The Heart of Scented Storytelling Pulses with The Sweet Smell of Success
Scented Storytelling
I had the distinct honor to feature Tammy Burnstock on a recent Ladies Who Lunch Conversations videocast; introducing audiences to her passion and, what I believe, is a dream job. See, Tammy is a writer, director, and, cue the harp, a multi-sensory event producer. “What’s that last one?” you may understandably ask. I was delightfully intrigued when I first heard this job description that I am certain is not listed on any Linked In profile category.)
My innate curiosity was piqued when I was doing research for my post about the Scent of Mystery fragrance and art gallery show that was a high art companion set piece to the Smell-O-Vision film. I think you can already see how I became intrigued enough to host Tammy ~ to learn more about what she does and how she sustains and stewards her artful pursuit. And my instincts proved right 😉Tammy’s scent-based art is extraordinarily fascinating and well ~ i have to say it: “scent-sational!” Her unique and inspiring craft will excite and intrigue you, too.
Ladies Who Lunch Conversations hosts Tammy Burnstock, Multi-Sensory Event Producer
I’ll give you the thumbnail here and at the same time, encourage you to experience our Conversation on the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations Facebook page or on my YouTube. Tammy’s genuine enthusiasm and detailed explanation is practically impossible to capture here. Plus she boasts that melodic, Australian accent that will have you smiling throughout the episode.
Scented Storytelling artist, Tammy Burnstock
Tammy produces films with scent as a key character element, as well as live performances where scent is embraced as a way to more fully experience the activity.
What’s notable is Tammy’s enduring ability to collaborate ~ in fact, it's key to her practice. Scented Storytelling is her very own, very special enterprise that she’s grown to embrace an international ensemble of storytellers, scent experts, and performers who, together, craft bespoke olfactory experiences worldwide.
Suspend what you think you may know about an event ~ one that is usually content being delivered to you that you see and or hear. All good. But what about your other senses? Why neglect them? Why not fully engage?!
We discovered that where Tammy’s artful imagination and talent has reigned ever since she was a child when she learned about scent early ~ her parents even made their own fragrances, she pursued a life with scent as the paramount, personal connection continually evolving and elevating her craft. She is unabashed in noting that she’s long been fascinated by the power of scent to provoke emotion, trigger memory and to transport our lives.
She’s spent her life cultivating ways to heighten our love and appreciation for how scent can deepen our emotional connections and artful experiences. Whether working from her Australian homeland or internationally, she invites audiences to engage and be guided by all of their senses.
Let’s start with the biggie blockbuster 🎬 to show you what we mean.
With a focus on participatory scented film events, including in 2016, an olfactory restoration of the one and only Smell-O-Vision! feature film Scent of Mystery (1960)that was the first but also the last film to be presented in Smell-O-Vision. Even with the world’s most beautiful woman, Elizabeth Taylor, as a star, and Mike Todd Jr. as producer, the film was a flop. Yet today, most everyone has heard of the film’s technology. I asked Tammy why, with all the advancements we have in tech, we can’t make this work? Tammy has, in fact, made it her mission to get to the bottom of what went wrong, and as she writes, “uncovered a very human story of scientific innovation, heartbreak, and redemption.” Why, that has the distinct hallmark and all the makings of an award-winning drama. And in fact, Tammy has produced In Glorious Smell-O-Vision! ~ a documentary film that brings to light the previously untold chapter in cinema history, proving that movies that smell DO have a future.
Give this woman a star on Hollywood Boulevard, please. ⭐ Tammy proves that a “stinker” of a film was not because of the smell. Ha!
Curiously, this film has had more incarnations than a Marvel movie stunt double.
You can watch the original film, later released in Cinerama under the title, Holiday in Spain but without the smell. In 2015 a version complete with reconstructed scents was presented at screenings in Los Angeles, Denmark and England. The original Scent Of Mystery included Taylor’s character’s perfume ~ a yellow rose, along with other scent clues, including: grape essence from the port wine the stars drank, the (ahem), “musky” scent of the Running of the Bulls, and as Tammy notes, even a “scent joke” as the star Peter Lorre added a pungent ‘kick’ to his coffee. Joke was on them, though…
Coming up: the films are to be showcased on two nights as part of the University of Southern California’s (USC) Vision and Voices series “Whiff, Wonder, and Smell: Sensorama Exhibition” scheduled for April 2027,Scent of Mystery, alongside her documentary feature In-Glorious Smell-O-Vision!, the True Story of the Godfather of Scented Cinema will be featured. In-Glorious! dives deep into the enigmatic world of Hans Laube, the Swiss inventor and unsung hero of scented cinema. A perfect companion piece.
Laube’s groundbreaking Smell-O-Vision! technology debuted with the lavish Hollywood film Scent of Mystery. As Tammy explains and features on her Scented Storytelling website: the documentary “is not just a historical revelation but is also a firsthand sensory experience and testament to the future of scented storytelling. Audiences are enveloped in an aromatic tapestry, reliving the seminal scents from Scent of Mystery. Surely, scent can be a future, feature element to get audiences back into the cinema (along with those big comfortable lazy-boy recliners that help make The Odyssey seem like a “short.”) As I remarked in our Conversation exchange ~ cinema can really use scent as part of the entertainment. We can’t rely just on Christopher Nolan as saviour!
