Imagine a movie with Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, John Wayne AND Spencer tracy.
In 1962, that was practically an all-star team of Hollywood legends, and with Hollywood in the middle of a run of big-budget epics, this was one about the winning of the West.
In fact, that was essentially its title — “How the West Was Won” — and it was maybe the most famous film ever shown in formast known as Cinerama.
The process of Cinerama was invented in the early 1950s, when studios were desperate to get their customers to turn off their televisions and go to the movie. The idea was that it was more that a flat screen, that its 146-degree curved screen would make audiences feel like they were inside the action.
Cinerama was a wonderful process, but it was probably doomed to failure from the start. More expensive to shoot, more expensive to show and it was really only suited to one type of film.
Epics.
Cinerama gave viewers the feeling of riding on a roller coaster or of looking down at scenery from the nose of a B-52 bomber. All very nice, but more than 90 percent of dramas and comedies being made wouldn’t benefit at all from the expensive process.
There weren’t an incredible amount of theaters in the country that were equipped for Cinerama, but in 1962, I was living just outside Dayton, Ohio, which had one. I saw several big-deal movies there — “West Side Story,” “King of Kings” and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” come to mind.
“How the West Was Won” was something to see, particularly in the set pieces where Cinerama came into play — rafting on the Ohio River, a buffalo stampede on the railroad and the final shootout in Arizona.
Movies like that were made for big screens in theaters, not for the small TV sets of the early ’60s. I’m watching it right now on a 55-inch curved screen UHD television, and it’s OK. Not great, but OK.
With the exception of special occasions, Cinerama is gone now.
It’s a shame nothing better replaced it.