Description:The Cinerama was formerly known as the Bristol and later as the ABC. For a while though it was the Cinerama.
Cinerama was the brain child of motion picture engineer Fred Waller. His work at the Paramount studios in the 1930s led him to the understanding that a sense of depth and realism could be achieved by a wide curved screen that included the viewer's peripheral vision. As the film curved around it gave a sense of being "in the picture". "How The West Was Won" was the biggest film to be shown in cinerama. The film was directed by the legendary John Ford and had possibly the biggest cast of stars ever assembled for a film. Appearing in the film were: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Widmark, Lee J Cobb, Gregory Peck, George Peppard and James Stewart.
On a final trivia note, cinerama inventer Fred Waller also invented the sport/ leisure pursuit of water skiing which was one of the first ever cinerama features.
Ron Hubball, local resident, went to the first night of "How The West Was Won" and also saw them putting the sound equipment and projectors in. He remembers they had to cut a big piece out of the circle for one of the three projectors. When they went back later to two projectors shwoing 70mm they put the piece back in the balcony.