would love to see the movie some way

Dear Arleen,

I don't know where you are located, but I am located 50 miles from Washington, DC or Baltimore, MD and have a rudimentary Cinemiracle/Cinerama theater and a marginal copy of "Windjammer". However in my theater, the full impact of the film and the medium has been recreated.

If you are still interested in corresponding, you may reach me at
[email protected]

Paul Samuels

We will be screening a vintage 3 strip print at the National Media Museum in Bradford England on 8 March 2008. Check the Bradfordfilmfestival.org.uk website for more details

Also showing at the Pictureville cinema will be a host of 70mm films and three-strip Cinerama too! A great experience and well worth attending.

There is actually a progressive re-edition of the different Cinerama movies as well as the Cinemiracle Windjammer on dvd and blu-ray, for all regions format, with a process called smile box which recreates the impression of the curve screen and of course uses the original format of the movie.As of today 07/2013, 2 movies are already restored and on sale on the internet: "This is Cinerama" and "Windjammer". Normally in late october of 2013 "Cinerama Holiday" and "South Seas adventures" will be the next releases. I have bought the 2 first releases and it's amazing to see how the spatial effect still is felt although not using a three projectors system. To really take full advantage of thoses reprints, you should use a HomeCinema system with a video projector and a large screen or possess a large TV flat screen at home and also be equipped with a a full dolby surround system. During the projection you should seat not too far from the screen as not to be distracted by the room environment.
I 'm lucky to have a screen 2.4m wide and it is really impressive and recalls many memories of my youth when I saw all those movies at the Cinerama theater in Paris.
Although they made a huge work to restore the original quality of the colors and definition, it is not completely successfull because the restoration was faced with a limited budget. From this perspective this is a real scandal. Those movies and the format used are part of the Cinema history and should have been preserved and restored at their best as one can see for even much older films than the Cinerama ones. We have today the technologie for that. We should not forget that Cinerama, Cinemiracle, Todd-AO, Cinemascope and Vistavision are the ancestors of the actual format we see in all theaters on widescreen. Without inventors like Fred Waller inventor of Cinerama, or Mike Todd who participated in the Cinerama adventure we would not have such quality of picture today enhanced now by digital photogtaphy and sound.
I hope those infos may be of some help. Claude-Paris-France