Last 35mm Magnetic Stereo Release

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

The question came up on another forum, what was the last new film released with 35mm magnetic stereo (or mag mono) prints? Related, what was the last re-issue released with magnetic stereo prints.

[Steve Guttag]

That is going to be a tough one to pin down. Fantasia, as far a reissues go (with actual reissue not merely a catalog title that someone booked independently of a studio promotion), was always available 4-track. I want to say I saw 4-track prints of that title as late as 1985 or 1986. As the story goes, due to how it was miced and recorded, it didn't perform well with a pro-logic decode and with just a 1.37 aperture, didn't lend itself to 70mm to just get the sound. As such, 35mm 4-track could continue to deliver the 4-track version of the movie.

Purple Rain is definitely getting near the end of the new features with 4-track prints in 1984. By then, most of the studios seemed to have settled their beefs with Dolby (Universal tended to have 4-track prints in the early 80s on some titles like Blues Brothers and Scarface. Barbra Streisand insisted on 4-track prints for Yentl.

[Michael Coate]

I’ll second Steve’s vote for “Fantasia” as the final mag re-issue. I believe the final new release with mag print(s) was “Bring on the Night” (released November 1985).

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

I had heard that there were mag prints for the Fantasia 50th anniversary reissue in 1990. Unfortunately, I have never seen one, or attended a theatre that claimed to be playing one, so it could be just an urban legend or perhaps Disney just sent out one of the earlier struck prints to theatres that requested mag stereo.

[Michael Coate]

I had heard that there were mag prints for the Fantasia 50th anniversary reissue in 1990. Unfortunately, I have never seen one, or attended a theatre that claimed to be playing one, so it could be just an urban legend or perhaps Disney just sent out one of the earlier struck prints to theatres that requested mag stereo.

There were 70mm Six-Track Dolby (magnetic) prints for the 50th anniversary 1990 re-release. Maybe that’s what they’re thinking of?

[Gordon McLeod]

the last ones I handled were Yentyl Blues Brothers Star is Born Scarface Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

[Jesse Crooks]

Fantasia, as far a reissues go (with actual reissue not merely a catalog title that someone booked independently of a studio promotion), was always available 4-track. I want to say I saw 4-track prints of that title as late as 1985 or 1986. As the story goes, due to how it was miced and recorded, it didn't perform well with a pro-logic decode and with just a 1.37 aperture, didn't lend itself to 70mm to just get the sound. As such, 35mm 4-track could continue to deliver the 4-track version of the movie.

Do you know how the Fantasound system was converted to 4-track mag? It just so happens that yesterday our friend Lou showed me a pair of stereo photocells that were used for the original optical process. He said that the two-channel optical track was decoded kind of like the Dolby system, but I didn't ask for clarification.

[Terry Monohan]

While not the last 35mm 4 track mag release print I remember when while in high school in 1962 while working at the large Fox West Coast's 'Fox Theatre' in downtown Oakland CA they received a new 35mm mag 4 track scope print of the WB movie 'The Music Man'. The Fox Oakland is still open to this day!

It was so nice to hear the seldom used wide stereo stage speakers and all the RCA stereo surround speakers used for the fist time in many years in this large Fox movie palace both on the main floor and huge loge/balcony area that I worked in.

The manager Jack Mc Dougal was so glad the studios sent him a 4 track mag stereo print of 'The Music Man' in wide screen as in the 1960's they mainly only sent stereo mag prints to the movie theatres in San Francisco CA. Oakland CA mostly received a mono 35mm print of many released stereo films. Everyone got mag 35mm 4 track prints in the 1950's in the SF Bay Area even the small neighborhood theatres but in the 1960's the studios cut way back in certain markets like Oakland with stereo 4 track mag prints.

