Indian Hills Theater

The theater was built for Swanson Enterprises of Omaha at a cost of US$1 million by A. Borchman Sons Company. The theater was designed by architect Richard L. Crowther of Denver, Colorado, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Crowther designed each element of the theater to enhance the Cinerama experience, and the design included a cylindrical shape and a flat roof. The original blueprints for the theater are in the Denver Public Library Special Collections Department. Following construction, the theater was leased to the Cooper Foundation of Lincoln, Nebraska for exhibition of films in the Cinerama format.

The interior auditorium was circular in shape and seated 810 patrons, with 662 on the main floor and 148 on the balcony. The auditorium was wheelchair-accessible and spaces were specifically designed for wheelchair-using patrons. The curved screen was 35 feet 3 inches (10.74 m) high and 110 feet (34 m) wide, with a 146-degree curve. The screen extended from the floor to the ceiling and was the largest indoor movie screen in the United States at the time of construction. The screen consisted of 2,500 strips of one-inch, perforated tape called louvers. Twenty speakers in five mountings were evenly spaced behind the screen—four speakers on each side of the theater and eight speakers in the rear. The speakers were "Voice of the Theater" models manufactured by Altec Lansing Co. The three projection booths required for Cinerama were located on the main floor of the auditorium, with one in the center and the other two evenly spaced between the center and side walls.

In 1978, a smaller rectangular-shaped theater called "Cameo" was built to the east of the main theater. In 1987, two additional smaller rectangular theaters were built to the west of the main theater. In 2000, Carmike Cinemas installed a Sony Dynamic Digital Sound system in the main auditorium, new seats, a new curved screen and new curtains. In July 2001, the Cameo and the two smaller theaters were demolished, and the main auditorium was demolished the following month.

In 1962, a night at the Indian Hills Theater was like a night at the opera. A patron would call in advance to purchase reserved seats, referred to in the trade as a "hard ticket sell." Upon arrival at the theater the patrons would drive up to the entrance where a doorman would open the door to the lobby. Reserved seat tickets would be picked up at the box office and a tuxedo-attired usher would walk the patron into the auditorium and point out the seats with a flashlight. The concession stands offered only an orange drink in a specially shaped container and imported candies. Refreshments were not permitted in the seats. Patrons entering the theater would hear the film musical score from the speakers behind the screen. As the lights dimmed the curtains would reveal the massive curved screen. The projected image would nearly fill the viewer's field of vision. The multi-channel sound, combined with the screen image, created a three-dimensional experience. At intermission, patrons would gather at the side lounges of the auditorium, the lobby, or the patio.

The final Cinerama film to be shown at the Indian Hills was How the West Was Won which played for forty two weeks until it closed in March 1964. Thereafter the theater played regular first-run films through a single projector in the 70 mm or 35 mm format. In 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey was presented in the 70 mm format and billed as Cinerama.

Cinerama was a panoramic screen format invented by Fred Waller. It followed Waller's earlier eleven-camera, eleven-projector "Vitarama" process, first presented in 1939 at the New York World's Fair, which proved too unwieldy for widespread commercial deployment. Cinerama featured a three-camera, three-projector process that projected three film images side by side on a deep curved screen to recreate a lifelike image.

The curved screen was designed to take advantage of the effect of peripheral images in the viewer's eye and create the feeling that the viewer was in the picture. A state-of-the-art, multi-track stereo sound system heightened the sense of realism. Prior to the first Cinerama production, movies were projected on a nearly-square flat screen and the sound was one-channel monophonic. As a result of Cinerama the film industry adopted the single-projector wide-screen format and stereophonic sound as the norm. At the peak of Cinerama's popularity, there were over 200 theaters in the world capable of projecting Cinerama films. Most of these were existing theaters adapted to use the Cinerama process. Ten theaters, however, were built specifically for Cinerama films. The Martin Corporation built such theaters in New Orleans, Seattle, and St. Louis. Others were located in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Cuba, and Japan. Of the ten theaters designed for Cinerama, three near-identical "Super-Cineramas" were built in Denver (Cooper Theater) (1961), Minneapolis (Cooper Theater) (1961), and Omaha (Indian Hills Theater) (1962). Only three (3) theaters remain that are configured to show Cinerama. These theaters are located in Seattle (Martin Cinerama Theater), Los Angeles (Cinerama Dome), and Bradford, England (National Media Museum). Only the theater in England has regular showings of Cinerama films.

A series of popular Cinerama films were produced in the 1950s and early 1960s. Due to the prohibitive cost of the Cinerama production process, the epic How the West Was Won was the last film shot using the Cinerama process, although later motion pictures (2001, A Space Odyssey, for example) that could take advantage of the wide screen, were marketed as "Cinerama" films.

The Indian Hills Theater was the movie palace of its day. As the final "Super-Cinerama" theater, it contained refinements to the design which resulted in the finest Cinerama theater ever built. It was designed with a modern functional style. The design reflected the "form follows function" philosophy of architecture. The unique circular design served to enhance every aspect of the Cinerama experience. The curved screen was the largest ever installed in a Cinerama theater. The only other two (2) "Super-Cinerama" theaters were demolished. One located in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, was demolished to make way for a restaurant and office complex. The other, located in Denver, Colorado, was demolished and replaced with a chain bookstore. The Indian Hills theater showed its last Cinerama film in March 1964. The theater closed on September 28, 2000.

According to David Strohmaier, a Los Angeles filmmaker and producer of a documentary film called "Cinerama Adventure," the Indian Hills Theater was unique. It was unique because of the circular design and extraordinarily large screen. The Indian Hills Theater embodied the culmination of Cinerama design and technology.

Recommendations for the National Register of Historic Places are made by the state historical society of the state in which a property is located. In the summer of 2001, the Nebraska State Historical Society issued a letter indicating that the Indian Hills Theater was of such architectural and historical importance to the history of cinema on a national basis that it would qualify for listing in the National Register. The letter indicated that the theater met National Register Criteria "A" in that the "Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history" and Criteria "C" in that the "Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction."

• Saving the Indian Hills on IMDb.
• Film Threat review of Saving the Indian Hills documentary ]