was fortunate to also be in the Able booth for three days running those films. It was, to say the least, quite an experience. By the way we had 4 projectionists along with Dave S. at each showing.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-16-2003 05:51 PM                        How did I miss that? Didn't know it played Seattle. When?  |  IP: Logged Torsten Jasper Film Handler Posts: 15 From: Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany Registered: Aug 2003 posted 09-16-2003 10:33 PM                    Envy!  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 09-17-2003 09:58 AM                        Several years ago, I traveled to Dayton Ohio to see a well-worn print of HTWWW that John Harvey was still showing at the New Neon. I'd love to see the new print that Crest National Labs made: http://www.cineramaadventure.com/crestindex.htm http://millimeter.com/ar/video_cinerama_drama/  |  IP: Logged Ian Price Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1714 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-17-2003 01:23 PM                     I just got back from LA where I drove 1,000 miles just to see this film. The photography was spectacular. I got a tour of the booth. I ran in to some film-techers in the courtyard of the Arclight cinemas. The print was flawless. But the movie was bad 1960s hoooey. Having seen a couple of Cinerama films these past two years I can understand why the format died. Like I have said all along, its the story dammit. All in all I am very pleased that the print was restored and that I had a chance to see it.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 09-18-2003 03:13 PM                        quote: Having seen a couple of Cinerama films these past two years I can understand why the format died. Like I have said all along, its the story dammit. HTWWW was probably the only Cinerama film with a decent plot, as lame as it was. The whole thing was based on a series of articles in Life magazine. But the format died because it was too expensive to operate and when they kept impairing the format to reduce the cost of presentation, it was no different than any other 70mm format, so it became unnecessary. Personally, I think most IMAX films are no better than most of the Cinerama films. They're both superb technologically, but DMR prints aside, are used mostly for travelogues and films of interest to a museum audience. I haven't seen the restoration of HTWWW, but I do remember being blown away by the original, which I saw twice at the Loews Cinerama (Capitol) in NYC. I remember being especially impressed by a scene in which a character is standing in front of a window with a bar or music hall behind the window. The sound of the diffused music must have been sent to a different channel than the dialog taking place in front the window, and it all sounded incredibly real. I saw It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World at the Warner Cinerama on Broadway in NYC and 2001 at the Boston Cinerama. I could swear that both of them played in mono. I remember being disappointed at both presentations.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-18-2003 06:48 PM                     I saw the new print at the Dome this past weekend and dragged my partner cross country to see it....we both like 1960's hooey if the acting talent is above the material. This movie and This is Cinerama are the reason for wanting to work in this business when I first saw them 40 years ago.  |  IP: Logged Peter Kerchinsky Master Film Handler Posts: 326 From: Seattle, WA, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 09-19-2003 02:50 PM                     Greg The Seattle Cinerama played a Cinerama festival Feb. 28th through March 6th last. We ram HTWWW, This is Cinerama (both new prints) Windjammer and Search For Paradise (both old faded prints) The only one I did not see was Search For Paradise. There's a photo in the pictures section showing what Windjammer looked like. We are hoping to do it again soon as there was talk of showing some Cinerama there yearly.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-19-2003 03:02 PM                        Ya know I heard that was happening but I thought they had just borrowed that old print and were running it again. Sorry I missed it  |  IP: Logged Rich Greenhalgh Film Handler Posts: 2 From: Pasadena, CA, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-19-2003 03:03 PM                     Last night we took a break from the 3-D Festival to HTWWW again at the Cinerama Dome. Over the past 40 years I have seen this film 6 times in 4 different venues. It still looks great. When I saw the new Crest print at the Dome in December at the SMPTE screening I was impressed. David Strohmaier and his crew have really gotten projecting this down to a science. The alignment and image stability have been much improved since then. After 35 showings here and in Seattle, the print still looks like new. After the film some of us visited the booth. They have a nice exhibit in the lobby as well. I have included several photos. If you have not seen this yet, don’t miss it! Rich Greenhalgh Pasadena, California  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 09-19-2003 05:35 PM                        For those of you who have been fortunate to see the film at the Dome and the Cinerama in Seattle, how large was the crowd? Cities like Los Angeles and even Seattle can support events like this. If anything like this was to happen in Honolulu, only a handful would show up because most people here do not care about 'films done right' and that is the reason all of our wonderful theatres like our Cinerama, Waikiki IMAX and the Waikiki I, #II & III no longer exists. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-19-2003 06:40 PM                        When I bought the seats, I originally wanted the noon show, thinking that it would be the least attended. The computer had all of the prime seats sold (center section) same with the 4 oclock showing. The 8 oclock had perfect seats dead center about 1/3 of the way down but they were the last two in the "sweet" spot. However at show time, a lot of seats were not filled. Guess people bought them but did not attend  |  IP: Logged

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