Document details

U.S.A. in Circarama
The Magic of Films Surrounds Visitors to Brussels With Scenes of America's Cities, Factories, Farms and Markets
MOVIES Are The Chief technique with which the United States is putting its best foot forward at the Brussels World's Fair. More than 50 1 6mm movie projectors will be in almost continuous operation throughout the six-month-long Fair, giving millions of visitors from all over the world a close-up and convincing look at Americans at home and at work. In their most spectacular form, the movies at the United States Pavilion will literally surround visitors. A specially-built theater adjoining the main exhibit area will come as close as possible — without crossing any oceans — to taking visitors on a tour of the United States. Circarama, Walt Disney's striking "movies in the round" technique, will project viewers into America's cities, factories, wheat fields, and even its supermarkets. "Descendant" of Disneyland The show at Brussels is a direct descendant of the highly successful exhibit which has been a feature attraction at Disneyland since its opening in July, 1955. (Covered in a special supplement of Business Screen in September, 1955.) The Circarama Theater is a complete circle made up of 11 large screens (12'9"x9'10"). The screens are spaced about six inches apart, with the projectors for the show mounted within these strips. The projection booth for Circarama is, then, completely round itself, fringing the 45-foot diam-eter theater. All of the theatrical equipment for Circarama is mounted some eight feet above the floor, leaving considerable open space for viewers to enter and to leave. The audience stands during the Circarama show, since this is the only way a viewer can rubberneck at all eleven screens. Coupling the eleven pictures with two-channel stereophonic sound makes for a viewing experience which can vary from awesome to exhilarating, to plain dizzying. […]

Source

Title
Source type Magazine
Volume 19.4
Published
Language en
Document type Feature
Media type text
Page count 2
Pages pp. 31-32

Metadata

Id 2656
Availability Free
Inserted 2016-07-26