Willy Wonka Inspires Return of Smell-O-Vision!

By Pamela Mortimer

As with many generations of movie goers, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" has always intrigued Bostonian Megan Dickerson. The images of sensational chocolates, candies and legendary foods like Gobstoppers and Schnozberries beg to be experienced with a sense of smell. Dickerson, who calls herself a "multisensory artist", intends to bring that desire to fruition through the revival of Smell-o-vision. Dickerson has staged outdoor showings of Willy Wonka for hundreds of people, using oscillating fans to distribute artificially scented oils of blueberry pie and banana taffy to the audience. The Boston Children’s Museum and various local art houses are supporting Dickerson, who hopes to bring fragrant films to theaters this fall.

"There's been a crazy response to the movement," Dickerson said. "I guess there just aren't enough opportunities for wonder out there, but there's something nostalgic about this art action that makes you feel like a kid again."

Dickerson serves as a manager of community programs for the Boston Children's Museum and contributes her fascination with smell to the effect scent has on human psychology, including the fact that "scent memories" are a very powerful tool. Following her nose, Dickerson began to experiment with fragrances through a program at the museum’s Sense of Smell Institute.

"This will inevitably give us a sense of comfort and draw us back to a playful place, and give us flashbacks of things we may have forgotten about," she said.

Along with smells of fruit and cotton candy, Dickerson's boxes of bottled scents include dirt, grass, condensed milk, sushi, and fizzy lemonade.

Dating back to the 1950’s, Smell-o-vision never really caught on. When it first hit theaters, Smell-o-vision was brought about by a signal on a film that released a "smell track". The track activated a tubing systems that allowed scents to be distributed to each seat in the theater. Aroma-Rama, a similar system, used a theater’s ventilation system to pipe odors into the room.

Along with its other novelty crazes, the 1980’s saw another attempt at reviving the concept via scratch-and-sniff cards. The cards received only a lukewarm reception. Outside theme parks, films following the Smell-o-vision concept weren’t seen again until last year when two movie theaters in Japan offered various aromas in the back row for the movie "The New World".

Apparently the resurgence of "sniffable" media isn’t the dream of Dickerson alone. Trisenx Holdings Inc. recently launched a Web site (http://scenttv.tv) where users can experience "scent-enabled content" that includes movies, music videos and news.

Part of Dickerson’s plan is to organize a Smell-o-vision film festival. The 1960's film "Scent of Mystery" and John Waters' "Polyester" are possible cinematic choices since they are movies that "make no sense without the smells," she said.

Terry Molnar, executive director of the Sense of Smell Institute, says that separating the smells indoors may be a problem.

"The problem is that the scents are layered on top of one another, and people get sick from all of the smells mixed together," Molnar said. "I'm sure there's better technology out there now that could refresh the air in a theater, or could evacuate the air in the room before the next comes in."