Todd-AO

Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries.

Todd-AO is also the name of the widescreen, 70 mm film format that was developed by Mike Todd and the Naify brothers, owners of United Artists Theaters in partnership with the American Optical Company in the mid-1950s.

It was co-developed in the early 1950s by Mike Todd, a Broadway producer, and United Artists Theaters in partnership with the American Optical Company in Buffalo, New York.

Where Cinerama used a complicated setup of three separate strips of film photographed simultaneously, Todd-AO required only a single camera and lens.

As the production and exhibition markets became saturated with Todd-AO System hardware, the focus of the company gradually began to narrow to the audio post-production side of the business, and Todd-AO became an independent sound mixing facility for commercial motion picture films and television after acquiring Glen Glenn Sound in 1986.

[3] As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the company closed its Hollywood and Santa Monica facilities, leaving only their Burbank location operational.

[4] On November 17, 2014, Sounddogs acquired the Todd-Soundelux Trademarks (Todd AO and Soundelux) and Copyrights (Sound Effects Library) through Federal Bankruptcy Court (Central District Case No.

The Soviet film industry also copied Todd-AO with their own Sovscope 70 process, identical, except that both the camera and print stock were 70 mm wide.

The original system generated an image that was "almost twice as intense as any ever seen onscreen before, and so hot that the film has to be cooled as it passes through the Todd-AO projector".

In some venues, however, Todd-AO and Dimension 150 films received their first run in Cinerama theatres in order that they be shown on a deeply curved screen – such as the first Atlanta showings of The Sound of Music.

Most Todd-AO films through the late 1960s, including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and The Sound of Music, were initially shown on a roadshow basis.

In the 1970s, under the leadership of Dr. Richard Vetter, Todd-AO made an attempt to compete with Panavision in the 35 mm motion picture camera rental market.

The company built a series of anamorphic lenses in the 2.35:1 scope format, and owned several camera bodies (Mitchell and Arriflex) that they would provide with the lens package.

Films produced in Todd-AO 35 include Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Conan the Barbarian, Mad Max, Dune and Logan's Run.

Figure 1. Todd-AO: 65 mm negative and 70 mm positive
Todd-AO (5-perf) 70 mm negative frame dimensions