I couldn't get an email or post to work correctly to the author, so hoping they find this.
Thank you to the shout out to my father, Preston Fleet, for his work on developing Omnimax and everything is the article is factually correct. He died young after also building Fotomat and WD40 (and funding the Cabaret movie, for which he shared an Oscar). He shied away from the spotlight and named everything after his contributors because he was kind. And a totally shock the author knew about his presidency at the American Theatre Organ Society, which my mother followed after his death. Unfortunate selfish to say in a public forum, but really just want to thank the article's author in some way
jcrawfordor · 3h ago
Thanks! email to me@computer.rip should work, sorry if it has given you trouble. Theater organs are one of my weird little interests, so maybe it's a leap but when I saw a tangential mention that Preston Fleet had been a theater organist some of the dramatic design features of many Omnimax theaters (like the glass-walled projection rooms and displaying the speakers in the preshow) made more sense to me. They're similar to the way many theater organs were installed, especially as they started to become such a niche instrument.
classichasclass · 5h ago
I spent a great deal of time at Reuben H. Fleet as a kid growing up in San Diego, playing in the science museum and watching whatever Omnimax movie was on. Didn't matter what it was, they were almost always great eye candy. Even saw, later, a Pink Floyd-themed laser light show projected on the dome. Never failed to impress.
latchkey · 5h ago
Hey, me too! SMB/OB/PL.
jsolson · 5h ago
I was surprised to see a mention of the Carnegie Science Center's Omnimax and the year 1978 -- my recollection was that this theater didn't open until I was both alive and cognizant enough of the world around me to remember it.
I couldn't find any press covering it from 1978, although this directory of IMAX/Omnimax theaters from 1992 matches my recollection of it opening in ~1991.
jcrawfordor · 3h ago
I think you're right, I mixed up some different locations. Here's the cool thing: while I was checking that against newspaper archives I happened to run across an older version of an illustration I saw used in the '90s, but the older version has a more complete caption! It confirms that the Science Museum of Minnesota installation was at least planned to have a Spitz STS like the Fleet. I'll see if I can tell if it was ever installed or not. I've been unsure of whether or not the Fleet was the only example of a combined Omnimax/planetarium.
The same illustration appeared with announcements of some other Omnimax theaters, but I suspect it had just been copied from the Minnesota design without paying much attention. The captions never mention the STS.
However, the side control booth located about halfway up the house, which is present in all of the Omnimax theaters where I've been able to check, is labeled as the "Planetarium console." This could explain the curiosity of the '90s Omnimax theaters having two different control booths. It seems odd to keep that feature without the planetarium projector.
EvanAnderson · 5h ago
The Omnimax theatre at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal is worth the trip if you're in the area. They still show the "wormhole" and show off the speaker stacks outside the dome during the pre-show.
BirAdam · 2h ago
I’ve been to that one many times, and Union Terminal alone is worth the trip.
necubi · 1h ago
Fascinating article! I have many fond childhood memories of the IMAX (I guess Omnimax? Although I’ve never heard it called that) dome theater at the Tech Museum in San Jose. I probably saw “Everest” half a dozen times.
I’m also slightly embarrassed to just now learn that the opening sequence where the speakers and backing structure for the screen are shown looked so real because…it was. They weren’t projecting an image, just turning on lights so you could see back through the perforated metal screen!
jrowen · 2h ago
It might seem a little bit deceptive that an attraction called the Sphere does not quite pull off even a hemisphere of "payload," but the same compromise has been reached by most dome theaters.
This paragraph is bizarre to me, framed from a presumably extremely niche "Sphere-as-dome-theater" perspective. I would think that, for most people, the Sphere is the exterior part and it delivers and is every bit as innovative as anyone who has seen a picture of it would say. I don't understand the effort to downplay that and say "oh forget that part it's actually just a not-even-spherical dome theater."
SyzygyRhythm · 4h ago
I went to Space Camp in Huntsville in '89 or so. One of the perks was a daily showing at their Omnimax theater. Felt absolutely incredible at the time. The most memorable moment was a scene where they filmed the Space Shuttle tower escape system--basically a basket on a zipline that goes into a sand pit. Everyone in the theater instinctively leapt forward when the basket hit the sand. The difference, I suppose, is that the screen filled your peripheral vision as well. I didn't experience the same level of immersiveness until VR, much later on.
madcaptenor · 5h ago
I miss the Omnimax they had at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. They closed it during the pandemic and it never reopened.
nebula8804 · 1h ago
Was really special seeing Interstellar on that screen.
themadturk · 1h ago
So glad to see the mention of "The Dream Is Alive." I love the movie, but the soundtrack has haunted me for years. Excellent and informative article.
ckmiller · 5h ago
Growing up in Cincinnati, the Omnimax at the museum center was a huge influence. The light tunnel intro (one of many adapted from the Graphic Films Corporation logo [1]) absolutely blew my mind and gave me a lifelong obsession with computer graphics.
