Todd-AO is an American

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

company founded in 1953 by

Mike Todd Michael Todd (born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen; June 22, 1907 – March 22, 1958) was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 ''Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film), Around the World in 80 Days'', which won an Academy ...

and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company retains one facility, in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

area. Todd-AO is also the name of the widescreen,

70 mm film 70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm movie film, 35 mm List of film formats, motion picture film format ...

format that was developed by Mike Todd and the Naify brothers, owners of United Artists Theaters in partnership with the

American Optical Company The American Optical Company, also known as AO Eyewear, is a luxury American eyewear and sunglass company based in Vernon Hills, Illinois near Chicago. AO designs and manufactures in the United States. History Founded in 1833 by William Beecher, ...

in the mid-1950s. Todd-AO had been founded to promote and distribute this system.

History

Todd-AO began as a high resolution

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

format. It was co-developed in the early 1950s by

, a Broadway producer, and United Artists Theaters in partnership with the American Optical Company in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. It was developed to provide a high definition single camera widescreen process to compete with

Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35 mm movie film, 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, Subtended angle, subtending 146-degrees of arc. The trademarked pr ...

, or as characterized by its creator, "Cinerama outta one hole." Where Cinerama used a complicated setup of three separate strips of film photographed simultaneously, Todd-AO required only a single

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

and

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

. The company's focus began to shift after Mike Todd's sudden death in an airplane accident in 1958. The 70 mm Todd-AO process was adopted by Panavision, Cinerama and others. As the production and exhibition markets became saturated with Todd-AO System hardware, the focus of the company gradually began to narrow to the audio post-production side of the business, and Todd-AO became an independent sound mixing facility for commercial motion picture films and television after acquiring Glen Glenn Sound in 1986. In May 2014, Todd-AO's parent company, Todd Soundelux, filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

bankruptcy protection. As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the company closed its Hollywood and Santa Monica facilities, leaving only their Burbank location operational. On November 17, 2014,

Sounddogs Sounddogs.com, Inc. is a commercial online library of sound effects based in Marina Del Rey, California, with offices in Canada, Argentina, and Uruguay. It is the first and largest online sound effects and production music library on the internet ...

acquired the Todd-Soundelux Trademarks (Todd AO and Soundelux) and Copyrights (Sound Effects Library) through Federal Bankruptcy Court (Central District Case No. 2:14-bk-19980).

Todd-AO process

The Todd-AO process uses two separate film stocks; a 65 mm negative is used during production and then used to produce the 70 mm positives for distribution. The sprocket hole

perforations A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

on the two are the same, and the positives are printed using contact printing with the negatives centered on the larger 70 mm film. Contact printing was used on prints that were to be "double system", using a separate, synchronized 35 mm full-coat magnetic film for the 6 sound tracks, in addition to the 70 mm film for the picture. The much more common 70 mm release prints used a slightly optically reduced picture, and placed four of the soundtracks on either edge outside of the perforations, and two more soundtracks inside the perforations, providing a total of six soundtracks, on a 7.5 mm magnetic surface. Todd-AO soundtracks were very high fidelity, and could still compete with modern digital tracks above 40 kHz. Even though there were no

subwoofer A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies, known as bass and sub-bass, that are lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range that is ...

s in theaters in those days, Todd-AO delivered high-impact bass using crisp-sounding horn-loaded speakers. Four lens options covered a 128, 64, 48 or 37 degree field of view. The

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

of this format was 2.20:1. Both film sizes had been used in the past, in the 70 mm Fox Grandeur process in 1929–1930, but Todd-AO's physical format was not compatible with this format. The use of 65 mm photography and 70 mm printing became the standard adopted by others: Super Panavision 70 (essentially the Panavision company's version of Todd-AO) and

Ultra Panavision 70 Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were, from 1957 to 1966, the marketing brands that identified motion pictures photographed with Panavision's anamorphic movie camera lenses on 65 mm film. Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 were shot at 2 ...

(the same mechanically, but with a slight 1.25:1

anamorphic Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film to create widescreen pres ...

squeeze to accommodate extremely wide aspect ratio images) are both 65/70 processes. The Soviet film industry also copied Todd-AO with their own Sovscope 70 process, identical, except that both the camera and print stock were 70 mm wide. The

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

format also uses 65 mm camera and lab film to create 70 mm prints for projection (also known as the 65/70 mm process); conforming to the pitch and perforation standard for 70 mm Todd-AO film. However, the IMAX frame is 15 perfs long and runs horizontally through the projector, whereas the Todd-AO frame is only 5 perfs high and runs vertically through the projector. The original version of the Todd-AO process used a frame rate of 30 frames per second, faster than the 24 frames per second that was (and is) the standard. The difference does not seem great, but the sensitivity of the human eye to flickering declines steeply with frame rate and the small adjustment gave the film noticeably less flicker, and made it steadier and smoother than standard processes. The original system generated an image that was "almost twice as intense as any ever seen onscreen before, and so hot that the film has to be cooled as it passes through the Todd-AO projector". Only the first two Todd-AO films, ''

Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...

