Sunday, April 25, 2021

3-D or Not 3-D Part 1: The Science Behind 3-D

A form, image, style or representation visible in ‘three dimensions’(possessing length, width and height) is known in common vernacular as ‘3D’ or ‘3-D.’


A popular device developed by Charles Wheatstone in 1832 was the stereoscope which provided separate versions of a singular image which were viewed by each eye and adjusted by one’s brain to create the proper image. Polaroid filters were similarly married to this process by scientist Edwin H. Land in 1929.

Inventors had been experimenting with stereoscopic photography since the late 19th Century but its application in the filming and exhibition of motion pictures would not proliferate until the early 1950s. Projection of film with polarized filters necessitated two separate prints and likewise required special screens, not to mention large and expensive camera equipment and apparatuses.

Specially polarized 3-D glasses were also needed for the viewer to see the stereoscopic effect with color-coded images being read by each eye looking through a similarly colored filter lens. Polarized lenses, which assign images in two separate polarized projections to each lens are now popular in theaters that feature 3-D movies, especially Disney World.

Now that we’re familiarized with some of its basic principles, we’ll look back at some of the classic films of 3-D’s golden era in next week’s post. Be there (in the dimension of your choice)!

Editor's Note: Thank you to Wikipedia for the photos and captions that appear in this story. 


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Christopher Robinson

Sunday, April 18, 2021

No Garden Variety Oak

Adorning the seals of Mercer County and Princeton Township in New Jersey is a giant white oak tree. The tree has its own special story and that story is inextricably merged with the early history of America itself. During the War of Independence, Brigadier General Hugh Mercer and 350 of General Washington’s Continental Army were met by British regiments in an orchard owned by a Quaker farmer named Thomas Clarke.


During the battle, Mercer was wounded by a British soldier’s bayonet and was said to have rested at the trunk of the oak tree, refusing to leave his men. He later was moved inside Clarke’s farmhouse where he died from his wounds nine days later.(I previously thought the event had taken place in 1776 but later learned that it had, in fact, happened in early 1777, after making it through 386 pages of David McCullough’s book which was interestingly titled... 1776)

The tree came to be known as the Mercer Oak, a significant symbol and focal point for local residents, New Jerseyans and students of history. The orchard where the battle occurred is now known as the Princeton Battlefield.


The Mercer Oak conspicuously stood alone in the battlefield for almost 300 years until a storm damaged it beyond repair in 2000. Prior to that, it was immortalized in a 1994 romantic comedy, I.Q. That film centered around famed physicist Albert Einstein with key scenes that featured Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins sitting in front of the mighty oak, surrounded by a protective wooden fence.

Some years earlier, I shot my own footage of the tree, farmhouse and battlefield for a short video I created which compiled Revolutionary War sites and monuments throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. My video predated the anachronistic fence and, as such, remains the only existing film or video footage of the Mercer Oak in that natural state, according to John Mills, the curator of the battlefield park and Thomas Clarke Museum, which apparently keeps a copy of my video in its research library.



In 2010, Mills told me he was amazed at the changes in the Clarke house and the battlefield since the video had been shot with several other trees having also disappeared. Thinking back thirty years ago I recall Mills, then living in a wing of the Clarke house, lighting some antique candles and allowing my assistant and I to shoot throughout the house and barracks.

The Thomas Clarke House, off Princeton Pike (Mercer Road), is currently closed due to Covid rules but the park is open daily from dawn to dusk and there are outdoor weekend tours at 11am and 2pm on Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays; weather permitting.


When in Princeton, stop by and see for yourself where and how these events took place at that crucial moment in America’s history. Of course, the tree may be gone but that which it represents lives on in history as well as our minds and our memories.

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Christopher Robinson

Sunday, April 11, 2021

Yet Another Pier to Fear

Inspired by the success of Brigantine Castle in Brigantine, New Jersey, businessman Pat Cicalese
approached his friend and the castle’s owner, Carmen Ricci about a similar venture in Long Branch. Ricci assisted in funding a new attraction with Cicalese as he had previously done for Ricci with his.

In 1977, the popular Long Branch Pier was leased by Cicalese and Ricci who built new stores on the pier in addition to businesses Cicalese already owned across from it. By 1979, they owned the pier and had completed building 50 stores in addition to a McDonald’s and the imposing Haunted Mansion, opened in 1978.

Resembling more of a darkly adorned European chateau, the three-story ‘mansion’ capably epitomized the walk-through haunted attraction experience and provided visitors with grisly and terrifying sights in its many horror-themed rooms including a graveyard, a creepy dining room, a spooky tavern and a Lizzie Borden room! Typically for such attractions, a cast of young and committed actors were always spookily in character, chasing, threatening and all-around horrifying the guests who dared to enter its doors.


Cicalese, having bought out the pier from Ricci in 1980, eventually redesigned its attractions five years later to favor a more family-friendly theme. This toned down some of the Mansion’s more fearsome terrors in its final phase. An electrical fire finally destroyed the mansion along with much of the pier in 1987.


Though plans to rebuild never came to fruition, the Haunted Mansion hasn’t been forgotten by any means with fans continuing to share their memories and stories. For everyone else, the shore simply wont be that ghoulish and scary place it briefly was.

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Christopher Robinson

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Boardwalk Vampire

Another pier which haunted Jersey shore beach goers with an ominous castle full of monsters and ghouls was the legendary Castle Dracula in Wildwood, New Jersey. The hallowed haunted ride was considered to be the best of its kind and subsequently outlasted all its creepy counterparts.

Built and operated by the Nickels family beginning in 1977, the three-story attraction utilized an existing water ride in its foundation. The first level of the castle was essentially a dungeon moat ride which had initially been an ‘old mill ride’ going back to 1919! Upon the moat, a train of boats rode a water current across a drawbridge which led to the mouth of a giant skull.

An alternate walking tour brought one into the upper levels of the castle where its dedicated performers put the scare-act on timorous trespassers amid spooky props, antiques and eerie rooms filled with gruesome displays, ghastly animatronic figures and other cleverly macabre illusions.

One can clearly recall the castle’s frightening invitation as they roamed the boardwalk and heard the opening notes of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor looped continuously and blasting from a speaker system. Even the horseshoe crabs on the sand below got goosebumps!

It was the illustrious count himself, however, who would personally beckon patrons to step inside his majestic stone home as he approached through double doors and moved his mechanical head and arms back and forth.

“Meet my friends— Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Hunchback and Phantom of the Opera... Join us, we’d love to have you... for dinner!”

Unfortunately, the feast of fun and magic ended suddenly in January of 2002 when two youths set a fire resulting in Castle Dracula being burned down. Its impressive legacy and catacombs of memories will nevertheless always remain for the millions who accepted Dracula’s invitation to that spooky ride in the dark.

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Christopher Robinson