Given the expense of running a proper Omnimax theater and the lack of new content to keep it going, it seems like the only way Omnimax can be properly preserved in the long term is through VR.
bythreads · 3h ago
Thanks for this, well written
ocdtrekkie · 4h ago
So fun fact: For many years I thought IMAX was Omnimax. I had a very bad experience in an Omnimax theater when I was younger (I found it extremely disorienting) and avoided pretty much all IMAX showings for years. I forget how I found out IMAX screens were flat...
vFunct · 5h ago
First large format system I experience was Omnimax in Fort Worth in the 80's. Much more immersive than IMAX. Actually, the Apple Vision Pro movies reminds me of that experience now.
russellbeattie · 5h ago
I grew up outside of Boston and as a kid we went to the Museum of Science's Omnimax dome quite a few times.
As I grew up, I started seeing/hearing about IMAX movies, and didn't realize they were different until I went to one in another part of the country. I was very excited to go, as it had been a long time since I had been to an Omnimax.
I was pretty confused and disappointed, which is a weird reaction to have the first time in an IMAX theater. "It's just a big screen... Where's the dome?"
mschulkind · 5h ago
"I grew up just a few blocks from here."
"Who put the bomp in the bomp sha bomp!"
I too had a similar reaction the first time I saw an imax.
flymasterv · 4h ago
The helicopter intro was the best.
russellbeattie · 5h ago
OMG, I had totally forgotten about the Leonard Nimoy intro!!
I read your response and was like, "Huh?", then it hit me. That's easily a 30 year old memory sitting in deep storage. I haven't been there, or thought about it since college. The human brain is amazing.
And since we live in the future, I can easily find a clip of it online:
Thank you to the shout out to my father, Preston Fleet, for his work on developing Omnimax and everything is the article is factually correct. He died young after also building Fotomat and WD40 (and funding the Cabaret movie, for which he shared an Oscar). He shied away from the spotlight and named everything after his contributors because he was kind. And a totally shock the author knew about his presidency at the American Theatre Organ Society, which my mother followed after his death. Unfortunate selfish to say in a public forum, but really just want to thank the article's author in some way
That seems consistent with this announcement from 2017 that the theater was going to close (citing a quarter century): https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/rangos-omnimax-theater-to...
I couldn't find any press covering it from 1978, although this directory of IMAX/Omnimax theaters from 1992 matches my recollection of it opening in ~1991.
The same illustration appeared with announcements of some other Omnimax theaters, but I suspect it had just been copied from the Minnesota design without paying much attention. The captions never mention the STS.
However, the side control booth located about halfway up the house, which is present in all of the Omnimax theaters where I've been able to check, is labeled as the "Planetarium console." This could explain the curiosity of the '90s Omnimax theaters having two different control booths. It seems odd to keep that feature without the planetarium projector.
I’m also slightly embarrassed to just now learn that the opening sequence where the speakers and backing structure for the screen are shown looked so real because…it was. They weren’t projecting an image, just turning on lights so you could see back through the perforated metal screen!
This paragraph is bizarre to me, framed from a presumably extremely niche "Sphere-as-dome-theater" perspective. I would think that, for most people, the Sphere is the exterior part and it delivers and is every bit as innovative as anyone who has seen a picture of it would say. I don't understand the effort to downplay that and say "oh forget that part it's actually just a not-even-spherical dome theater."
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-09F87C6Ps
As I grew up, I started seeing/hearing about IMAX movies, and didn't realize they were different until I went to one in another part of the country. I was very excited to go, as it had been a long time since I had been to an Omnimax.
I was pretty confused and disappointed, which is a weird reaction to have the first time in an IMAX theater. "It's just a big screen... Where's the dome?"
"Who put the bomp in the bomp sha bomp!"
I too had a similar reaction the first time I saw an imax.
I read your response and was like, "Huh?", then it hit me. That's easily a 30 year old memory sitting in deep storage. I haven't been there, or thought about it since college. The human brain is amazing.
And since we live in the future, I can easily find a clip of it online:
https://youtu.be/MHK2-BVfUzs