Oriental Theatre

I was just reading this (better late than never) and was amused and confused by the posting way above talking about Dolby Stereo, in particular Dolby SR. SR was and is a special noise reduction system which is used only when the SVA tracks are in use, those would be the “2 wiggles” alongside the picture area. Most theaters these days only use the digital track, but most systems will automatically default to the Dolby SR tracks if the digital fails. Dolby optical stereo always had a surround track, unless the director chose not to use one. Dolby EX was a split “stereo surround system” for 35mm, frankly it never really worked all that well and most theaters don’t use it anymore, 70mm Dolby always had stereo surrounds and this was supposed to be a way for a 35mm house to have the same effect. It worked well for 70mm because of the discrete magnetic tracks, but for 35mm it was like trying to put 10 gallons in a 5 gallon hat, too much stuff! Some of you may remember “Quintaphonic Sound” for Tommy, this was a magnetic system but it was pretty much the same idea, it didn’t work very well either, it split the surround track for 2 surround feeds but the surround track on magnetic 35mm was very narrow and prone to noise and other issues. When Dolby Stereo came out it was really a 2 channel system with left and right with a mix to fill the center channel, and they used a SQ matrix to come up with a surround track, if a theater runs a Dolby stereo print in standard analog (no digital or SR) that’s pretty much what you still wind up with. The new digital projection and sound (no film) systems now can reproduce multiple surround sound tracks in addition to the normal left, center, right and subwoofer. Early Dolby Stereo was pretty primitive, compared to discrete magnetic sound (there were some attempts at Dolby 35mm magnetic but only 70mm wound up with them)but Dolby has made quantum leaps in technology to give us the superb sound we sometimes take for granted today.

Does Landmark do a good job with upkeep at the Oriental? Landmark owns the Uptown in Minneapolis and it’s awful: rickety seats, torn carpeting, etc. I’d like to hear from someone who has recently visited.

Recent night photo of the Oriental Theatre.
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Opened July 2nd, 1927
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I said November, 2006; I meant November 2009.

wondering if there are any pictures from 1986-looking for something when Blue Velvet was playing there or when REM had a concert there-I am also still looking for older pictures-from the 1930’s- of the area which seem to be hard to come by-

thanks

thanks—I have looked at most of the links here and most photos are close up exteriors of the theatre or marquee only-I am trying to find full size photos showing the whole building and buildings on adjacent blocks of the street along North Avenue

hello all-I am trying to find exterior pics of the Oriental and surrounding businesses-either recent or historical-or both——exterior pics showing the Oriental and businesses 1 block East and 1 block West along North Avenue——I have tried the Historical Society, UW-Milwaukee, and public library, and have found surprisingly few pictures——I will try the Oriental and Landmark directly but would appreciate any suggestions-thanks!

This is a May 2009 photo.

Found several A+ video recordings of Simon Gledhill playing the exceptional Kimball organ at the Oriental. Here’s a link to one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIqTRBJHFdI

He’s good!

Here is another photo of the Oriental.

That was the 1-22-27 issue, p 26 for the record