'' and ''

Around the World in Eighty Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...

'', employed 30 frames per second photography. Because of the need for conventional versions at 24 frames per second, every scene of the former film was shot twice in succession: once in Todd-AO and once in 35 mm CinemaScope. The latter film was shot with two 65 mm Todd-AO cameras simultaneously, the speed of the second camera was 24 frames per second for wide release as optical reduction prints. All subsequent Todd-AO films were shot at 24 frames per second on a 65 mm negative and optically printed to 35 mm film as needed for standard distribution. In all, around 16 feature films were shot in Todd-AO. Todd-AO was developed and tested in Buffalo, New York, at the Regent Theatre.

Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers wa ...

and

Oscar Hammerstein II Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Award ...

went there to see Todd-AO test footage, which led them to approve its use for ''Oklahoma!''.

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

Corporation engineers were in charge of developing the Todd-AO sound system. Ampex would later go on to manufacture the sound system, including selectable four-track composite (CinemaScope), six-track composite (Todd-AO), four-track interlocked, six-track interlocked or optical sound sources. The Todd-AO Company also offered a 35 mm anamorphic process technically similar to 35 mm Panavision or CinemaScope. This may cause some confusion if a Todd-AO credit (not necessarily the more specific Todd-AO 35 credit) appears in some widescreen films made in the 1970s and 1980s. It becomes even more confusing as 70 mm prints were made for films which, unlike earlier pictures made in the process, were shown in multiplexes, like ''

Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

'' and '' Logan's Run''. During the late 1970s through the early 1990s, 65 mm photography such as that used in processes like Todd-AO or Super Panavision became rare. However, some major films had 70 mm prints made by blowup from 35 mm negatives mostly for the benefit of six-track sound. These prints would typically play only in a few theatres in a few large cities while everyone else viewed the film in 35 mm. The advent of multichannel digital sound in the 1990s obviated these very expensive prints. "Blow-up" 70 mm prints also followed the Todd-AO layout, although in the case of films made with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, it was retained in the 70 mm version, with the sides of the 70 mm frame left black.

Curved screen vs. flat

While Todd-AO was intended to be "Cinerama out of one hole", the extreme wide-angle photography and projection onto a very deeply curved screen (which is what that would imply) saw little use. Most Todd-AO theatre installations had only moderately curved screens and the extreme wide-angle camera lenses were used only on a few shots here and there. Todd-AO films made after 1958 used a conventional flat widescreen, and resembled ordinary films, except for their greater clarity and six-track stereo sound. A variation on Todd-AO called Dimension 150 did, however, make use of Cinerama-like deeply curved screens. Only two films were made in Dimension 150 – '' The Bible: In the Beginning...'', directed by

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

, and '' Patton'', starring George C. Scott. In some venues, however, Todd-AO and Dimension 150 films received their first run in Cinerama theatres in order that they be shown on a deeply curved screen – such as the first

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

showings of ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. ...

''.

Todd-AO and roadshows

Todd-AO films were closely associated with what was called roadshow exhibition. At the time, before multiplex theatres became common, most films opened at a large single screen theatre in the downtown area of each large city before eventually moving on to neighborhood theatres. With the roadshow concept, a film would play, often in 70 mm at a

movie palace A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. Wi ...

downtown theatre exclusively, sometimes for a year or more. Often a "hard ticket" policy was in effect, with tickets sold for specific numbered seats, and limited showings per day. Most Todd-AO films through the late 1960s, including '' Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'' and ''

'', were initially shown on a roadshow basis. In some US cities, individual theaters were converted for use in the 1950s as dedicated Todd-AO "Cinestage" showplaces. These theaters showed exclusive roadshow engagements of Todd-AO and other 70 mm films on large, deeply curved screens. They included the Rivoli Theatre in New York City, the Cinestage Theatre in Chicago and Hunt's Cinestage Theatre in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. The roadshow era ended in the early 1970s, although a very few films (among them ''

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

'') were shown in roadshow format after that.

Todd-AO 35

In the 1970s, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Vetter, Todd-AO made an attempt to compete with

Panavision Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...

in the 35 mm motion picture camera rental market. The company built a series of anamorphic lenses in the 2.35:1 scope format, and owned several camera bodies (Mitchell and Arriflex) that they would provide with the lens package. Films produced in Todd-AO 35 include ''

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'' is a 1972 American science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Paul Dehn. The film is the sequel to '' Escape from the Planet of the Apes'' (1971) and the fourth installment in the ori ...

'', ''

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...

'', ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...

'', ''

'' and '' Logan's Run''. By the mid 1980s the venture was moribund, and was finally abandoned in 1992. Eventually all of the Todd-AO cameras and lenses, both 35 mm and 65 mm (70 mm), were sold to Cinema Products in Los Angeles. The 35mm anamorphic lenses are now in the rental inventory of Keslow Camera.

