“Almost like a real web site”
 

IN7OMM.COM
Search | Contact
News | e-News
Rumour Mill | Stories
Foreign Language
Auf Deutsch

WHAT'S ON IN 7OMM?

7OMM FESTIVAL
Karlsruhe | Gentofte
Krnov | Varnsdorf
Banská Bystrica
Oslo | Bradford

TODD-AO PROCESS
Films | Premiere
People | Equipment
Library | Cinemas
Distortion Correcting
DP70 / AAII Projector
 

VISION, SCOPE & RAMA
1926 Natural Vision
1929 Grandeur
1930 Magnifilm
1930 Realife
1930 Vitascope
1952 Cinerama
1953 CinemaScope
1953 Panavison
1954 VistaVision
1955 Todd-AO
1955 Circle Vision 360
1956 CinemaScope 55
1957 Ultra Panavision 70
1958 Cinemiracle
1958 Kinopanorama
1959 Super Panavision 70
1959 Super Technirama 70
1960 Smell-O-Vision
1961 Sovscope 70
1962
Cinerama 360
1962 MCS-70
1963 70mm Blow Up
1963 Circarama
1963 Circlorama
1966 Dimension 150
1966
Stereo-70
1967 DEFA 70
1967 Pik-A-Movie
1970 IMAX / Omnimax
1974 Cinema 180
1974 SENSURROUND
1976 Dolby Stereo
1984 Showscan
1984 Swissorama
1986 iWERKS
1989 ARRI 765
1990 CDS
1994 DTS / Datasat
2001 Super Dimension 70
2018 Magellan 65

Various Large format | 70mm to 3-strip | 3-strip to 70mm | Specialty Large Format | Special Effects in 65mm | ARC-120 | Early Large Format
7OMM Premiere in Chronological Order

7OMM ON EARTH

Australia | Brazil | Canada | China | Denmark | England | France | Germany | Holland | India | Iran | Israel | Ireland | Mexico | Norway | Poland |  Russia | Spain | Sweden | Turkey | USA |

LIBRARY
7OMM Projectors
People | Eulogy
65mm/70mm Workshop
The 7OMM Newsletter
Back issue | PDF
Academy of the WSW

7OMM NEWS
• 2026 | 2025 | 2024
2023 | 2022 | 2021
2020 | 2019 | 2018
2017 | 2016 | 2015
2014 | 2013 | 2012
2011 | 2010 | 2009
2008 | 2007 | 2006
2005 | 2004 | 2003
2002 | 2001 | 2000
1999 | 1998 | 1997
1996 | 1995 | 1994
 

in70mm.com Mission:
• To record the history of the large format movies and the 70mm cinemas as remembered by the people who worked with the films. Both during making and during running the films in projection rooms and as the audience, looking at the curved screen.
in70mm.com, a unique internet based magazine, with articles about 70mm cinemas, 70mm people, 70mm films, 70mm sound, 70mm film credits, 70mm history and 70mm technology. Readers and fans of 70mm are always welcome to contribute.

Disclaimer | Updates
Support us | Staff
Testimonials
Table of Content
 

 
 
Extracts and longer parts of in70mm.com may be reprinted with the written permission from the editor.
Copyright © 1800 - 2070. All rights reserved.

Visit biografmuseet.dk about Danish cinemas

 


