The Passing of Doris Waller

“Almost like a real web site”

IN7OMM.COM
• Search | Contact
• News | e-News |
• Rumour Mill | Stories
• Foreign Language
• in70mm.com auf Deutsch

WHAT'S ON IN 7OMM?

7OMM FESTIVAL
• Todd-AO Festival
• KRRR! 7OMM Seminar
• GIFF 70, Gentofte
• Oslo 7OMM Festival
• Widescreen Weekend

TODD-AO
• Premiere | Films
• People | Equipment
• Library | Cinemas
• Todd-AO Projector
• Distortion Correcting

PANAVISION
• Ultra Panavision 70
• Super Panavision 70

VISION, SCOPE & RAMA
1926 Natural Vision
1929 Grandeur
1930 Magnifilm
1930 Realife
1930 Vitascope
1952 Cinerama
1953 CinemaScope
1955 Todd-AO
1955 Circle Vision 360
1956 CinemaScope 55
1957 Ultra Panavision 70
1958 Cinemiracle
1958 Kinopanorama
1959 Super Panavision 70
1959 Super Technirama 70
1960 Smell-O-Vision
1961 Sovscope 70
1962 Cinerama 360
1962 MCS-70
1963 70mm Blow Up
1963 Circarama
1963 Circlorama
1966 Dimension 150
1966 Stereo-70
1967 DEFA 70
1967 Pik-A-Movie
1970 IMAX / Omnimax
1974 Cinema 180
1974 SENSURROUND
1976 Dolby Stereo
1984 Showscan
1984 Swissorama
1986 iWERKS
1989 ARRI 765
1990 CDS
1994 DTS / Datasat
2001 Super Dimension 70
2018 Magellan 65

• Various Large format | 70mm to 3-strip | 3-strip to 70mm | Specialty Large Format | Special Effects in 65mm | ARC-120 | Super Dimension 70 | Early Large Format
• 7OMM Premiere in Chronological Order

7OMM FILM & CINEMA
• Australia | Brazil
• Canada | Denmark
• England | France
• Germany | Iran
• Mexico | Norway
• Sweden | Turkey
• USA

LIBRARY
• 7OMM Projectors
• People | Eulogy
• 65mm/70mm Workshop
• The 7OMM Newsletter
• Back issue | PDF
• Academy of the WSW

7OMM NEWS
• 2026 | 2025 | 2024
• 2023 | 2022 | 2021
• 2020 | 2019 | 2018
• 2017 | 2016 | 2015
• 2014 | 2013 | 2012
• 2011 | 2010 | 2009
• 2008 | 2007 | 2006
• 2005 | 2004 | 2003
• 2002 | 2001 | 2000
• 1999 | 1998 | 1997
• 1996 | 1995 | 1994

in70mm.com Mission:
• To record the history of the large format movies and the 70mm cinemas as remembered by the people who worked with the films. Both during making and during running the films in projection rooms and as the audience, looking at the curved screen.
• in70mm.com, a unique internet based magazine, with articles about 70mm cinemas, 70mm people, 70mm films, 70mm sound, 70mm film credits, 70mm history and 70mm technology. Readers and fans of 70mm are always welcome to contribute.

• Disclaimer | Updates
• Support us
• Testimonials
• Table of Content

The Passing of Doris Waller	This article first appeared in ..in 70mm The 70mm Newsletter
Written by: Keith Swadkins. Reprinted from Cinerama Society Newsletter no 16 by written permission.	Issue 47 - December 1996
Doris Waller and John Harvey in January 1993. Doris was Guest of Honor at the 10th birthday celebrations of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. It is with great sadness that I must report the passing, on August 10th 1996, of Mrs Doris Waller, widow of Fred Waller. Those of us who came to know Doris in recent years will remember her as a frail lady with an active mind a bubbling personality which belied her 89 years. During the late 20s, Doris had been a script girl at Paramounts Astoria Studios, New York, when she first met Fred Waller. Fred was then a special effects cameraman and needed a technical secretary for a project he was working on. Doris had the necessary qualifications and stepped in to type up Fred's notes. However, fate decreed their paths would separate and it was not until 1942 that they married. Together with Doris son from an earlier marriage, John P Caron, they made their home in Huntington, Long Island, Fred setting up a workshop in the adjacent barn where he developed many of his inventions including the embryonic Cinerama. Joined by his stepson, the development and promotion of Cinerama later moved to an indoor tennis court on a private estate in nearby Oyster Bay.	Further in 70mm reading: This is Oyster Bay mr. cinerama in70mm.com's Cinerama page Cinerama's 50th Anniversary Internet link:
Doris Waller with John Harvey and Willem Bouwmeester in her home in Huntington, Long Island, USA. After Fred's death in 1954, Doris remained in their Huntington house which is where Brenda and I were privileged to first meet her during the fall of 1992. Although by then in her mid 80s and a little frail, Doris made us feel part of the family and entranced us with her memories of Fred and the Cinerama days. By the end of the day, we had all become life-long friends. In January 1993, Doris was able to travel to Bradford as Guest of Honor at the 10th birthday celebrations of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, opening the Pictureville Cinerama installation and attending the re-opening of "This is Cinerama". I remember her sheer delight that Fred's Cinerama had been restored for new generations to enjoy. With the passing of Doris Waller, we have all lost a major link with the magical great days of Cinerama which affected so many of our lives for ever.

Go: back - top - back issues Updated 21-01-24