SIFF Cinema Downtown
2100 4th Avenue,
Seattle,
WA
98121
2100 4th Avenue,
Seattle,
WA
98121
48 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 273 comments
Please update, theatre opened January 24, 1963 and total seats 563
Todd-AO is now what can be described as a film format. It was originally conceived as a Cinerama type presentation with a single projector and deep curved screen using a set of lenses selected by American Optical for a single 65mm camera rather than the 3 camera 3 projector Cinerama which had no lens flexibility and required 3 projectionists plus a sound operator for its separate sound source. Todd-AO added 5mm of 6-channel sound to the 65mm image for film 70mm wide rather than 35mm. Only Panavision 70 had picture clarity on a par when it was introduced later.
Thank you, gentlemen, Todd-AO is just what I was thinking about! Todd-AO is basically a film format, not a Cinerama which is both a physical and film format. Is that about right?
In any event, as I noted in my article in an earlier post SIFF can use the Cinerama process and at that time they were equipped to do it, no reason to believe that they aren’t. The only two three-camera dramatic narrative films were “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and “How the West was Won”. All the rest were short travelogues. Any other films advertised as being in Cinerama was in the single projector process as mentioned above.
Lawrence of Arabia was filmed in Panavision 70 with an image ratio of 1:2.1, identical to Todd-AO which originally used a deep curved screen. It was shown on deep curved screens in Minneapolis and Seattle in its original 70mm print and in Boston on the first flat screen Todd-AO 20th Century Fox had introduced with Can-Can, which was also shown on a Cinerama screen in Minneapolis. Flat screens are considerably less expensive to install and quickly eliminated the deep curved screens. There was a considerable variation in presentation of 70mm films, with degraded clarity when films photographed in 35mm were blown up to 70mm prints. Cinerama itself confused the public by using its name on single projector 70mm conventional films which had nothing to do with putting the audience “in the picture”. Stanley Kramer publicly stated the Cinerama 70mm single camera single projector process was “not Cinerama” when it premiered at the LA Cinerama Dome.
Jack, Lawrence of Arabia was actually not made for a curved screen, and is not Cinerama. 2001 was made for a curved screen. Just because the theater can’t keep the name does not mean they can’t show the films in Cinerama.
Can the SIFF use the 3 projectors format or does that infringe on the Cinerama trademark? Can they show Cinerama at all? I loved seeing films like Lawrence of Aradia, 2001 and other classics made for the giant curved screen there.
Good to learn SIFF has determined the curved screen, one of the last to be manufactured to original Cinerama specifications, and projectors are intact and functional. Also that is true of the 70mm projectors. What about the lenses used on the 70mm projectors that were custom built to fill the curved screen with an undistorted image? A number of these lenses of various lengths were on sale at the Arclight bookshop during a previous Cinerama Festival in Los Angeles. I assume they came from dozens of theaters where deep curved screens were removed.
Reopened April 23rd, 1999 by Paul Allen and General Cinema. Ad posted.
Thank you so much, Mike, for researching that, and linking the article. Good to finally know the reason behind losing the name.
When SIFF acquired the Seattle Cinerama there were unanswered questions. After some effort I was able to get answers about those previously undisclosed details WRT the theater’s new incarnation, including the story behind the loss of the Cinerama name.
Read my article here
Here’s a link to recent article on current Seattle cinemas. Click here
Did they keep the large curved screen?
You are correct, sir.
From what I see here if a theater changes management and/or gets a new name there is only one page for all iterations of that theater, a new one is not created. I saw this for the Ritz/Cine/Pussycat/Miracle in Inglewood, CA and suspect it’s the rule, not the exception. This makes more sense to me from a historical perspective rather than creating a different page for each successor, but that seems to be the way it works here at CT anyway.
Just to clarify, the 70mm prints of Cinerama 3-strip productions are very effective when projected on a deep curved screen. Pacific Theatres was involved in creating these 70mm prints. Apparently they own all the original Cinerama features. Seattle Cinerama presented a terrific restored Lawrence of Arabia 70mm print on the deep curved screen. It would seem the 70mm Cinerama prints could also be presented on that screen.
A new page won’t be created, as the theater reopens December 14 with Wonka. The theater here will be renamed and the Intro adjusted.
Paul Allen paid to have new 3-strip film prints made for This is Cinerama, and How the West Was Won, so I would think that the theater would have those two films, and the rights to show them. No page has been created yet on Cinema Treasures for SIFF Cinema Downtown. Maybe someone with the time might want to do it.
The Uptown Theatre in Washington DC, to the best of my knowledge, is the only theatre on the east coast still equipped for Cinerama, including the curved screen. I don’t think it has used all 3 projectors for at least 50 years and that was when it had the Cinerama banner. Digital projection doesn’t fit on curved screens like film.
Has SIFF engaged in talks with the owner of Cinerama prints, both of original 3-strip and transfers of those titles to 70mm? Exhibition of Cinerama films is certainly a different matter than using a copyrighted name on a building. SIFF could add a small cost to pay for labor setting up the curved screen to each ticket. How committed is SIFF to movie history? Commercial exhibitors are not concerned with history or preservation.
I’d like to hear the question about the Cinerama process directly from SIFF. My understanding was that SIFF couldn’t license just the name for the theater. It doesn’t mean they couldn’t use the process.
Since the SIFF was unable to secure the rights to Cinerama, it is doubtful that they can use the 3 projector process. As for the curved screen, according to the former operators, it was a labor and time intensive process to install and could only be used with film (not digital) presentations. At best, Seattle can hope that the 70mm will be used as frequently as possible. The flat screen, to it’s credit, is immense and looks great in showing both film and digital.
So what is the status of the Cinerama deep curved screen and projectors? I have seen both 70mm presentations combining the 3 Cinerama original 35mm reels on a single 70mm strip, and the 3 projector process itself at the Cinerama Dome in L.A. The big difference was actually the soundtrack transfer to 70mm which did not duplicate the awesome original that required 3 projectionists plus a separate sound operator. The L.A. Dome has a very steep projection angle from high up. Seattle had a better curved screen and 70mm projection location, hopefully both are intact. You cannot duplicate the Cinerama effect on a flat screen.
The theater is reopening in December as the SIFF Cinema Downtown:
Seattle, WA: Former Seattle Cinerama Theatre Reopening in December as SIFF Cinema Downtown [Nov 21, 2023]
A new article has been published cataloging the 70mm presentations of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The Seattle Cinerama gets several mentions in the piece.