Hans Laube & Mike Todd Jr. w/ The Smell-O-Vision machine
1906 – 1940
‘The use of scents in conjunction with film dates back to 1906, before the introduction of sound. In this first instance, a 1958 issue of Film Daily claims that 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. In 1929, during the showing of The Broadway Melody, a New York City theater sprayed perfume from the ceiling. Arthur Mayer installed an in-theater smell system in Paramount’s Rialto Theater on Broadway in 1933, which he used to deliver odors during a film. However, it would take over an hour to clear the scents from the theater, and some smells would linger for days afterward.
All of these early attempts, however, were made by theater owners and not part of the films themselves. The audience could be distracted by the scents instead of focusing on what the film director intended. Furthermore, because of the size of the theaters, large amounts of perfume had to be released in order to reach all members of the audience. This caused another problem: The human nose has a difficult time transitioning between smells until the molecules that triggered one smell are completely cleared from the nose, and with that volume of perfume, the scents would mix together, becoming muddled. Walt Disney was the first filmmaker to explore the idea of actually including scents with his 1940 film Fantasia, but eventually decided against pursuing this for cost reasons.
1941 – 1958
Emery Stern of Queens, New York, patented a more refined system in 1951. He envisioned a separate scent-selection reel to run in synchronicity with the film, though geared down to a much slower speed. Scents would be distributed through the theater’s ventilation equipment, with their release triggered by a photoelectric signal from the scent reel. Stern suggested using Lucite rods to carry the light signal and quick-dispersing Fréon as a vehicle for the scents. When a scene was over, a neutralizing agent could be released to remove traces of an odor. Late in 1951, the Government announced that patent No. 2,540,144 had been granted to Stern for a device which “will automatically release” various scents from containers built into TV sets. Set off by electrical impulses, the odors were intended to be appropriate to the type of program, e.g., peach blossom for romance. Stern’s system was overlooked in the rush to 3-D and wide screens.
1959
‘On October 17, 1959, The New York Times reported that Walter Reade Jr. was rushing to release Behind the Great Wall, a travelogue through China made by Italian director Carlo Lizzani, accompanied by a process called AromaRama to send scents through the air-conditioning system of a theater. “In addition to seeing the action and hearing the dialogue, our audiences will be able to smell the scenes,” said Aromarama’s inventor Charles Weiss. “More than 100 different aromas will be injected into the theater during the film. Among these are the odors of grass, earth, exploding firecrackers, a river, incense, burning torches, horses, restaurants, the scent of a trapped tiger and many more. We believe, with Rudyard Kipling, that smells are surer than sounds or sights to make the heartstrings crack.”
The system Reade used was similar to the one described in Emery Stern’s patents, though the scent track was contained on the movie print itself instead of a separate reel. Air was cleaned for reuse by passing it over a device called the Statronic, whose electrically charged surfaces attracted scent-bearing particles. Reade said his equipment could get a smell to every seat in the house within two seconds and suck it back out almost as quickly, though not all audience members agreed.
To Tell the Truth – Inventor of Aromarama
‘Behind the Great Wall was released on December 2, 1959, just three weeks ahead of Scent of Mystery, and the competition between the two films was called “the battle of the smellies” by Variety. The film received scathing treatment from New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther, who called it a “stunt” that had an “artistic benefit” of “nil”. The accuracy of the odors was described as “capricious… elusive, oppressive or perfunctory and banal… merely synthetic smells that occasionally befit what one is viewing, but more often they confuse the atmosphere.” Not all reviews were unfavorable. The New York Herald Tribune said in its review, “Curiously enough, the smells do not give the impression of being blown in or wafted from any specific direction (although they are said to be linked to the airconditioning system.) Actually the individual smells simply appear in the nostrils without any effort being made to sniff or strain for them. And what is more remarkable, each individual odor disappears promptly when the image smelled leaves the screen.”
1960
‘When the romantic whodunit Scent of Mystery opened in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, audiences were treated to more than just sights and sounds. As the projector droned, a device known as a smell brain pumped 30 different scents—wine, freshly baked bread, pipe tobacco, a salty ocean breeze—through a network of tiny tubes to movie viewers’ seats.
