I dug this out of the American Cinematographer archive after writing Tuesday’s post. From the August 1961 issue, it provides a look into a little-known yet very important corner of cinematographic history…
VINTAGE MATERIAL
Observations regarding cinematography…and other things
Cinerama itself had its origins a Fred Waller’s WW2 gunnery trainer, which used 5 cameras and projectors and a half-dome screen, I guess in a pyramid arrangement, three below and two on top. Soldiers training on it kept telling him that movies should be made in the format. He simplified it to three cameras and projectors, feeling that this could be adapted into normal theater architecture.