I even invited my parents to see and hear the film in full stereo 35mm 4 track magnetic stereo. It was very crisp as they rarely ventured out to a movie theatre downtown but they enjoyed the multi sound print shown on the large semi curved CinemaScope® Fox Oakland screen. The Fox scope screen was not as wide at the Paramount Theatre a block away. They brought some black masking down at the Fox and just opened a little on the sides for wide screen as in the late 1960s' Panavision® and other wide screen systems were starting to show up in place of CinemaScope®

Jack Mc Dougal the manager was very cheap at first, he did not want to give me any free passes for my parents to see the movie but when they arrived he was all smiles and glad to meet them and let them in for free like he was a big shot manager.

While Dolby Digital® today sounds ok I miss the hiss and hi pitch sound of a good 4 track magnetic print in a large downtown movie palace. Many had a ton of little box RCA or Ampex surround speakers all up and down the side walls upstairs and downstairs. Not so much deep base like today's theatre speakers but still nice to hear as a little high school kid wanting to get into the movie theatre business.

The two old IA projection guys like 'Elmer' in the booth told me I remember how fragile the magnetic 4 track prints can be and showed me the reels with the mag coating on the sides.

[Steve Guttag]

In the early '80s, I had to live, to a degree, with the legacy of 35mm 4-track magnetic and what Terry described above about how there were cutbacks on prints. Having not lived through the introduction of the 4-track era, I didn't understand, at first why there was this aversion to buying/installing Dolby Stereo equipment (CP50, at the time). They always referenced to the money that was "wasted" on 4-track. Theatre owners, particularly back then, have a long memory and generally expected film equipment to last essentially the life of the theatre. So they spent all this money on CinemaScope and in less than a decade watched it fall into disuse. CinemaScope, though cheaper than ToddAO was still considerably more expensive than a standard mono theatre. At least the refit for the wider screens did continue. Also, in the early '80s, Dolby Stereo prints accounted for less than 20% of the prints, so again, there is no guarantee that if you bought this expensive Dolby stuff (complete with speakers, amplifiers and installation, that it would do much more than hang on the wall.

That is one reason companies like Kintek got their foot in the door...they could sell you on getting 100% use of your investment. Even into the mid-'80s, many, if not most prestige movies were still released in mono (academy award types like Terms of Endearment and Sophie's Choice were mono). Heck, even Sci-Fi movies like The Terminator were released mono.

[Terry Monohan]

One of the last 35mm 4 track mag stereo prints we saw in Hollywood CA in 1978 was the Columbia movie 'THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY' at the Pix Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. Also watched in mag stereo in the large NGC Fox Warfield on Market St in San Francisco CA.

This was very late on prints still made in magnetic 4 track stereo. The music mix sounded so hot in a large theatre on this film of TGIF, now they have released this fun crazy disco film on Blu Ray in Dolby Digital®

Seems like the few disco films they did make were in mono sound and they played dull non copyright fill music on the track. TGIF used true disco 'Casablanca' sound dance tracks with many different disco artists from that dance club time.

Filmed in flat 1.85 at a true dico club (no movie set) called the Caberet in West Hollywood CA now long gone . I still have a autograph photo from the actress that played the crazy girl with the orange hair wig in the film up on my tiki film still/poster wall!

To see this movie in a big theatre packed with young disco fans the whole cinema with the surround speakers blairring with the dance beats turned the whole cinema into a disco club for 90 minutes! The crowd loved the movie even though the story was very lame.

Thanks so much to Columbia pictures and Casablanca Records for using the 35mm mag 4 track system for all of us to enjoy before Dolby Stereo® took over.

We play this new stereo Blu Ray film from time to time on our big home screen and pump up the sound, show to people that never watched the movie in magnetic sound from1978 or we're to young to remember the disco days and they all comment on the stereo surround music used in TGIF.

A retired projectionist friend John from Florida told me recently when he ran the film in 1978 when they got a 35mm mag 4 track print from Columbia they had not used their 4 track amps and mag heads in many years and It worked just fine. John said the audience had not heard the stereo stage or surround wall speakers in a long time and enjoyed the two week almost sold out booking of TGIF.

How many of you guys here on this Film-Tech Forum can go back to 1978 and tell us If you watched 'THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY' in 35mm 4 track stereo and what theatre and town you saw It in and any thoughts about the sound system used?