‘This was the debut of “glorious Smell-O-Vision,” the masterwork of Hans Laube, touted in publicity accounts of the day as a “world famed osmologist,” and the flamboyant, gimmick-loving Hollywood producer Michael Todd Jr. While Scent of Mystery wasn’t the first attempt to employ aromas in filmmaking, it was by far the most technologically intricate. Beyond that, it was the first—and apparently the only—motion picture that relied on smells as integral devices in the plot. And Laube and Todd had high hopes. Ads for the movie proclaimed: “First they moved (1895)! Then they talked (1927)! Now they smell!”
Peter Lorre in ‘Scent of Mystery’
‘Smell-O-Vision did not work as intended. According to Variety, aromas were released with a distracting hissing noise and audience members in the balcony complained that the scents reached them several seconds after the action was shown on the screen. In other parts of the theater, the odors were too faint, causing audience members to sniff loudly in an attempt to catch the scent. These technical problems were mostly corrected after the first few showings, but the poor word of mouth, in conjunction with generally negative reviews of the film itself, signaled the end of Smell-O-Vision.
‘The history-making nature of Smell-O-Vision aside, audiences and movie critics were unimpressed, and Scent of Mystery quickly evaporated at the box office. Today it’s remembered, if at all, as a bit of trivia on movie-buff websites. Yet Laube and Todd’s attempt to lead moviegoers by their noses presaged a postmodern culture in which the manipulation of scents has become a powerful tool in shaping consumer behavior, with manufacturers assaulting the nostrils with chamomile-scented carpeting and rosebush sofas and wristwatches and mobile phones that smell faintly like coffee. Synthetic aromas have become so ubiquitous that some people consider them environmental hazards. Laube and Todd, in fact, were visionaries.
1961 – 1980
Nothing
1981
John Waters ‘Polyester’ (trailer)
‘Polyester was the first of John Waters’ films to skirt the mainstream, even garnering an R rating (his previous films were all unrated or rated X). The film was set in a middle-class suburb of Baltimore instead of its slums and bohemian neighborhoods (the setting of Waters’ earlier films). Odors, especially Francine’s particularly keen sense of smell, play an important role in the film. To highlight this, Waters designed Odorama, a “scratch-and-sniff” gimmick inspired by the work of William Castle and the 1960 film Scent of Mystery, which featured a device called Smell-O-Vision. Although this approach solved the problems inherent in previous attempts at this technology, it did not gain widespread usage for other films.
‘Special cards with spots numbered 1 through 10 were distributed to audience members before the show, in the manner of 3D glasses. When a number flashed on the screen, viewers were to scratch and sniff the appropriate spot. Smells included the scent of flowers, pizza, glue, gas, grass, and feces. For the first DVD release of the film the smell of glue was changed due to, as Waters states, “political correctness”. The gimmick was advertised with the tag “It’ll blow your nose!” In the commentary track on the film’s 2004 DVD release, Waters expressed his delight at having the film’s audiences actually “pay to smell shit”.
1982 – 1994
Nothing
1995
In 1995, the BBC’s Children in Need brought scratch and sniff smell-o-vision to the masses. Through the Saturday evening family show Noel’s House Party, viewers could experience various odors to complement their television experience.
1996 – 2006
Nothing
2007
‘For Terrence Malick’s film The New World, Shochiku, the film’s Japanese distributor, teamed with NTT Communications to introduce that company’s new fragrance-delivery technology to filmgoers. On the floor of the Premium Aroma zone of the Salonpas Louvre (The New World was also shown this way at one other theater, in Osaka) sat several plastic globes about nine inches in diameter. These balls contained aromatic oils to be mixed and released during the film according to a network-server-controlled timetable.
‘Past smell presentations linked scents to objects visible or implied in the film, like pipe tobacco and baking bread in Scent of Mystery and old socks in Polyester. Scorning such vulgar literalism, Japan Aromacoordinator Association instructor Yukie Nakashima, who mixed the smells for The New World, sought rather to expand on the film’s mood than to play up its realism. This approach had two main consequences. First, the smell track imposed a certain reading—the same one indicated in the printed program, which exhorted the viewer to “enjoy a beautiful love story together with aromatic scents.” The New World was picked as the flagship for Premium Aroma not because Malick’s complex orchestration of image and sound cried out to be raised to the Gesamtkunstwerk level but because the Japanese distributor saw the film as essentially a love story in a pastoral setting and, as such, ideal for aroma enhancement.
