Ah, The Innocence Conjured Up By This Image!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            During my childhood, I visited California three times--in 1964, 1967, and 1967.  Of course, I was desperate to become a star, but, with my parents then cramping my style, it did not happen.  So, I never got to see the famous Los Angeles CINERAMA dome.

                            This image flashed by me, recently, in "Bright Lights," the Debbie Reynolds-Carrie Fisher documentary.  I was instantly transported to a more innocent time, when Flushing, Queens--which I had no idea then I would come to know--boasted the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, which boasted a CINERAMA exhibit of its own, with the dome.  I remember the dome there was green, and suggested to me the surface of the moon.  And this was in keeping with what the exhibit was foreshadowing--a movie coming out in several years, to be filmed in CINERAMA.  Something called "2001--A Space Odyssey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                           Yes, darlings.  Now, film maven that I am, I regret not only did I not see Kubrick's film in CINERAMA, I did not see it on the big screen!!!!!!!!!  And still have not!!!!!!!!!!!  I know; forty lashes with a wet noodle!!!!!!!!!!! 

                            Even more frustrating to me is, I never saw an actual film made in CINERAMA.  For those of you to whom CinemaScope may be akin to Edison's projections, CINERAMA consisted of a deeply curved screen, onto which was projected the same image, from three different projectors, at three different location points, in back of the theater. Somehow, the images blended into one.  So, of course, theaters had to be especially equipped for this.  Otherwise, it was just a regular movie.  The effect of CINERAMA was to provide the illusion of depth and dimensionality, offering the suggestion of being within the film  itself.  It was the most technological participatory device of its time.  But the films made on it were always big budgeted, and in limited released, which is one reason why I never saw it.

                             I wonder if the Los Angeles theater still offers the possibility of CINERAMA, or holds retrospective screenings???????  It would be worth a visit, were this the case.  As well as to the Brown Derby, and the Chateau Marmont, which, of course, is where I would stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             As for what film I would like to see in CINERAMA, it would be "The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm.  I mean, that dragon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              Even back then, I was a princess, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!