The only geodesic dome movie theater in the world, Becket’s design was inspired by Buckminster Fuller—and the nation’s midcentury obsession with landing on the moon. Built to resemble a giant spacecraft, the Dome boasted futuristic floating stairways—a first for any movie theater at the time. Simultaneously projected images using three 35mm cameras were so cutting-edge, the Dome’s own original projector—the Norelco Universal—would win a Technical Academy Award in 1963 [...]. — Los Angeles Confidential Magazine
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This place looks as if time has stood still even today. It's a great auditorium, too, and deceptively small on the outside while, inside, it's nicely sized. Looking up and trying to wrap your head around its curvature is tough to do, as some spots look deceptively flat, so it's its own brand of "tromp l'oeuil."
Had no clue a big firm did this theater. I always assumed it was more of a niche firm or one of those prolific L.A. theater architects who cranked out ornate single screen cinemas before 16 screen boxes overtook the cinematic landscape.
Happy half-a-century birthday, Cinerama Dome!
"Tromp l'oeil." Excusez-moi.
I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey there a few years back. Awesome.
I know this theater well. I was on the board of the Los Angeles Historic Theater Foundation when it looked like the theater may be demolished. And By the way NPR radio got it wrong on some fundamental facts.
FYI, This is NOT geodesic. The clue is there are NO pentagons connected by hexagons. This is more along the concrete construction assembly type that the Italian architect/ engineer Nervi would build. A modern Pantheon.
The ARC-light complex preserved the iconic structure and i was there when they re-presented an authentic three-projector screening of THIS IS CINERAMA. The multi- projection system was originally developed to train on-board aircraft gunners to shoot at enemy aircraft during WW2. The system was adapted for limited theatrical (in New York) and THIS IS CINERAMA was the biggest box office hit of 1952-53 playing to sold out audiences in one theater.
THE CINERAMA DOME, built by Becket Assoc was part of a planned multi theater expansion that never happened. Most of the films produced for the system were travelogs and played at World Fairs, trade-shows.
Various Wide screen formats, VistaVision and CinemaScope replaced the cumbersome format and standardized widescreen presentation. Imax and OmniMax is the updated theater sibling. 3-D is now commonplace
But back to my experience of THIS IS CINERAMA. I asked one of the engineers of the original CINERAMA where to sit to get the best view, in front. It was a fantastic cinema experience with the curtains widening almost wrap around 180 degrees. The look was 3-D like, with real time roller coaster ride, flying over water segments, a thrill ride on film.
And the sound was in Stereo! It was the first stereo soundtrack for film. It took more than thirty years for theaters to catch up.
I know that multiplexes are in vogue, because they make dollar sense, but I loved this theater when it stood alone. You could see it in its entirety from several blocks before along Sunset Blvd. Heck, it even had a parking lot next to, to the west, and behind it! It now has a historical designation of some sort. Inside, the screen is definitely curved, but it does not detract, nor distract, when watching a movie there. It also has a loge, with 2 symmetrical stadium type entrances, and I liked sitting upstairs, at the front of the loge, so I could also get a good feel for the totality of the theater. I really miss theaters that have sort of a 60:40 main floor:loge seating distribution, using stadium type seating in the loge.
Multiplexes are a pain. Just boxes and a screen. The lack of a decent film presentation really irks me. But I am spoiled. The screenings i go to are industry events and the typical short-comings of movie going are thankfully missing.
The Dome is a good venue, well maintained with generous seating width (fire code regulations determined that). A curved screen is an industry standard for hi-end projection systems. Curvature keeps the entire projected image in focus.
I do miss balcony's and lodges in movie theaters. It was a throwback configuration to times of live performance. I am not a fan of stadium seating. Too many persons trip so handrails are required. The conflict between the slope of natural sight lines and handicapped code slope fucked up unobstructed viewing and that , along with cramped space, led to stadium seating.
It has been awhile since i designed a cinema but the one I did for the Writers Guild is a good one.
I do miss balcony's and lodges in movie theaters. It was a throwback configuration to times of live performance. I am not a fan of stadium seating. Too many persons trip so handrails are required.
Eric, from my understanding, loge seating and stadium seating are used interchangeably in that vomitoria (an unbelievable word learned in studying the Colosseum in a-school) channel people from the lobby into the auditorium. Both the balcony and the loge require a flight of stairs to access the seating, with the balcony usually from the lobby and the loge once inside the auditorium. With a balcony, tossing in an elevator somewhere in the lobby was definitely doable but, with a loge, the elevator would have to be in an alcove once inside the auditorium and, as you say, that initial flight of stairs up is pronounced. Theaters with loges never had elevators, it seemed. As for the slope or spacing of the steps, once on either a balcony or a loge, they seem to be about the same.
What's extra cool is a balcony with a loge at its rear which abuts the projection room. Thinking of the Fox Wilshire, at Wilshire and LaCienega, and the Picwood, the latter of which is now gone and an extension of Westside Pavilion.