The theater set up
‘Although woodsy smells celebrated the English arrival in America, and citrus pervaded the scene at the English court, in general the (predominantly minty) perfumes targeted romantic scenes between Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, making their relationship the focus of the film. Because the appearances of the Algonquin princess’s second admirer, John Rolfe, were usually odorless (so that a viewer might infer that whereas Colin Farrell sometimes smells like peppermint, Christian Bale has no smell), when, after meeting Smith, Pocahontas rejoined Rolfe and took his arm, the floral scent that was emitted put a perhaps sharper period to the narrative line than Malick intended.
‘The second effect of the smellifiers’ penchant for the suggestive was that when anything appeared on screen that has an odor in real life, its absence from the smell track became conspicuous. So, one sniffed the air in vain for boiling leather, gunpowder, or the ashes with which Pocahontas covers her face; and when, on taking up residence at the colony, Pocahontas smelled the pages of a book, the smell-sensitized viewer felt acutely the lack of a sympathetic aroma in the theater.
The smell release schedule
2008 – 2009
Nothing
2010
‘In 2010, the Norwegian film Kurt Josef Wagle And The Legend of the Fjord Witch by director Tommy Wirkola, previously best known for his Kill Bill spoof Kill Buljo and to his hit Nazi-zombie comedy Dead Snow, was released to cinemas with scratch and sniff cards that the audience could use while watching the movie. The film was a low brow parody of the current first-person horror craze a la Paranormal Activity and [REC]. It never quite got the same headlines as Wirkola’s earlier films, but it was nonetheless hailed by several critics as one of the more interesting films to have come out of Norway during the 00’s.
‘Also in 2010, self-proclaimed multi-sensory artist Megan Dickerson staged outdoor showings of the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for hundreds of people and used oscillating fans and artificially scented oils to distribute aromas of blueberry pie and banana taffy during the film. The problem, according to some audience members, was that the scents were layered on top of one another, and people got sick from all of the smells mixed together. Undeterred, Dickerson says she may hand out small, squeezable “scent bottles” in the future so that individuals can experience the fumes from their seats.
‘Inspired by Dickerson’s project, several film venues and festivals around the United States held screenings of Willy Wonka using a more primitive but, some have said, far more successful version of Smell-O-Vision. Unlike Dickerson’s method, or the original Smell-O-Vision, or its arch-rival AromaRama, these screenings didn’t involve installing expensive ventilation systems to pump artificial scents into the theater. Instead they went guerrilla – each person who attended got a bag of candy and smelly things. The pre-show instructions, delivered by a costumed Oompa Lumpa, explained that on-screen prompts would tell viewers when to smell, eat, chew or open the various objects in their bags. “And it worked,” according to critic Scott Berkun who attended a Seattle showing. “When 200 people all started eating chocolate at the same time, the room did smell like chocolate. When everyone ate cherry bubblegum, it smelled like cherry. This simple approach to the problem was definitely way more effective than Smell-O-Vision ever was.”
‘Lastly in 2010 came Charles Band’s marijuana sci-fi movie, Evil Bong 3D: The Wrath of Bong, presented in 3D and Smell-O-Vision. The film was predictably panned by critics, and the Smell-O-Vision was declared dubious and disappointing. According to the site Jackalope Ranch, “there were eight numbered scratch and sniff sections on our Sniff-O-Rama card, and when a number popped up onscreen, audience members were supposed to scratch and sniff the corresponding section. About half the scents were supposed to be some kind of marijuana, but either smelled like fresh cut grass or skunk spray.”
Trailer: ‘Evil Bong’
2011
Trailer: ‘Spy Kids 4’
‘The latest attempt is Roberto Rodriguez’ Spy Kids 4. It uses scratch cards that are to be used at particular junctures during the film, thereby releasing particular kinds of scents to suit various scenes. Avinash Jumaani, a distributor with Pictureworks, says he hasn’t used the cards yet. So he doesn’t really know what kind of smells will be released. However, he added that this kind of 4D is already being used in entertainment arcades. Spy Kids has renamed the cards 4D-Aromascope. They will have “eight smell options to use through the film, during eight kinds of sequences, after each number is flashed on the screen,” explained Jumaani. He added that what goes for 4D is an added feature, like “lights, water, heat and so on.”
