Sensurround

In the history of movie gimmickry, which includes The Tingler Electroshock, Smellovision and 3-D, Sensurround is by no means the least effective or the most offensive. Like its predecessors, it was seriously defined as an attempt to break through film's customary sensory limits. More honestly, it was a means of luring the credulous into paying good money for a bad picture. Sensurround consisted of nothing more than a bank of woofers that emit low-pitched rumbling sounds, causing the theater to vibrate in a mildly alarming manner whenever earth tremors are seen to move, shake and ultimately destroy Los Angeles.(click on the above image to get an idea of what viewing a Sensurround film looked like. Enough to give you a headache eh?)
Sensurround was Universal Studios proprietary system that premiered with the 1974 film EARTHQUAKE. The system did not fair well. During its initial release, with the film Earthquake, theater owners were subjected to a $500.00 a week rental fee plus they has the dubious honor of being guinea pigs in a grand experiment. The low frequency signal produced by the system could not be contained within the theater. During this time many older theaters had been remodeled and it was common for a single screen theater to be split into two theaters. That split meant there were side by side theaters with a common wall. That common wall could never contain the fury that was Sensurround. The Godfather II was released at the same time and was booked into the same houses as Earthquake. The vibration was so distracting that theater owners were forced to make a decision and it was not in favor of the $500.00 a week fee. Theater owners who stuck it out had other problems too. The Gruaman's Chinese Theater had to install a net below the ceiling to ensure bits of the old plaster and woodwork did not rattle loose and fall on patrons. Several theater adjacent stores reported damage from the system. A mall pet store reported that mall bound theater system killed its goldfish. It was a disaster tailor-made to accompany a disaster.

Here is a section taken directly from the Sensurround sound installation manual:
"The Sensurround Model II system developed by MCA Universal brings a new dimension to the motion picture theatre. It is designed to generate special audible and sub audible effects not yet possible to reproduce on presently available systems. The audience will actually be participating in the film. The torso will vibrate. So will the diaphragm. Flesh and auditory nerves will receive the sensations one might feel while experiencing the event depicted on the screen. Rather than the structure-shaking resulting from a natural disaster, this vibrating movement is actually airborne. Although some vibration can be felt - on thin wall surfaces, the amplitude is so small that no appreciable displacement can be measured. Also, the Sensurround effects will not cause hearing damage. The system is composed of high-level electro-acoustic with solid-state power amplifiers capable of up to 1000 watts of audio power. The system develops 100 to 120 dB sound pressure level (SPL) on the "C" scale in the theatre. "

Universal made sure the system would work no matter what type of film you were projecting. 70mm magnetic or 35mm optical, Sensurround worked. It took its cues from markers on the film.

It was a system that could awe but it had its flaws. One man suffered a cracked rib from the system. Other people fell ill. Nausea and vomiting were common.
Also... it seemed that the Sensurround system, if it were on a musical scale, emitted "the brown note." It could rattle your bowels clean. Yet another reason why theater owners frowned on the system.

It was used on only four films Earthquake (which won an Oscar for sound) Midway, Rollercoaster and, its last gasp, Battlestar Galactica.

The only two surviving Sensurround systems are currently at Dolby Laboratories.

They Always Come Back:
There will always be some sort of gimmick added to films. Ride the current 3-d wave if you must. If you want good old fashioned shaky gut rumbles buy the EARTHQUAKE DVD (The one released 2006) and enjoy its SENSURROUND 3.1 technology. You can also check the store for Sensurround products.

S.S. Adams Company

Soren Adam Sorensen was born near Aarhus Denmark in 1879 to Hans and Sofia Sorensen, and immigrated to the U.S.A. with his family at age four, and grew up in Perth Amboy, New Jersey where his father operated a saloon. In 1904 Adams found himself employed as a salesman for a dye company. One of the products he sold caused workers to sneeze, and Sam found a way to extract this derivative from the dye and called this new powder Cachoo. He was inundated by requests for this product from his friends and so, he decided to sell his interest in a hotel in York, Pennsylvania, and used the money to launch the Cachoo Sneezing Powder Company in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Within a few years, the sneezing powder craze that swept the country had subsided, and Sam set out to innovating new products. He also changed the name of the company to S.S. Adams Co., to reflect that he was no longer a one product company. The Exploding Cigarette Box , the Snake Nut Can, Itching Powder, the Stink bomb, and the Dribble glass all entered the Adams line in the next decade.
In 1928, Sam invented the prototype of what was to become the Joy Buzzer, a mechanical device placed in the hand, which emitted a loud vibrating buzz, when a button on the buzzer was depressed. This would usually occur when two people shook hands. He took the prototype to Dresden, Germany, where a tool and die maker created the tooling to make small parts for the item, which was now just 3.2cm (1-1/4 inches) in diameter and 1.8cm (3/4 inch) thick. The final item was copyrighted in 1932. The success of the item allowed him to greatly increase his staff and purchase a stately new factory building in Neptune, New Jersey, all during the Great Depression.
Sam and S.S. Adams went on to create many more successful novelties: The Bar Bug in Ice Cube, The Money Maker, The Squirting Nickel, The Jumping Coin, Laughing Tissue as well as an extensive line of magic tricks and puzzles. He claimed to have devised over 600 different items, and patented about 40 of them. He continued to lead S.S. Adams Company until his death in Asbury Park, NJ in 1963 at age 85. Along with super hot candy and soap that turned your hands black Adams novelties were sold throughout the United States with the help of the roadside chain Stuckey's. The SS Adams products were an affordable line of pranks and magical items sold in the magic shop of Disneyland. Children of the 1950's through 1970's were very familiar with the entire line of SS Adams. Today the product line has faded into obscurity.