TODD-AO PROCESS HISTORY
How Todd-AO Began
By Brian O'Brien, Jr.
My father was a college professor, uninterested in show business, and had never heard of Mike Todd, so when Mike called him late one night saying he wanted a meeting, my dad was naturally cautious. Finally, he called one night and said "OK Doctor, I give up. I have been looking into the companies you mentioned and American Optical looks like the best bet. What do I do now?" "Fine" said my dad, "I am having lunch with Walter Stewart, President of AO next Tuesday. Why do you not come up to Southbridge and have lunch with us?".
Todd-AO Birth date
By Brian O'Brien
On October 15th, 1952 I received a phone call from a Michael Todd in New York City, who wished to come to see me at Rochester that evening. I had never heard of Todd, but it seems that he is a well-known Broadway producer.
Brian O'Brien, Jr. tracks American Optical Co's development of the Todd-AO process
By Thomas Hauerslev
B
etween 1953 and 1956, Brian O'Brien, Jr.'s secretary made a scrapbook with newspaper and trade magazine clips about the development of Todd-AO. A green ring binder with 132 pages of clippings, adverts and stories about one of the most significant films formats from the 20th century. It has been one of my goals to make all this available on in70mm.com for many years. Here it is as PDF files, and organized page by page in a very low-tech manner.
Brian O'Brien Biography
By Walter P. Siegmund and Brian O'Brien, Jr.
Brian O'Brien was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1898 to Michael Phillip and Lina Prime O'Brien. His education started in the Chicago Latin School from 1909–1915, and continued at the Yale Sheffield scientific school where he earned a Ph.B. in 1918 and a Ph.D. in 1922. In 1922 he married Ethel Cornelia Dickerman and they had one son, Brian, Jr..
Todd-AO Conference 1954 at American Optical Company Research Center
By Brian O'Brien, Jr
The people on the picture are from left to right: Skyler Sanford, Bob Surtees, Brian O'Brien, Jr., Walter Siegmund, Mike Todd, Steve Macnielle, Fred Zinneman, Art Miller, Brian O'Brien, Oscar Hammerstein, Arthur Hornblow
 
 
TODD-AO STORY
In the Splendour of 70mm
By Grant Lobban
While working on "This Is Cinerama" Michael Todd became convinced that there must be an easier way of achieving the same "wrap around" effect using only one projector and a single strip of film.
Grant's Blow-up Blog
By Grant Lobban
A blow-up is the term used to describe a print made by enlarging, or “blowing-up”, smaller formats, usually those on 35mm film, but 70mm prints have also been derived from 16mm and even 8mm originals.
Todd-AO The Show of Shows
By John Belton
"Oklahoma!" was a hot ticket; even Cecil B. DeMille had trouble getting seats during the first few weeks of its run. Todd-AO was about showman-ship. It provided high quality subject matter, lavish production values, big screen entertainment, and six-track stereo magnetic sound.
The Amazing Optical Adventures of Todd-AO
By Jeff Hecht
Todd had just launched Cinerama, a wide-screen system that put the audience in the middle of the action. Yet he knew the cumbersome three-projector Cinerama system dated from before World War II, and had split with his partners even before the first Cinerama film opened.
Hollywood Comes to American Optical Co.
Roy C. Gunter Jr.
O'Brien was interested in what Todd said about Cinerama and sent Siegmund to New York to look at the system. He reported back to O'Brien that while the optical system was not really sophisticated, the audience response to the wide screen was clearly favorable.
 
 
SHOWMENS TRADE REVIEW,
October 15, 1955
Oklahoma! in Todd-AO | Todd-AO | Magna Theatres | Todd-AO Corporation | Philips Collaborated On Projector Design | Todd-AO Projection and Sound | Six track recording equipment | All-Purpose Sound Reproduction | Rodgers & Hammerstein II | Mike Todd

LIBRARY
Todd-AO Conference 1954 at American Optical Company Research Center
First Industry Demonstration
Magna Theatre Corporation

The Regent Theatre in Buffalo
The Todd-AO Process (Theatre Catalog)

American Optical
Reflector:
Todd-AO Process Shown At MGM Studio
"Oklahoma!" - The First Movie Produced By Todd-AO

Todd-AO Process Shown At MGM Studio
By The Reflector
This screening, followed by a second showing in the evening to people prominent in the Hollywood motion picture industry, resulted in "rave" notices in Hollywood and Los Angeles papers, as well as feature stories in the New York Times and Variety


• Go to You are in the Show with Todd-AO

TODD-AO LIBRARY

Go to Todd-AO Library
 

Online: 02-06-1999. Updated: 28-07-2024