Todd-AO
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Todd-AO is an American post-production company founded in 1953 by Mike Todd and Robert Naify, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. For more than five decades, it was the worldwide leader in theater sound. The company retains one facility, in the Los Angeles area.
Figure 1. Todd-AO: 65 mm negative and 70 mm positive
Mike Todd
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Michael Todd was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife. Todd was the third of Taylor's seven husbands, and the only one whom Taylor did not divorce. Todd died in a private plane accident a year after their marriage. He was the driving force behind the development of the eponymous Todd-AO widescreen film format.
Todd at the Jones Beach Theater, 1952
Todd owned a Theatre Cafe in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood in the 1940s that provided dinner with live presentations and music.
First act finale from A Night in Venice The production was replete with a cast of 500 and fireworks.
CBS paid Mike Todd for the rights to cover the first anniversary celebration at Madison Square Garden for Around the World in 80 Days as a television special in 1957. Todd and his wife Elizabeth Taylor are seen here at home in a film clip which was used for the special.