Montreal 1976

[LA84 6]

This may have been posted before. But here is something I just found for our Canadian friends if they haven't seen it before.

Great rendition of "Oh Canada." And I still think Olympic Stadium is one of the best.

Montreal '76 Opening

[OlympicGames 0]

oh it's the same video from the IOC site.

[jim jones 242]

This may have been posted before. But here is something I just found for our Canadian friends if they haven't seen it before.

Great rendition of "Oh Canada." And I still think Olympic Stadium is one of the best.

Montreal '76 Opening

I would tend to agree about the 76 Olympic Stadium assessment . Thing is it is one of the few in the last 40 years that was build for the Olympics not having a prior life with another event. Beijing 2008 , Atlanta 1998 , Montreal 1976 and Munich 1972 were the only Main stadiums for summer games built from scratch for the event in the 1970 to 2008 time frame.

Berlin 1936 is a Classic design for a stadium , The La Memorial Coliseum certainly look s great as well. Montreal and Munich had stadiums that people felt were a look to the future.

Jim jones

[Kenadian 300]

Wow, great find! That version of "O Canada" appeared in TV sign-offs for a number of years.

Oh, look at all those old faces. Lord K. Liz. Phil. Pierre. Maggie. And I love the old way the athletes marched into the stadium in those days. Today's ceremonies are much more colourful and creative and the flag handover is a much more fitting event for the Closing ceremony, but the old school athletes parades are far more interesting.

[jim jones 242]

Wow, great find! That version of "O Canada" appeared in TV sign-offs for a number of years.

Oh, look at all those old faces. Lord K. Liz. Phil. Pierre. Maggie. And I love the old way the athletes marched into the stadium in those days. Today's ceremonies are much more colourful and creative and the flag handover is a much more fitting event for the Closing ceremony, but the old school athletes parades are far more interesting.

Kendegra in those days you didn't have the multimedia options that would come a few years later. A real computerized Stage Light did not come until 1981 with the British Prog rock Group Genesis. Their partnership with a Dallas Lighting Company produced the Vari-lite and that was not used for the Olympics until 1992. It used to be that in the 1980s the Varilite was the thing and they could only be leased from Genesis' Staging Company. These days if a Company even in the smallest place does not have that technology then they are not in the business. It is not unusual for a Production company to have 100 moving intelligent lights while the premiere of those fixtures was in Barcelona Spain in 1981 with 106 fixtures. Peoples minds were blown for a long while.

Basically to hold the 1976 ceremonies with the technology of the day would be pretty much like lighting a community theatre stage today very static and not adding much compared to just holding the ceremonies in the daylight. I do remember the Closing ceremonies of 1976 and at the end they did have Huge Follow spots panning the stadium . These Follow spots were in in the Roofs Structural Ribs and looked fantastic at the time. I know that those spot lights were only used once because the Manufacturer could not find a buyer for them . They were too powerful for most concert venues including 20000 seat arenas.

The Beijing Games well they build a stadium that took advantage of practically every Show Technology that has evolved out of the computerizing of Stage Lighting since 1981. My personal favorite is the Light curtain on the stadium floor which the olympic rings lit . The Raising of the light curtain was a simple but stunning effect. The Birds Nest was built with a great in site into what can be done for Multimedia and Modern Show lighting.

Jim Jones

[LA84 6]

I love this video because (1) It was my first Olympic OC (2) It was the first time I had heard another national anthem outside of our own (3) just the dignity of the whole thing and (4) that stadium. I am 13 again!

Can you imagine, with all the computer assisted effects the recent games have relied on how amazing that stadium would look? I remember JJ that closing and those light on the ribs - there is a blast from the past. They were amazing at the time.

I also agree Ken that I like the old school elements, such as the marching of the athletes. I wish some of those elements would make a comeback.

[baron-pierreIV 1693]

YellowVest take note, first time ever, a view of Montreal's Olympic Staidum folding roof from the tower above, looking down!!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pzY383PS6mA&...feature=related

YV, you might want to jump off that tower, to rip the roof.