‘Like John Waters’ earlier invention Odorama, Aromascope uses a card loaded with eight different smells that will be handed out for free at both 2-D and 3-D showings. But the process is more touch-and-sniff now. You wipe a finger over the scent the way you do with an iPhone or an iPad. A tutorial given by Ricky Gervais, who speaks for the movie’s robotic dog, will play before the story begins. “When each of the eight aromas are unleashed you will get to experience a special moment in the film and be transported into scenes in the family adventure film,” explains a spokesperson for film distributors The Weinstein Company. “This fun added attraction takes the audience beyond sight and sound and into a symphony of scents as the movie is coming to life.”’ — collaged from various sources
2012
We’re not entirely sure why people keep trying to bring back Smell-O-Vision, although Keio University’s success in printing scents using a modified printer gives us hope that this sort of thing might someday be somewhat feasible — and useful. It works by using an off-the-shelf Canon printer that’s been given a “scent jet,” Kenichi Okada told New Scientist. “We are using the ink-jet printer’s ability to eject tiny pulses of material to achieve precise control.” The scent dissipates quickly, after one or two human breaths. And while specific scents can be printed, there is as of yet no way to build a general purpose device. According to the University of Glasgow’s Stephen Brewster: “We don’t yet know how to synthesize all the scents we want. There is no red-green-blue for smell — there are thousands of components needed.”
2013 – ?
‘You are driving to work in the morning and a gentle scent of citrus fruits is keeping you alert. There’s a fly in the car, but before it starts to annoy you the tiny sensor on your cuff button detects it and releases a targetted mist of insecticide. 20 minutes later, you arrive at the office smelling great; that new perfume you downloaded from the web is really doing it for you. In the afternoon, after a stressful meeting, the tiny biosensors in you clothes detect that you need to relax, so a calming lavender starts to fill your personal scent bubble. This may sound like science fiction, but a handful of enthusiasts and international companies have been working quietly on the nascent technology.
‘Areas with potential for applying such technology are the virtual reality, computer gaming and of course the movie and television industries, says Takamichi Nakamoto, an engineer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In December 2008 he demonstrated the first case of “teleofaction” at the International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment in Yokohama, Japan. Teleofaction allows viewers to watch TV and smell what they are watching at the same time. “The addition of smell to TV and games makes them more realistic” Takamoto explains. His odour recorder can only recognise 10 aromas, but in principle it could recognise the whole spectrum of smells. He believes that in future, technology will allow for TV to transmit smell as well as audiovisuals.’ — Cosmos
Japanese revive “Smell-O-Vision”
2023
‘Regal Cinemas launched a new theater type called 4DX, which incorporates smells into the movie experience. Other off-screen features are incorporated into 4DX as well, including motion enabled chairs, fog, strong scents, and water and air to simulate wind and rain. Regal currently operates 18 theaters with 4DX.’ — RC
2024
‘Postcard from Earth is a 2024 film directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Brandon Santana and Zaya Ribeiro. Created specifically to be screened at Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley on the venue’s 160,000 square-foot video screen, the film was shot in an 18K resolution with the Big Sky camera system. The 4D film features 270 degrees of viewing experience, climate control, haptic capabilities for the venue’s seating, and scents to create an immersive environment that tells the story of life on Earth. The film is one of two entertainment features to inaugurate the Sphere, along with U2’s concert residency.
‘Josh Bell of New Scientist praised the film’s technical achievements but called the story “cheesy and simplistic” that is “a flimsy conceit that serves as an excuse for Aronofsky to deliver what audiences are really there for – to be immersed in the 18K-resolution (a display resolution using about 18,000 pixels horizontally) images shot on every continent, from canyons to oceans, crowded streets to quiet cathedrals”. The Wall Street Journal’s Kyle Smith called the story a “trite setup is merely the frame upon which the director stretches his massive tableaux” that praised the viewing experience in spite of the “hokey” storytelling.’ — collaged
2025
‘Sony has unveiled a new gaming system that could allow PlayStation players to sniff their way through games like The Last of Us.
