Dr. Brian O’Brien of American Optical (c) poses with Richard
Rodgers (l) and Oscar Hammerstein (r), composers of
Oklahoma, at the New York premiere (1955).
Images courtesy of Carl Zeiss Vision.
Hollywood needed something exciting in the 1950s to compete with the newfangled home entertainment gadgets, from television to hi-fi record players, keeping people out of movie theaters. In an unprecedented move, studios turned to a vision care company for help—specifically to American Optical (now part of Carl Zeiss Vision). The result of this unusual partnership would change the course of cinema history.

This story is getting attention again, thanks to the Optical Heritage Museum in Southbridge, Mass. The Museum is sharing images, some of them never published before, in conjunction with the 65th anniversary of the Todd-AO joint venture that commercialized this breakthrough technology.

Before turning to AO, Hollywood had already tried everything from 3D films to the elaborate Cinerama process, which required three synchronized 35mm projectors and a special curved screen. But none of these proved scalable for widespread use. Mike Todd, famous today both as a movie producer and for his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, was determined to find something better.


AO-Todd’s innovative projection system
created a 128-degree image on movie
theater screens. Images courtesy of
Carl Zeiss Vision.
Todd soon learned that only three companies in the U.S. had the technical capabilities to solve his problem: Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb or American Optical (AO). After researching these options, Todd decided that AO was his best bet.

At a meeting with American Optical’s Dr. Brian O’Brien, Todd handed over a certified check for $60,000—that would be worth more than a half million dollars in today’s terms—and said “Let’s talk business.” For more than a century, AO had stood out as the leading provider of eyeglasses and optical technologies in the U.S. Now it got enlisted in a very different kind of project. Could the expert in lenses and vision reinvent the movie business?

More than 100 AO employees worked on this high-profile project. They responded with breakthrough developments, including a 12.7mm “bugeye” lens that could photograph a stunning 128 degrees, almost as much as Cinerama achieved with three cameras. Film stock was expanded to 250 percent of the size of standard 35mm. The results on the screen created, as the New York Times later explained to its readers “a sense of participation in the action on the screen.”

On June 22, 1954, Hollywood executives watched their first screening of the Todd-AO footage in a private showing on the MGM studio lot. Hollywood Reporter, the leading journal for the movie industry, gave its verdict: “The demonstration proved amazing full-screen clarity which was not diminished from positions up close at the sides of the screen….This has strictly big-time road-show possibilities.”

Audiences agreed. When the Todd-AO process made its commercial debut with the release of Oklahoma, the following year, moviegoers were dazzled by the bold, sharp images and vivid colors. Over the course of the next two decades, studios turned to the Todd-AO process for most of their blockbuster films, including The Sound of Music, Cleopatra, Around the World in 80 Days, The Alamo, South Pacific and Patton.


The AO-Todd process made its debut at the 1955
premiere of Oklahoma (photo by Don Whitney).
Images courtesy of Carl Zeiss Vision.
In a curious side note, Dr. O’Brien found that his work on this new movie technology distracted him from his ongoing research into fiber optics. O’Brien had already made a breakthrough discovery, learning that a low-refractive-index coating could improve light transmission in optical fibers. But now he was so busy helping out Hollywood he had little time for this project. Since that time, the market for fiber optics has grown to $5 billion annually, and it’s possible that American Optical lost out on a larger long-term opportunity by its detour into the entertainment industry.

But movie lovers still benefit from the efforts of the R&D team at AO. When a restored Todd-AO version of Oklahoma was recently re-released, fans were amazed at how well the old technology still delivered on its initial process. “There are no scratches and specks to be seen,” one reviewer marveled. “No grain is visible at any point in the 145-minute film. The picture has a nice, silky sheen that is like nothing you have ever seen before, which is shocking considering that this was filmed in 1955 and even the best restorations tend to leave a few tell-tale signs of age.”

“There are so many exciting chapters in the history of American Optical and 20th century eyecare,” comments Optical Heritage Museum director and founder Dick Whitney, “but this may have been the most glamorous of them all.”