The recent discussion about "2001" got me nostalgic/curious about the old days of magnetic four-track 35mm and six-track 70mm.
I'll probably never know what the first movie I ever saw in stereo was, though it may have been the initial release of "Mary Poppins". I learned in hindsight that theaters I'd been to were equipped for magnetic stereo and/or 70mm, but when I was a kid that either wasn't promoted much in Sacramento or I just wasn't aware of it.
I kinda think I might have noticed stereo happening in "Hello Dolly!" circa 1970 (I know the theater was properly equipped) but the memory is very dim. What I do remember a few years later in the same theater was seeing "That's Entertainment" and suddenly having a voice come from the back of the theater saying something totally appropriate like "I'm back here!" (I haven't seen the movie since, I assume anyone more familiar with it knows what I'm talking about). That's definitely my first memory of a surround effect.
I can remember one revival showing of "2001" explicitly advertised as having four-track mag sound and I remember listening for it when I went to the show. In fact, that's probably the first time I knew exactly what I was going to hear before walking in. I don't have any further memories of advance notice of the audio format until "Tommy" came along with its very hyped ZacharyQuintophonic mix.
When "The Song Remains the Same" was new it was initially shown in 4-track at one of the local theaters. By the time I finally made it there, it had been moved into a mono auditorium and paired with a mono print of "Pink Floyd at Pompeii", which even as a huge fan I'd never managed to see before...probably because I wasn't yet a fan when it first came around.
Some time during my high school years Dolby Stereo was introduced and the move away from magnetic stereo to optical stereo began. There was a period where a very nice local theater would get second and third run features with low ticket prices. It had a great sound system but it had been in place since the 1960s and was only equipped for magnetic stereo...so the new stuff coming out with fancy Dolby tracks would run on a big, beautiful curved screen but only with mono sound. I've heard that even into the 1980s there were some bigger films printed with both optical Dolby and magnetic soundtracks, but I never encountered the magnetic versions.
This being the pre-video age, occasionally the older theaters would revive a magnetic title, so I was finally able to see both the Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd films in four-track. I can also remember "Tommy" getting a midnight showing, though I can't imagine it was anything other than standard LCRS. Also got to see "Yessongs" a few times in multichannel, though apparently that had a genuine quad mix that didn't work too well with the standard three-in-front + mono surround layout.
Enough rambling. Just curious how many others were more aware of this stuff as kids than I was. I kinda feel like I really missed out on something I probably would have enjoyed.
I'll probably never know what the first movie I ever saw in stereo was, though it may have been the initial release of "Mary Poppins". I learned in hindsight that theaters I'd been to were equipped for magnetic stereo and/or 70mm, but when I was a kid that either wasn't promoted much in Sacramento or I just wasn't aware of it.
I kinda think I might have noticed stereo happening in "Hello Dolly!" circa 1970 (I know the theater was properly equipped) but the memory is very dim. What I do remember a few years later in the same theater was seeing "That's Entertainment" and suddenly having a voice come from the back of the theater saying something totally appropriate like "I'm back here!" (I haven't seen the movie since, I assume anyone more familiar with it knows what I'm talking about). That's definitely my first memory of a surround effect.
I can remember one revival showing of "2001" explicitly advertised as having four-track mag sound and I remember listening for it when I went to the show. In fact, that's probably the first time I knew exactly what I was going to hear before walking in. I don't have any further memories of advance notice of the audio format until "Tommy" came along with its very hyped ZacharyQuintophonic mix.
When "The Song Remains the Same" was new it was initially shown in 4-track at one of the local theaters. By the time I finally made it there, it had been moved into a mono auditorium and paired with a mono print of "Pink Floyd at Pompeii", which even as a huge fan I'd never managed to see before...probably because I wasn't yet a fan when it first came around.
Some time during my high school years Dolby Stereo was introduced and the move away from magnetic stereo to optical stereo began. There was a period where a very nice local theater would get second and third run features with low ticket prices. It had a great sound system but it had been in place since the 1960s and was only equipped for magnetic stereo...so the new stuff coming out with fancy Dolby tracks would run on a big, beautiful curved screen but only with mono sound. I've heard that even into the 1980s there were some bigger films printed with both optical Dolby and magnetic soundtracks, but I never encountered the magnetic versions.
This being the pre-video age, occasionally the older theaters would revive a magnetic title, so I was finally able to see both the Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd films in four-track. I can also remember "Tommy" getting a midnight showing, though I can't imagine it was anything other than standard LCRS. Also got to see "Yessongs" a few times in multichannel, though apparently that had a genuine quad mix that didn't work too well with the standard three-in-front + mono surround layout.
Enough rambling. Just curious how many others were more aware of this stuff as kids than I was. I kinda feel like I really missed out on something I probably would have enjoyed.
