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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Movie camera Motion picture film format |
| Founded | 1937 |
| Founder | Fred Waller Ralph Thomas Walker |
| Successor | Cinerama Inc. |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Vitarama was film special effects pioneer Fred Waller's immersive motion picture exhibition that was first developed for demonstration at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The system involved a film shot with eleven synchronized cameras and displayed with eleven synchronized projectors onto a hemispherically curved screen. The curved array allowed audiences a 160-degree by 60-degree view to include the human eye's peripheral vision, accompanied by multi-channel stereophonic sound and live pyrotechnic flash bulbs, to give viewers a faux three dimensional experience. Waller, head of special effects for Paramount Pictures, had already been working on methods of shooting with multiple cameras for a widescreen format when he was invited to direct special projects for the World's Fair. The idea of a curved screen came in 1937 from architect Ralph Thomas Walker[1], with whom Waller collaborated on the centerpiece attraction, the Perisphere. Vitarama Corp was founded to patent the technology and further fund the project.
The technology became the basis for the Waller Flexible Gunnery Trainer, a five camera/projector system used by the United States military as a combat simulator to train hundreds of thousands of anti-aircraft gunners during World War II and beyond. Custom manufactured versions of the system were sold to companies for sales and marketing purposes. Seagram Distillers Corporation purchased a five camera system in that was put into use at their 1947 annual sales conference to wow their sales force with a huge visual presentation[2]. In 1949, for the second year of Chicago Railroad Fair, the Vitarama Hall was created to exhibit a film about the Eastern Railroad, commissioned by a conglomerate of major train operators[3]. In the 1950's, Waller used the same technology to create Cinerama, a three camera/projector system adopted as the first widescreen format put into use by major motion picture companies and film exhibitors.
Patents[edit]
- U.S. patent 2,280,206: Motion picture theater (filed Sep 17, 1937, issued Apr 21, 1942)
- U.S. patent 2,273,074: Screen for picture projection (filed Jun 14, 1938, issued Feb 17, 1942)