Another Pioneer Passes
John Vorisek (1925-2001)

Those familiar with the technical credits of the Cinerama travel films will recognized the name Richard Vorisek (1918-1989). He did post-production sound mixing on those five titles. Richard's brother John (Who died January 8 this year, age 75) had an unaccredited, but significant, involvement with the original production, "This is Cinerama". 

John Vorisek in 1993 in Leeds, England. Picture by Robert Weisgerber.

Richard Vorisek started work at the New York City Reeves Sound Studios in 1936. John joined his brother there in 1943, becoming the seventh member of the staff. By the time John left the organization, in 1971, he was the president of a company with 250 on the payroll. John and his brother then formed their own postproduction sound studio; Trans/Audio Inc, which became "Todd-AO East" when that California based sound firm decided to set up an east coast branch in 1987.

After a lifetime in sound, John always recalled that the original Cinerama sound music playback he heard, of "This is Cinerama" score, was better than any sound recording he had ever heard - before or since. John himself played a crucial role in creating the sound effects of two important sequences in "This is Cinerama". For some reason, no suitable location six-track recording of the opening roller-coaster ride had ever been made. He mixed standard mono sound effects mono sound effects phonograph recordings of track noises, screams, and the famous "gong", to produce the sounds that "surround" one of the most significant sequences in motion picture history.

Creating the speedboat sounds for the "Cypress Gardens" sequence was a task involving much more time, patience and effort. Again, no multi-track location recordings had been made. John worked with mono 1/4" tape "wild" sound takes. (Some sources suggest that these were made at the waters of Oyster Bay rather than Florida.). Whatever the source of the sounds, John extracted the noises of about six distinct motors, which were transferred onto six different magnetic tracks for mixing purposes. Working at the Reeves Studio, John then painstakingly viewed all three picture reels of the "Cypress Gardens" sequence individually, on a hand operated viewer. He noted the footage at which significant action occurred in each panel e.g. when boats moved in or out of the frame, skiers fall in water, etc. Using this data, he mixed a six-track magnetic "Cinerama format" recording with the sounds of various motorboats matching their movements around the screen. To achieve the final sound-effects track, featuring motor boats, splashes, applause, whistles and other background noises, about 65 different tracks were created. The combined sound effects track was then taken to Oyster Bay where it was mixed with the music track and Lowell Thomas commentary.