Smell-O-Vision

From smell +‎ -o- (interfix used for ease of pronunciation) +‎ vision, recoined in 1959 by Mike Todd Jr. (1929–2002), the American producer of the film Scent of Mystery (1960) which used the Smell-O-Vision system invented by the Swiss scientist Hans Laube (1900–1976),^[1] possibly modelled after terms used in the motion picture industry such as Panavision (a company manufacturing cameras and lenses) and VistaVision (an early widescreen motion picture film format):^[2] see the November 1959 quotation.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsmɛləˌvɪʒən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Smell-O-Vis‧ion

Smell-O-Vision

1. (originally and chiefly US, film, historical) A system that choreographed the release of odors into a movie theater during the projection of a film.
   • 1959 September 28, “Two Everest Teams to Cut in Europe”, in Paul Ackerman [et al.], editor, The Billboard: The Amusement Industry’s Leading Newsweekly, volume 71, number 39, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, pages 2 and 14, column 3:

     […] John Livadary […] is en route to Rome to commence the score recording for "The Scent of Mystery," new Mike Todd Enterprises pic production. The recording will be made via the new 35 mm. magnetic tape. The picture also introduces a new process, known as "Smell-O-Vision."

   • 1959 November, “… Have You Heard …?”, in Howard Allaway, editor, Popular Science, volume 175, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20:

     Yes, Smell-O-Vision is here. Film makers have toyed with ways to add smell to sight and sound in movies for years. Now Michael Todd Jr. thinks he has the answer. He's chosen the name purposely, he says, "to get the jump on those who will call it that anyway." The new process will perfume the film, "Scent of Mystery," to open at a special theater in Chicago. A magnetic track on the film will synchronize action to an "odor machine." Individual odor outlets fixed into each seat will guarantee that the whole audience knows the picture smells.

   • 1960 January 25, June Bundy, “Vox Jox”, in Paul Ackerman [et al.], editor, The Billboard: The Amusement Industry’s Leading Newsweekly, volume 72, number 4, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 23, column 3:

     Danny Stiles, WNJR, Newark, N.J., and WCTC, New Brunswick, N.J., recently ran a contest asking listeners to identify the mystery voice on Eddie Fisher's new record "The Chase." First prize was a bottle of Mike Todd Jr.'s perfume, "Scent of Mystery," also the title of his new Smellevision movie. Answer, of course, was Elizabeth Taylor.

   • 1971 November 5, Brad Darrach, “Parting Shots: Now at Your Local Theater: A New Kind of Shoot-’em-up”, in Ralph Graves, editor, Life, volume 71, number 19, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82, column 1:

     [B]y the early '50s we had seen so much that it took Smell-O-Vision to shock us into attendance, and more recently audiences have continued to dwindle while movies went from topless to bottomless to games that any number can play. What in the world will they try next?

   • 1990, Frank W. Hoffmann, William G. Bailey, “AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision”, in Arts and Entertainment Fads (Encyclopedia of Fads; I), Binghamton, N.Y.; London: The Haworth Press, →ISBN, pages 19–20:

     Each Smell-O-Vision customer sat in a movie seat equipped with a system to pipe in smells directly to the nose. […] Theater-owners knew AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision wouldn't be around long. Curious customers came and went without getting too excited.

   • 2002, Stephen Wilson, “Biology: Microbiology, Animals and Plants, Ecology, and Medicine and the Body”, in Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology (Leonardo), Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press, →ISBN, page 60:

     In 1960, the movie A Scent of Mystery used the Smell-o-Vision system, which solved the distribution problem by including smell tubes at each seat. Although the smells were integrated into the mystery story line, the system was not a great commercial success.

   • 2005, Francis Katamba, “Words Galore: Innovation and Change”, in English Words: Structure, History, Usage, 2nd edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2010, →ISBN, part III (A Changing, Expanding Lexicon), page 185:

     Words referring to technologies also fade out if the technology finds few long-term devotees. […] [A]udiences were unimpressed and smell-o-vision technology was stillborn. Hence the word smell-o-vision had a short life […].

   • 2022, Susan Stewart, “The Twentieth Century: Cinema, Haute Couture and Celebrity Scents”, in Common and Uncommon Scents: A Social History of Perfume, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, →ISBN:

     At the end of the 1950s, filmmakers experimented with Aromarama and Smell-o-vision. […] Smell-o-vision followed soon after. This time the smells came from vents beneath the cinema seats. It was used for a 1959 film entitled A Scent of Mystery. At best failing to work and at worst making members of the audience feel ill, the experiment faltered and failed.

• Smell-o-vision (rare)

• smell-o-vision (common noun)

• Smell-O-Vision on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Anthony Slide (1998) “AROMARAMA AND SMELL-O-VISION”, in The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry, 1st paperback edition, Lanham, Md.; Folkestone, Kent: The Scarecrow Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 12.