pete@stc.UUCP (Peter Kendell) (08/29/85)
I caught myself telling someone, as if from certain
authority, that the first movie ever released with
a stereo soundtrack was Disney's Fantasia (1941ish),
which had a seven-track optical system.
Was I right? It strikes me that Allan Blumlein may
have done something in the 'thirties.
Information, shooting down in flames etc., welcome!
--
Peter Kendell <pete@stc.UUCP>
...mcvax!ukc!stc!pete
'Not everything that is not forbidden is permitted'rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (09/03/85)
[] Well, if there were any earlier ones they didn't get wide distribution. Because where was the reproduction technology? In the case of Fantasia, they closed down the biggest theater in my little home town of Minneapolis for a month so they could install the new system. In addition to speakers on the sides and the rear, they also installed a giant screen - the same aspect ratio as others (it was a SMPE (not SMPTE, T hadn't been invented yet) standard) only much larger. I don't recall any other major conversion job on the sound until after WWII. For the benefit of the unitiated, SMPTE is the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. THey used to standardize everything in da movies so da films would play in Peoria as well as Hollywood. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg