THAT MOVIE STANK! PART 2

YESTERDAY, LETTERS TO LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS encouraged me to research olfactory cinema, movies with accompanying aromas (besides popcorn and perhaps stale seating). Today, specifics are addressed with a brief history. And Daughter Suz reminds me there are scents at her favorite Disneyland.

“Smellitzer” Technology. Invented by Imagineer Bob McCarthy, Smellitzers are hidden around Disneyland (and other Disney facilities around the world) to project specific scents up to 200 feet. Daughter Suz’s favorite Soarin’ has orange blossoms, pine tree, and ocean spray cued to appropriate portions of the ride. 

This YouTube has mrcheezypop describing other Smellitzers at Disneyland. 

Original Applications. Charles Spence recounts in the Abstract for “Scent and the Cinema,” “From the very earliest days of public cinema (moving pictures), there has been consideration about how odors and scents might influence the viewer’s experience. While initially this was primarily a concern with how to eliminate the malodor of the cinema-goers themselves, in more recent times, there have been a number of well-publicized attempts to add synchronized pleasant (and, on occasion, also unpleasant) scents to ‘enhance’ the cinema experience.”

Specifics. Wikipedia credits a 1958 issue of Film Daily claiming that in 1906 Samuel Roxy Rothafel of the Family Theatre in Forest City, Pennsylvania, “placed a wad of cotton wool that had been soaked in rose oil in front of an electric fan during a newsreel about the Rose Bowl Game.” However, between 1903 and 1915, there were no games held, so it is unknown what the newsreel was about, although the Rose Parade (which has been held annually since 1890) seems likely.”

Close, but no scented cigar for the game.

Other attempts included spraying perfume into theater ventilation systems. “However,” as Wikipedia observed, er… imagined, “it would take over an hour to clear the scents from the theater, and some smells would linger for days afterward.” See above, “malodor of the cinema-goers themselves.”

AromaRama. Introduced just a month ahead of Scent of Mystery’s Smell-O-Vision, Behind the Great Wall’s AromaRama appeared on December 9, 1959. Variety called it “the battles of the smellies.”

Image from Behind the Great Wall via IMDb. 

Invented by Charles Weiss, the process had a range of 72 smells, including the odors of grass, earth, exploding firecrackers, a river, incense, burning torches, horses, restaurants, the scent of a trapped tiger, and a barnyard of geese.

There Are Always Critics…. Reviews for Behind the Great Wall were mixed. Wikipedia offers a favorable one from The New York Herald Tribune: “ ‘AromaRama Premieres Here: Audience Smells What It Sees and Hears in Movie,’ the uncited critic writes: ‘With a few minor exceptions, the audience last night pronounced the succession of smells a total success from the start, which consisted of an opening from Chet Huntley, television commentator, who demonstrated what was about to happen by slicing an orange while the odor track suffused the theatre with a smell of oranges being sliced.’ ” 

Wikipedia cites the December 21, 1959, edition of Time Magazine: “The AromaRama people claim that they can reach every nose in the house within two seconds and remove the odor almost as fast. The perfumes are built up on a quick-evaporating base (Freon) and as the air is drawn off for filtering it is passed over electrically charged baffles that precipitate the aromatic particles.”

AGG!! Freon, of course, is a brand name of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Wikipedia describes, “most uses of which are now banned or severely restricted by the Montreal Protocol of August 1987, as they have been shown to be responsible for ozone depletion. Brands of Freon containing HFCs instead have replaced many uses, but they, too, are under strict control under the Kyoto Protocol, as they are deemed ‘super-greenhouse effect’ gases.”

Wikipedia notes, “Freon, when used as an inhalant, has been found to have effects such as euphoria or intoxication. This has led to some individuals using Freon recreationally in order to achieve these effects. When inhaled, Freon has toxic effects that can have detrimental impacts on various systems in the body. These effects can damage the brain and the cardiovascular system, potentially causing abnormalities in heart functions as well as seizures. Freon inhalation can also cause damage to the lungs and in rare cases, respiratory failure. Injury of the lungs due to Freon inhalation is known as hydrocarbon pneumonitis.”

Geez. Where’s Odorama scratch-n-sniff when we need it?

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026