If you are in Los Angeles in April, please be sure to attend this (free) program at the School of Cinematic Arts.
Tammy excitedly spoke about her participation in international projects that have also included scent archeology and exhibitions, most recently, Her Scent of Mystery at Olfactory Art Keller, in New York City last year (2025) that she was thrilled to attend. (again, please see my post about this event and the reissue of the forgotten fragrance, as linked above. It’s a great story.)
Expanded Scent Palette
In addition to her film documentary and production work, Tammy explores other avenues to bring scent to audiences. With a background in children’s media, Tammy loves tempting young people off-screens to explore and play. She has designed scent games, a pre-school puppet show, and inclusive writing workshops engaging the nose, including volunteer work with children in palliative care for Children’s Hospital Network’s The Story Project.
Schnozz-Lit Café experience (photo, Scented Storytelling)
Other current projects include Schnozz-Lit Café, an exploration of scent and flavour in literature.
When Tammy explained what the Schnozz-Lit Café was during our Conversation, I was excited about the initiative and was spitballing a concept; now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I believe even more strongly that Tammy can work with Independent book stores and establish a template for them to produce such olfactory literature events. Perhaps she can be a Zoom presence. Either way, I think she can expand this very cool, entertaining sensory experience and highlight literature’s gripping scent stories with actual smells! Book lovers are a special community, after all. Over tea, folks smell, taste and talk. How fun is this?
There is one coming up near Sydney. The rest of us will have to wait until Tammy produces Schnozz-Lit Cafés near us…
In our Conversation, you’ll also see that Tammy offers viewing audiences some creative examples of what’s in store for a few films she’s worked on with fellow fragrance historian, Jas Brooks, including a new treatment of the 1920 classic film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with live original score and smells!
Tammy showcases Scratch & Sniff for cinema on Ladies Who Lunch Conversations
And there’s more. We all know and love Scratch & Sniff. Well, Tammy and her collaborators have dialed up the artful cinematic experience using this experiential technique.
Tammy explained and demonstrated for us, the Scratch & Sniff that were especially designed for her productions.
Scratch & Sniff for cinema (photo: Scented Storytelling)
Scratch & Sniff for cinema (photo: Scented Storytelling)
Here’s a sweet overview from her website: “A whimsical Scented Cinema journey to the scrumdidilyumptuous world of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971) at the Parramatta Riverside Theatre. An appreciative audience sniffed sinister whiffs of Slugworth’s bad breath, were invited to Smell and Eat the chocolate river’s pull and to journey alongside Mike Teavee to be zapped with tongue-crackling teleportation, before floating away with Charlie into a realm of pure imagination…”
Scented Storytelling’s Scratch & Sniff for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (photo: Scented Storytelling)
Tammy is a firebrand ~ a passionate advocate for nurturing scent in our lives, in our artful pursuits. She’s someone you know you want to work with and be a friend to. In our Conversation, I suggested she was the cheerleader for Scent! In fact, I think she could single-handedly lead the film industry to resuscitate and/or organize a contemporary branch or subcomittee as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. Research shows there was an attempt in the late 1950s and 1960s, (Smell-O-Vision and AromaRama) there were brief commercial experiments with "scented" cinema (such as the film A Tale of Old Whiff ). The Academy Film Archive actually preserves old prints of these films, but they never created a formal branch or subcommittee to govern or award cinematic odors.
Listening to Tammy, you are all-in on smell in film. Let’s agree that its time has come. Again.
Tammy’s sensory engagement skills and talents elevates our appreciation of fine arts from film, literature, painting, the art of perfume. I see her work adding to symphonies too. Why not have more of what the San Francisco Symphony did when they collaborated with Cartier for Prometheus, The Poem of Fire, where Scriabin envisioned a total, synesthetic work of art, where sounds would conjure images, colors, shapes, and smells. For this symphonic, multisensory production of Prometheus, by Mathilde Laurent, in close collaboration with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Esa-Pekka Salonen, scent accords were created specifically for the performance, delivered during key moments. As the Times wrote: Cartier and their in-house perfumer, Mathilde Laurent, featured dry-air diffusers and specialized "vortex" cannons that pumped customized olfactory notes through the concert hall to match the symphony's progression. The music journeyed from an earthy "petrichor" scent (smell of rain on dry earth) to ozonic smoke and burnt wood notes as Prometheus brought fire to humanity.
And I have to take a moment for a shout out here: Petrichor is the name of my first, limited-edition fragrance! Oh, the karma…
Or another example could be the sweet scent of noble trees as part of my brother James’ groundbreaking work, Sourland Symphony?
A True Nose for Scent: Tammy’s Nose is featured at the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Los Angeles, USA. You have to Love this! (photo: Scented Storytelling)
Tammy, you are so inspiring. Thank you for being such a unique and splendid guest on my Ladies Who Lunch Conversations videocast. It was a first to not only host a guest from Australia but also to conduct the interview in our speakeasy/home theater with Scent of Mystery ~ Holiday in Spain running in the background on the big screen.
We learned so much, you entertained us and educated us, too. A hat trick of joy. Thank you very much.
I hope we see more of Tammy and her team at concert halls, cinemas, book stores and libraries, very soon. Audiences are craving your inspired, authentic and engaging experiences.
Scent triggers our memories the most of all our senses ~ and your presence and insights will remain an inspiring memory for us.
Cheers.
