Indian Hills Theater - Architectural and Historical Significance

Architectural and Historical Significance

Cinerama was a panoramic screen format invented by Fred Waller. It followed Waller's earlier eleven-camera, eleven-projector "Vitarama" process, first presented in 1939 at the New York World's Fair, which proved too unwieldy for widespread commercial deployment. Cinerama featured a three-camera, three-projector process that projected three film images side by side on a deep curved screen to recreate a lifelike image. The curved screen was designed to take advantage of the effect of peripheral images in the viewer's eye and create the feeling that the viewer was in the picture. A state-of-the-art, multi-track stereo sound system heightened the sense of realism. Prior to the first Cinerama production, movies were projected on a nearly-square flat screen and the sound was one-channel monophonic. As a result of Cinerama the film industry adopted the single-projector wide-screen format and stereophonic sound as the norm. At the peak of Cinerama's popularity, there were over 200 theaters in the world capable of projecting Cinerama films. Most of these were existing theaters adapted to use the Cinerama process. Ten theaters, however, were built specifically for Cinerama films. The Martin Corporation built such theaters in New Orleans, Seattle, and St. Louis. Others were located in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Cuba, and Japan. Of the ten theaters designed for Cinerama, three near-identical "Super-Cineramas" were built in Denver (Cooper Theater) (1961), Minneapolis (Cooper Theater) (1961), and Omaha (Indian Hills Theater) (1962). Only three (3) theaters remain that are configured to show Cinerama. These theaters are located in Seattle (Martin Cinerama Theater), Los Angeles (Cinerama Dome), and Bradford, England (National Media Museum). Only the theater in England has regular showings of Cinerama films.

A series of popular Cinerama films were produced in the 1950s and early 1960s. Due to the prohibitive cost of the Cinerama production process, the epic "How the West Was Won" was the last film shot using the Cinerama process, although later motion pictures (2001, A Space Odyssey, for example) that could take advantage of the wide screen, were marketed as "Cinerama" films.

The Indian Hills Theater was the movie palace of its day. As the final "Super-Cinerama" theater, it contained refinements to the design which resulted in the finest Cinerama theater ever built. It was designed with a modern functional style. The design reflected the "form follows function" philosophy of architecture. The unique circular design served to enhance every aspect of the Cinerama experience. The curved screen was the largest ever installed in a Cinerama theater. The only other two (2) "Super-Cinerama" theaters were demolished. One located in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, was demolished to make way for a restaurant and office complex. The other, located in Denver, Colorado, was demolished and replaced with a chain bookstore. The Indian Hills theater showed its last Cinerama film in March, 1964. The theater closed on September 28, 2000.

According to David Strohmaier, a Los Angeles filmmaker and producer of a documentary film called "Cinerama Adventure," the Indian Hills Theater was unique. It was unique because of the circular design and extraordinarily large screen. The Indian Hills Theater embodied the culmination of Cinerama design and technology.