‘Unveiled at CES 2025, the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept (FIEC) features a huge, room-size setup designed to push the boundaries of immersive gaming. A trailer for the concept shows a giant cube built from high-definition LED screens that enables players to step directly into their favorite games (unfortunately, this isn’t something you’ll be setting up in your living room anytime soon).
‘In the trailer, players experience the postapocalyptic world of The Last of Us with enhanced audio and the addition of smell-o-vision, delivering a “completely new experience.” “One of the pillars of Sony’s creative entertainment vision is the idea of narrative everywhere, where stories from Sony are transformed across new and exciting mediums,” explains the video. “This Future Immersive Entertainment Concept aims to explore these possibilities. This proof-of-concept project combines the latest location-based technologies, Sony Crystal LED panels, engaging audio, haptics, scent, and atmospherics to fully immerse you into the world of the story.”
‘While the infected world of The Last of Us may seem an odd choice to demonstrate what the FIEC can do, players could shoot clickers as they appeared around them and get a whiff of the game’s grim postapocalyptic world. “I think I speak for everyone when I say nobody asked for this,” one skeptical fan responded to the announcement. “Can’t think of a single game that will enhance my experience by smelling it,” a second X user added, unimpressed.’ — Fast Company
Misc.
Coming Soon: 4D Movie Theaters with Smell-o-Vision
Scent-Lok BaseSlayers hunting garments
Equal Strategy, Singapore-based scent technology
Sensory Design & Technology’s e.Scent™
Smell-O-Vision Comes to iPhone
The Camera That Smells
South Park: The Fractured But Whole – Nosulus Rift Experience
Electric Smell Machine – generate virtual smell using electrical signals
*
p.s. Hey. ** R, Greetings, R. It’s very good to meet you. Thank you for the kind words, and welcome into this blog’s curious family of sorts. Oh, gosh, I have a pretty overactive mind, so I idly think about lots of books and films and things all the time, kind of flipping between them, I guess. Thank you for telling me about that strangely warm but a bit spooky thing with your co-worker. And I sense that you’re happy enough to able to make him happy. You’re a comfortably touchable sort. I’m fine, thank you, just busy with my usual stuff. What do you do at the hospital, and, well, what else do you do with interest? Thanks a lot for coming in to meet me. ** Dominik, Hi!!! It’s strange, there are, gosh, maybe 20 or 30 of those ‘Jarvis and Liam smoking’ tableau vivant creator videos out there. That premise seems to have hit a nerve. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single note by Kasabian, but I’ll go get the love from that track at least. When I say I’m in love, you best believe I’m in love L-U-V, G. ** kier, And a happy Friday to you, pal. Yeah, Lynch’s loss is a vast loss. I don’t even mind not being able to scroll an inch in my socials without seeing him and his. The opening sounds so spectacular! I’m so happy for you and the assembled. That’s so great! Let me know when/if the documentation gets into a public spot please. Awesome about the Tenthaus radio show. You’ll do great, trust me. And get used to it. And hook me up with it if poss., even if it’s presumably not in English. I hope someone at or around that cabin has cut a lot of firewood for you in anticipation, and hover close. You sound amazing, pal. I’m so happy. Thursday? There’s an interesting guy writing his thesis about my stuff, and I met with him and talked about my stuff for him. And otherwise I just wrote emails and so on, I think. Have a great and somehow magically toasty weekend. Big big love. ** Misanthrope, No, the commute sounds brutal and an inhumane thing to expect of you for no logical reason whatsoever. I hope your co-workers keep that spirit alive because I think unity on our side of things is the only way we’re going survive this shit. ** jay, Thanks, cool, glad they were of interest. Strange art form. Kind of tight and restrictive, but with an odd power. Well, honestly, as I often do with books I quickly know I don’t like, I just flipped around in it and I guess found the more ham-fisted stuff that way. I have friends with wholly admirable brains who like Von Trier’s films, so enjoy. And I bailed on him before ‘HtJB’, and, hey, miracles can happen, right? ** _Black_Acrylic, Beescroft co-runs a pretty interesting art space in LA, and I think still occasionally does her own thing, but I guess more quietly. Haha, I