I must be confusing balcony with loge seating. Is loge seating at the same seating 'level' as ground? I never encountered that term. Not many older, ie historic theaters, have elevators. The Grand Staircase encountered in movie palace type cinema's are no longer acceptable because of HC accessibility codes. Although the ground floor is easily planned to be accessible w special seating , See AMPAS, the American Cinematheque, theaters. The 8:1 rise near the top is not bad.
BTW vomitories? I thought that term was only used for stadium access/egress? Must be a huge theater.
eric
Yes, loges rise up from the main seating level and are separated from the loge by a walkway, much like at a stadium, and 2 symmetrical vomitories slope upward from the lobby and feed that curved intermediate walkway. Someone correct me if I'm off. Many medium-sized "streamline moderne" movie houses, like the old school Loyola theater near the airport and the old school Culver before it became the Kirk Douglas theater, were configured with 2 vomitories and a loge, just like at a stadium. With a loge, you cannot put any seats underneath them. With a balcony, you can. The balconies were reserved for the really big movie houses in the city, it seemed. True about no elevators in old(er) movie houses. If I recall correctly, the main (original) auditorium at the Chinese theater is surprisingly a one-story, though cavernous, experience. I love the grand movie houses. I only wish they would pull off modern renditions, with accessible balconies and loges, in new single screen cinemas.
Just found this. An interior view of the Cinerama Dome. The loge shows its being walled off from the main level, but reachable where the handrails are shown.
http://www.vista.co.nz/live/content/en/287.jpg
I believe the vomitories are out at the edges. I remember when the color scheme was all gold. I liked the original color scheme better, if I recall.
I am not sure loge and vomitory are the correct terms. These seem to be stadium terminologies. Loge seating is what you fine at Dodger stadium , the first level up from the ground. When I designed my theater the seating was set off by aisles. The passageway from lobby to auditorium was separated by doors. A vomitory does not have doors.
AS to the Chinese and other historic theaters these words, if I recall, were never part of that vocabulary, expressed on architectural plans. The wordings and meanings of auditoriums, theaters and cinema's are quite specific. The standards for cinemas were developed and set by SMPTE. Has something changed? Or perhaps what you read or heard was quite loose with definitions or descriptions? Most architectural writing is shit anyway, laughable actually, but sad because of ignorance. Even architecture educators, (I am talking SCI-Arc here) were clueless, misinformed and had no idea what they were talking about.
In two of the old theaters I mentioned, there were no doors on the passageways. There were plush curtains, usually kept open during intermission, and closed to "close off" the passageways during the movie. They were of some velvet or velour type fabric that must have had some value in blocking sound.
As for the loge, that's what the theater employees called it. They didn't call it the balcony. So I've come to think of loge as attached (meaning like Dodger Stadium) and balcony as detached.
As for auditorium, theater, and cinema, I did use those interchangeably and possibly incorrectly.
This is a great website if you like theaters.
Here, they display the Loyola theater near LAX and use the term "early form of stadium-style seating." Somehow, its exterior was more tasteful than gaudy. It worked.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/490
The same was sort of said about the Culver theater, now the Kirk Douglas theater: "stadium plan with no overhanging balcony."
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/691
There is no mention of the seating set-up for the Picwood theater, but the exterior indicates one heck of a tall balcony via those exit stairs. That harp shaped tower used to flicker different neon colors at night and wasn't too tacky. This theater, however, felt narrow inside compared to the other 2 mentioned.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1125
Then, there were grand dames of movie palaces, and the Carthay Circle theater, south of Wilshire and on San Vicente, was definitely one of them. The article refers to it as "one of the jewels of the Fox Theaters empire." A floor plan is shown, interestingly enough. There is a lower floor, and then a balcony with a passage way across, indicating a bump-up, stadium-style, at the rear of the balcony. I never had an opportunity to go inside. It was demolished and a bland office park now stands on that site.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1158
Happy browsing.
The closed passageways are light traps.
I wrote about the Chinese theater years ago for the Hollywood Reporter and met Mrs Mann she once owned the Chinese. Have not been to the latest config. . Met the Beckett kids at the re-opening of the Cinerama. Been to almost all the historic theaters in LA, part survey part advocate. Our group saved the Wiltern Theater, now home to the LA AIA. Swiss consulant .
I used to be very into old movie palaces. Board member, tours, writing on. Not now. The best source on accurate cinema history info is MARQUEE the newsletter for the League of Historic Theaters
Cool, about the Marquee. The Wiltern: I remember its greenish hue above all else. I have been to the AIA office in there. Used the Metro Purple subway to get there when it was still labeled the Metro Red with two spurs: Wilshire-Western, or the Valley.
Yes, Mann Theaters prior ... and National General, or something like that, beforehand ... and Fox Theaters before that, more or less. What a storied life cycle.
The Cinerama was a Pacific, as the marquee indicates, as were the Picwood and the Paradise, even closer to LAX.
Ok, back to complaining about something else; something I do quite well ...
Go see the Glen Small 'art' exhibit La Cienega / Venice. Near Kaiser. starts at 6 ends at 10.
I will be there w orhan
eric
Sorry to miss y'all on La Cienega tonight. I'd planned to come, then got sidetracked. I hope it went well...
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