Hawaii Cinerama

Mike, that is the forst I ever heard of that as well.
Perhaps in that pre-platter era thst theatre had only one working projector and was limited to 6k or one hour reels. Any other other excuse would be hard to justify.
For us at Consolidated Hawaii Roadshows with built in intermissions were quickly becoming a thing of the past, the decsion to add intermissions to long running movies was made on the idea that people expected the break especially at the Cinerama.
Of cousre it was good for concession sales but management felt the patrons enjoyed the bathroom/smoke break and it had become a part of the program for the epic or long running movies.
During the 70s we added intermissions at the Cinerama to such films as “Towering Inferno” and “Posiden Adventure”, plus some of the musicals like “Funny Lady” and “Mame” to name a few.
But even the biggest blockbusters presented at the Cinerama running under two hours like “Young Frankenstien” were presented without intermission.

I saw Reds at the Boyd in Philadelphia, in the big theater, not one of the shoeboxes added later. Quite an experience.

The last film I saw that had an intermission was Reds, back in 1982. The first half ended with Warren Beatty embracing someone, maybe Dianke Keaton. Some people thought the film was over, until I told them it was only halftime.

Growing up in Honolulu in the 1970’s and 1980’s, this was one of my favorite theatres. Vivid memories of seeing Young Frankenstein and The Towering Inferno in the spring of 1975 (The Towering Inferno had an intermission in the middle of the movie, after a 10 minute break, audience goes back in for 2nd half , I’ve never had that experience again, thought it was kinda cool )

Enjoyed Star Wars in summer of 1977 ( it played there for almost a year ). Alien in summer 1979, and the Empire Strikes Back opening day in May 1980, 3 pm show. ( I remember the the marquee on billed it as Star Wars II )

I was there also on the opening day of Return of the Jedi in June 1983, a full month after it had opened on the mainland, due to to problems with the distributor. Consolidated balked at the distribution demands and waited a month to show the movie in Honolulu. Thank God there was no internet back then posting spoilers. Actual Honolulu premiere was a charity benefit show the night before. But next day belonged to the public. Got to the Cinerama at 6am, line was already halfway around the block. Stood in line for 6 hours. 3 hours to buy a ticket at the box office on the left side, and then 3 hours on right side of the building to get in. 1st 9am show was sold out. I got in the 11:45am show, and had such a fantastic time, I hid in the bathroom and got to see the next 2:30pm show for free. I did buy tons of popcorn, soda, candy, hotdogs, so the theatre didn’t lose out moneywise.

I also stood in line opening day for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in May 1984. Due to school, couldn’t make it to first showing. Saw the second show at 3pm. Found out the first show didn’t even sell out. This was the first big Paramount release to be opened at the Cinerama. Since Royal Theatre in Waikiki closed down in 1982, the Royal Theatre chain only big venue to show it was the Waialae Drive In. They didn’t want to show it in puny Marina Twin or King twin theatres. Most drive ins show double features. But since this was a big ticket, first time ever the drive in just showed Indiana Jones 3 times a night.

The Cinerama had a parking lot in the back and a narrow alley that led to the front. But mostly I remember full parking signs, and always having to to park on side streets during popular shows. They had a small, but well stocked snack bar, and full length mirrors on each side of the lobby. Lots of good times at the Cinerama. It’s now a auto part store, but the facade is still there. Footnote : Obama grew up in an apartment a few blocks away. I pretty sure he checked out the movies at the Cinerama many times.

William,

Sorry about the Preston/Pepper mixup. I got it confused with the radio program, SGT. PRESTON OF THE YUKON my brother and I used to listen to when we little in the forties. Yes, the Road Show era was over when the films I had mentioned in my thread was released and that was a shame. I do not know if you were around during the peak of the era of these special motion picture exhibition. If you were, I am sure you will agree with me that they were very exciting times.

-Claude

I read that article and it mentioned that the French film Romance was the next-to-last show (The Insider being the last). That must have been great watching a NC-17 rated erotic drama on a large Cinerama screen.

The main advantage of blowing up a 35mm film to 70mm was to make use of the wide format’s six track stereo sound format. I do not believe 35mm film makers made the decision to showcase a film as a road show just because of 70mm. There were many film that were blown up to 70mm that were not road shows including GREASE, THE JAZZ SINGER, STAR CHAMBER, SGT PRESTONS LONLEY HEART CLUB BAND, COCOON, YES GEORGIO, TOWERING INFERNO, and many others. Before 70mm , many special 35mm films were presented to the public as road shows. One such film was GONE WITH THE WIND in late 1939. Other were SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, DUAL IN THE SUN, IVANHO, QUO VADIS, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH and others.

With the introduction of Dolby Digital (SRD), DTS and SDDS, the advantage of 35mm blowups to 70mm became a moot point.

-Claude

Reading all these things about 35mm as a roadshow and 70mm blow ups is there really any difference between the two? I remember seeing seeing Sweet Charity in Panavision and the print was great. Why would they even transfer to 70mm of they didn’t film it that way.
As I have mentioned on the Music Hall page I saw Airport there which was filmed in Todd AO. It looked great. Blow ups like Scrooge and Tom Sawyer looked washed out and bland. They look 10 times better on TV and I believe they should have looked spectacular on the Music Hall screen. 1776 the same thing.

Thanks Claude, I am happy to hear Faith is doing well, she got a bad break with Consolidated and deserved more. She was one of my favotite people, I can still hear that wonderful infectious laugh of hers. I hope to see her on the boards here, she should have a few good war stories to tell about her days as a manager and operations exec.

Well this just more and more interesting to me.
I don’t know if Windjammer played in the three strip version at the Cinerama, although we were running three strip there as late as the end of 1963 before converting to 70mm.
Claude recalls seeing the film in 70mm at the Queen, and I recall being told, we I removed some of the 70mm equipment from the booth, that one of the last 70mm prints to ever play the Queen was in the late 1960s, so there may have been single strip 70mm prints.
Like I said, it’s all very interesting.

Thanks for clearing that up boys,
nenue,I guess your recall was correct, I do not remember the movie being re-released in 1962.
William, Are you telling us that Cinerama released the film in single strip 70mm, or did they actually show the film in the 3 strip cinerama process anywhere in 1962?.

I too recall seeing WINDJAMMER in Hawaii but I it was a single projection 70mm print at the Queen Theatre in Kaimuki on a flat scope screen. I Also remember reading the specs for Cinemiracle and I understand it was very similar to three strip Cinerama and could have been shown at Honolulu’s Cinerama. I might have also seen it there too but I do not remember any more because it was very long ago.

-Claude

I saw “Windjammer” at the Cinerama back in ‘62 or '63.