Mike Todd

Film producer Michael Todd was a key figure in technical innovation in the film industry during the 1950s. After working with Fred Waller and Cinerama, he became dissatisfied with the three-panel format, left the company, and sought to develop a process for "Cinerama coming from one hole." He partnered with American Optical Co. to create a system using 65mm cine cameras operating at 30 fps and wide-angle photography (approximately 150 degrees). The system was named Todd-AO after its creators and was the most advanced big-screen system available when it debuted with *Oklahoma!* (1955). Todd-AO prints used 70mm film with a 2.2:1 aspect ratio. The sound system featured six-track magnetic audio, with five channels behind the screen and one surround channel, using Perspecta coding, a switch stereo device. The 70mm Todd-AO productions were premiered through Magna Theatre Corp., which also co-produced the films. Due to the non-standard speed, the first two Todd-AO films (*Around the World in 80 Days*, 1956, was the other) were simultaneously shot in 35mm CinemaScope at 24 fps for general release, but the third production, *South Pacific* (1958), was entirely shot in 24 fps. Todd died in a plane crash in 1958, but his system continued to be used, later adopted as the wide super format by 20th Century-Fox, which employed it throughout the 1960s. During that time, several alternative processes emerged, with Super Panavision becoming the most widely used.