love seeing anti-vegan people’s faces turn beet red. I heard that PSG won that match, and I am seeing the surprise and joy around me at the possibility that they have de-slumped post-Mbappe/Messi, yes. Go les bleus! ** Steeqhen, Hey. Curious form, isn’t it. Poor Finns. €80, wow, it definitely has been some years since I scored a gram of coke, apparently. Good to know. I hope the storm left you at least largely alone. A little storm damage can be kind of nice. Keeps you humble. I’m a weirdo who has never ever seen even a minute of ‘Doctor Who’, but, in my defence, it really hasn’t been a big thing in the US. I’m okay. It’s a little less cold, no shivering for most of each of the previous 24 hours. Our evil producer is gone, but the many problems he created remain. The visa is just a matter of slowly accumulating needed documents, a headache but doable. Books on the transgressive … are there any? I haven’t read any of these books, but a quick search found two: ‘Extreme States: The Evolution of American Transgressive Fiction 1960-2000’ and ‘Transgressive Fiction: The New Satiric Tradition’. ** Lucas, Hi, pal. I hope the hormone specialist meeting is an emotion- and mental booster. I guess hang in there as wildly as you can otherwise in the meantime. Yes, I’d love the Phil Ochs post. That would be fantastic! Uh, the general way people send me guest-posts is to lay out the post with text in a doc of some sort and indicate where the photos and video imbeds should go, and then send the images as attachments to an email, and of course include links to the videos. Some people make the posts in google docs and send them that way. Does that makes sense? I can say more. How is ‘Eden, Eden, Eden’ treating you so far? ** James, Hey, backwards, why not. Oh, for a video of that tableau vivant with the hula hoop noose. Antique store are boredom central to me. IKEA furniture is fine with me. Blogs could make a vinyl-like comeback, it’s not impossible. It doesn’t sound like the culinary part of your Paris visit was very French. Lipton iced tea?! Iced tea is a no-go to the French. The only place I can get it is this niche restaurant called Breakfast in America that lives up to its name. Luck on the last two papers. And then what? ** Steve, Obviously hoping the social worker made an impactful difference. So sorry, sounds rough. I didn’t know about the Feb. 7th bandcamp thing. I’ll try to hold off scoring until then. There are some Lynch films playing here of late, yes, of course, and I think a couple of thrown together retrospectives. ** HaRpEr, ‘Locus Solus’, nice. I have no idea what tableau vivant I’d want my corpse to star in. I’m a weird person who’s completely allergic to visualising what I look like from an external viewpoint. Honestly, HaRpEr, you’re probably have to just get used to people being reductive about your writing even when they like/admire it. It’s never stopped happening for me. I like to think people are mostly just unable to articulate what they like about my work and resort to being safe and lazy in their word usage as consequence. That said, you and your work will find like-mindedness among others, readers and peers. It takes time for people to get used to and individuate your work. Or that’s my experience. But it happens, albeit at its own frustrating pace. I thought Poecilia said smart things to you about that too. ** Diesel Clementine, That giant Homer Simpson is weirdly disturbing, although I suppose that’s not its fault but rather the fault of its coziers. Anyway, interesting context and thanks for letting me in on it. Your husband seems very interesting and nice, I must say. Awesome about the releasing for your first 50 pages to Cipher Press. That’s big, no? I’ll pass along your … Everyone, Here’s Diesel Clementine: ‘I’m sending away the first 50 pages of my book to Cipher press in like less than a week – so if anyone wants to read 50 pages (and tell me if you got bored at any point) shoot me an email at [email protected] ‘ My morning can’t hold a candle to your night but it’s pretty survivable thus far, thank you. ** Justin D, Thanks, Justin, I had hoped so. You have one these winter cold/flu things that seems to have put half of my friends out of circulation, but not lengthily? Strength and vitamin C to you! ** Right. Years back I made a post about Smell-O-Vision, and I thought about restoring it, but when I re-found it, I thought it was really too half-assed, so I started over from scratch and tried to make an actual comprehensive thing about smell cinema, and there you go, for better or less better. See you tomorrow.
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