CBGB's club QuickTime VR Tour

These QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) panoramas were created experimentally by Apple at CBGB’s in 1995 when the application was in beta testing in conjunction with the Stereo Society. With the elimination of Apple’s multimedia division in 1997, they might have been lost. But, having assisted in the original sessions, we had them in our archives.

The band on stage is Fossil, managed at the time by the club's owner Hilly Kristal. Only a couple more photo shoots would have been needed for complete club documentation, but the horror of the bathrooms possibly deterred the otherwise valiant photographer. Much worse than Hilly’s Mud. The little wiggly pig would have been appalled.

from CD Baby

photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images for the New York Times

We have our own pix, but this is beautifully done. The men's room had the commode on a raised platform, facing sideways. Most of the time, the guy fixtures were destroyed and the door removed. At least the ladies had a small amount of modesty preseved.

We offer individual panoramas (instead of an integrated file like the QTVR of our studio) for more convenient download. Play them by opening them in QuickTime, for Windows or Macintosh. All files are about 500K, or about 5 minutes’ download with a typical 56K dial-up modem connection.

Click on the thumbnail to download the selected panorama. When download is complete, hold and drag to navigate up, down and sideways. Use the shift key to zoom in, the ctrl key to zoom out.

Files are compressed in .zip form. This means that they don't open automatically in your browser, and you can choose the application yourself. To decompress, use the unzip application (Windows) or stuffit expander (Mac). For a free Windows or Mac expander that decompresses .zip or .sit files (and many others) go to http://www.aladdinsys.com/downloads/index.html

For an overview of downloading, compression and expansion, go to our Help Desk page at helpdownl.shtml