They Always Come Back:
S.S. Adams products and history are available online.
Disneyland , to this day, proudly features S.S. Adams products.

Earth Shoes

She was a free spirit. A child of nature. She turned on, tuned in, and dropped out of Berkley. She ate only natural foods. Fruit from the co-op. She never ate animals. She hated the idea of animals raised to die for her meal. She wore only cotton as it made her feel closer to the earth. Mother earth. She was the world and world was life.

He was a rebel. Out to save the world from destruction. His draft card burned and a pocket full of tabs he headed up the coast eventually settling in on the beach below Mount Tam. That’s where he met her. She was an enigma. Carly Simon hair and lace shawls.

She loved his free and easy spirit. He played the guitar for her for hours. The dropped two tabs each the day they met. Each became a swirling kaleidoscope of freedom.
He just wanted some strange wool and she was it.
They giggled as they made love on top of the serape in the back of his VW van. At one point he said she felt like mashed potatoes and she giggled. Bright starbursts of light appeared as the van rocked and the curtains shifted. The acid now surging through them in waves controlled their lovemaking. They would go at it for a 5 minutes and then get distracted by each other. She fell into his eyes and he chewed her hair. As each surge passed the focus returned and the would go at it again. Finally, after what had been hours they both fell into the universal void of passion he said “We are one now.” He collapsed and wept in her arms. She could only think of how the doctor told her she has a tilted uterus and how that didn’t stop her from enjoying getting banged by a guy who looked like Cat Stevens but sounded like Arlo Guthrie.

In reality the LSD did more than provide a good trip. He released his genetically altered seed into her genetically damaged girly bit.
His albino tadpoles, with their razor sharp fangs, were rapidly moving towards her damaged “grade A” pre-omelets. She lit a joint and passed it to her weeping tunesmith.
Just then a tiny voice yelled “eureka” as a tadpole settled in for breakfast.

8 ½ months later she lay in back of the same van, this time just outside of Monterey. She was bummed that the baby decided to come on the last day of the music festival.
He, a proud father to be, circled the van banging on his ceremonial drum to alert local Indian spirits to the arrival of his new child.
She gave birth on that same serape they conceived the child on. As the baby crowned she yelled “I AM MOTHER EARTH.” And with a grand push the child entered the world. Next to her was a metal cooler filled with Brew102 and ice. The cooler was there to keep the placenta fresh, as she would ingest that later, somehow, because it has a lot of nutrients. She never finished that chapter so she figured she’d keep it on ice until she found out how to prepare it.

These were your parents.

Eventually they wore EARTH SHOES.


Earth shoes are for Hippie Idiots.
Hidiots.

Earth shoes were an unconventional style of shoe invented in the 1970s in Scandinavia: unlike other shoes, the soles were thick and the heels were thin (Negative Heel Technology), so wearing them one walked heel-downward. The advertisements said that it was like walking on the beach, where one's footprints are this way.

The Always Come Back:
Earth shoes are still in existence, and has recently re-introduced shoes with negative heels in a variety of styles ranging from sandals to running shoes.
They actually boast on there website the following:
"We have been manufacturing in China for the past ten years, which allows us to be competitive with the rest of the shoe industry, and to provide you with the very best value. Family members and executives go there frequently to watch operations and working conditions. Our Company operates with the highest standards. We are proud to say we have been a factor in changing the workers way of life. The factory and offices are up to par with many US plants, and our workers enjoy a lifestyle above Asian standards. In short, Earth, and other US companies operating in China's special industrial zones, have created a new life for Chinese workers. We are pushing the envelope and raising the bar; fighting for better living and a better environment. We have and will continue to influence changes to improve people's quality of life everywhere on Earth."

Pet Rock

Perhaps the most endearing (if not enduring) fad of the Super70s, this gem of an idea was the brainchild of an advertising executive from California named Gary Dahl.
Not content with traditional pets, which he considered too messy, costly, and misbehaved, he had taken on a clean, cheap and well-behaved rock as his pet. When told of his choice of pets, his friends first thought was that he was stoned. However, they soon agreed it was a good idea and Dahl spent a few weeks preparing a Pet Rock Training Manual.
Topics included: "How to make your Pet Rock roll-over and play dead" and "How to house-train your Pet Rock." Little did he know that fame and fortune was just a... wait for it...
stone's-throw away.

Dahl packaged the rock with his manual in a cardboard box designed to look like a pet carrying case and began selling them at $3.95 each. He introduced them at a gift show in San Francisco in August of '75 and, as an ad executive, was savvy enough to create a press release which he sent out, complete with his picture, to virtually every major media outlet. In October Newsweek carried an article on the fad and dozens of local newspapers picked up the story. Soon even staid Neiman Marcus was carrying them. Dahl's personal 15 minutes of fame culminated with an appearance on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.


Dozens of copycat rocks flooded the market (if you find one that claims to be the "Original Pet Rock," it is actually one of the copies; the one in our picture is an original) and after Christmas 1975, the fad was over. The fad lasted 6 months.

Three tons of stone from Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico was used to create Dahl's pets.

They always come back:
I would like to say they are gone never to return but...
Get you own Virtual Pet Rock for MAC OS!