FIRST THE MOVIES, THEN THE TALKIES

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 42, 29 October 1952, Page 6

FIRST THE MOVIES, THEN THE TALKIES

NEXT— THE "SMELLIES!" Professor Basso Ricci we are told, • has devoted six years to perfecting a system whereby cinema films can -be accompanied not only by synchronised sounds but aiso by synehronised smells; in other words, when you see and hear bac.on and eggs sizzling on the screen, you will also be able to smeil them cooking. He claims that tbe more you can physically experieuce a film, the greater impression it will make on you. Ghristopher Serpell, B.B.C. Rome correspondent, interviewed the Professor and spoke about the interyiew in "The Eye-witness."

"The Professor," he says, believes he has invented a revolutionary and suceessful system, but he is keeping it secret for the present beeause he fears the idea might be stolen. So far, he has tested the apparatus only once in the parish ball, and since this hall Hs now required for other purposes, such as ping-pong, he has been forced to dismantle it. The spectators who were present at the test told nie that ifc was most impressive, but that further developments are still required. A documentary film of the Italian Lake Como, they said, smelt a good deal better than the real lake, because the smells released were an idealistic combination of wild f lower perfumes. The realism of oceasional drains or rotting Vegetation was laeking. On the other haxid, a comedy involving a drunken man evoked such a strong odour of brandy that some members of the audience felt distinctly elated and were inclined to include it among the stimulants rather than among the ordinary smells. asked the Professor if he had tried the effect of a whiff of laughing gas to accompany a comedy, but he repeated that ths was a question for the artists in the new field, He himself had rnade the scientific disoovery and was now waiting, with &qme anxiety, for a commercial ypetron to give it a fair trial."