Timeline

* 1953:

, the Naify brothers and the American Optical Company form a joint venture called Todd-AO for the purpose of developing and distributing a large film format presentation system which incorporates a wide, curved screen with multi-channel sound. * 1955 and 1956: Mike Todd produced two films which feature the new Todd-AO system. * 1958: Mike Todd is killed in a plane crash. * 1960s and 1970s: Although several blockbuster films were produced using the Todd-AO or Panavision versions of the 5-perf 70 mm format, market penetration of the Todd-AO system lost momentum, and is overtaken by the development of IMAX in the 1970s. * 1986: Acquired Glen Glenn Sound. *1987: Acquired the Trans/Audio sound studio in New York City * 1994: Acquired Film-Video Masters, Inc. *1995: Acquired Skywalker Sound South studios from

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

in Santa Monica *1995: Purchased Chrysalis Television Facilities and its satellite transmission from the Chrysalis Group *1996: Acquired Pacific Title and Art which brought specialization in the production of film, title, and optical special effects as well as digital services for motion pictures *1996: Acquired Editworks, which specialized in commercial advertising in Atlanta, expanded Todd-AO’s geographic connections *1997: Acquired International Video Conversions in Burbank *1997: Purchased Hollywood Digital Company *1998: Acquired Pascal Video to address the potential market in Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) technology. Todd-AO Video Services DVD, Inc. was created for the conversion of film and video content to DVD format *1999: Acquired SoundOne Corporation in New York City *1999: Purchased 50% of 103 Estudio in Barcelona * 1999: Todd-AO acquired by Liberty Media Group, a division of

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

, and became part of its Liberty Livewire entity. * 2002: Liberty Livewire renamed Ascent Media Group. * 2005: Ascent Media Group spun-off from owner, Liberty Media, into Discovery Holding Company. * 2007: Discovery Holding Company announced a restructuring plan where it intended to spin off its interest in Ascent Media and combine Discovery Communications with Advance/Newhouse Communications into a new holding company. The reorganization was completed on September 17, 2008. * 2007: The Todd-AO Scoring Stage closed. * 2008: "Creative Sound Services" division of Ascent Media Group was spun-off from Discovery Holding Company to create CSS Studios, LLC, to become a wholly owned subsidiary of

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Cha ...

. This transaction included the assets of Todd-AO, Soundelux, Sound One, POP Sound, Modern Music, Soundelux Design Music Group and The Hollywood Edge. * 2012: CSS Studios, LLC is acquired by Empire InvestmentHoldings, which files bankruptcy for Todd Soundelux in May 2014. *2014: (May) Todd Soundelux files for bankruptcy, closing its Hollywood and Santa Monica facilities. *2014: (November) Sounddogs acquires the Todd-Soundelux Trademarks (Todd AO and Soundelux) and Copyrights (Sound Effects Library)

Films produced in 70 mm Todd-AO

(films photographed in Todd-AO 35 not included) *''

'' (1955) – 30 frame/s (also photographed in CinemaScope for conventional distribution) *''

'' (1956) – 30 frame/s (also photographed in Todd-AO 24 frames/s and reduction-printed for conventional CinemaScope distribution) *''The Miracle of Todd-AO'' (1956) – 30 frame/s; short subject *'' South Pacific'' (1958) – this and all subsequent were 24 frame/s *''The March of Todd-AO'' (1958) – short subject *''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...

'' (1959) *''

Can-Can The can-can (also spelled cancan as in the original French /kɑ̃kɑ̃/) is a high-energy, physically demanding dance that became a popular music-hall dance in the 1840s, continuing in popularity in French cabaret to this day. Originally dance ...

'' (1960) *'' The Alamo'' (1960) *'' Scent of Mystery'' (1960) – credited as Todd 70 *''

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

'' (1963) *'' Man in the 5th Dimension'' (1964) – NYC World's Fair short subject *''

'' (1965) *'' Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'' (1965) *'' The Agony and the Ecstasy'' (1965) *'' The Bible: In the Beginning'' (1966) – Dimension 150 variant *'' Doctor Dolittle'' (1967) *'' Star!'' (1968) *'' Hello, Dolly!'' (1969) *'' Krakatoa, East of Java'' (1969) – selected scenes (see Super Panavision 70) – presented in 70 mm

*''

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

'' (1970) *'' Patton'' (1970) – Dimension 150 variant *'' The Last Valley'' (1971) *'' Moonwalk One'' (1971) *'' Baraka'' (1992)

Awards

Feature film

Television

References

External links

Todd-AO official site

Internet Movie Database listing of films shot in Todd-AO

Todd-AO information from in70 mm.com

Journal of Film Preservation N° 56
on page 19:
The history of the Todd-AO projector, known as the DP70
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd-Ao Mass media companies established in 1953 Film and video technology Motion picture film formats 1953 establishments in California Recipients of the Scientific and Technical Academy Award of Merit

History

Todd-AO process

Curved screen vs. flat

Todd-AO and roadshows

Todd-AO 35

Timeline

Films produced in 70 mm Todd-AO

Awards

Feature film

Television

See also

References

External links