Gone On A Cinerama Holiday

Kansas City The Midwest Address For A Screen Miracle

Greenbriar's past Cinerama excursions have been to theatres of the imagination, not having seen any of the landmark three-panels. That last is still the case, but lately there's come simulation on Blu-ray to wrap Cinerama 'round wide expanse of a basement screen, and maybe dreamscape can fill in the rest of what swept over Kansas City beginning 3/12/57, Cinerama Holiday's opener date at the Missouri Theatre, just off a 39 week This Is Cinerama run. To hear ads tell it, Kansas City was exclusive site within radius of a thousand miles where you could see the engulfing miracle, "All Roads" leading to the Missouri for those who wanted to experience Cinerama. And here was Kansas City's primary selling point: One of the two couples featured in, and used as narrators for Cinerama Holiday, were natives of K.C. picked from random to canvass Europe as guests of Cinerama. Midwesterners crowding the Missouri could easily imagine themselves in place of "Kansas City's Own John and Betty Marsh."

For folks who knew flat lands with intermittent dropdown of tornadoes, Cinerama Holiday must have seemed like a journey beyond stars. As debased by our televisions, Cinerama may seem no more than a Super-Duper travelogue; there's really no knowing what the process was truly like unless you were there. I'm sure many in those Kansas City audiences never saw an ocean before, let alone Euro climes. Cinerama Holiday was in many ways a topper to This Is Cinerama, being second of features to showcase the process and improving by terms of pace and spectacle. All of what worked in Cinerama's debut is tried again: flight over mountain ranges, this time the Swiss alps, a bobsled "thrill" ride to top the roller coaster from before, and you-are-in-pilot-seat landings on an aircraft carrier. Cinerama Holiday stayed at the Missouri for 23 weeks, ceding its wide screen to Seven Wonders Of The World on 8/21/57. All told, the Missouri would play three-strip continuous till 12/63, when 70mm took its place. Cinerama Holiday is available on Blu-Ray from Flicker Alley. The feature looks/sounds marvelous, and there are abundant and fascinating extras.

More Cinerama at Greenbriar Archives: Stranger Than Fiction Showmanship, Cinerama Out-Of-Doors, Cinerama Road Trips, and Cinerama Holiday in Cleveland.