Original subtitles

This is Lowell Thomas inviting you to come on another synorama adventure.

An epic journey such as no man ever made.

We are going on a flight around the world in our synorama clipper.

An air voyage to five continents in search of the wonders of the world.

The inspiration behind the idea for this aerial voyage goes

back to the days when here in my own home in this same room.

I first introduced to you that new revolutionary medium of entertainment.

Remember what I said?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is synorama.

And we went on that dizzy thrilling roller coaster ride.

Actually, it goes back even farther than that.

A friend of mine and in better Fred Waller for 14

years had been working on his new synorama process.

Hazard Reeves had just added revolutionary stereophonic sound.

Synorama was still in the laboratory.

Nearly all the heads of the motion picture industry saw the tests and marveled.

But they went away saying it was too complicated, too cumbersome, too expensive.

But to me it seemed as though Waller and Reeves had performed a miracle.

It seemed to me they had something that was perfect.

For the sort of thing I have been doing, ever since I was

with Allenby when he was driving the Turks from Palestine.

And when I was with that most colorful adventurer of our time, Lawrence of Arabia.

I don't recall whether it was Lawrence who suggested it or whether I did.

But we talked about the ancient list of the seven wonders of the world.

He was an archaeologist.

And we discussed the idea of bringing that ancient list up to date.

And then not long after the first world war, I was lucky enough to be the historian.

A man of man's first flight around the world.

The flight was made in a specially designed, Douglas world cruiser.

This is a model.

The first circumnavigation of the globe by air.

A milestone in the history of man.

Bringing fame as enduring as the pyramids, I think, to

these brilliant airmen standing on either side of me.

My candidate for the world's number one flyer.

Near the end of World War II, I chased General Jimmy

Doolittle around the globe and failed to catch him.

flying part of the time with General Hap Arnold chief of the U.S.

Air Force.

And a few years ago, my son and I flew around again.

That was when we crossed the Himalayas to enter Tibet.

And when we got to loss of the Rio Shangri -Law,

we saw the portal of the palace of the Delilama.

Rising from the valley floor to its golden domes.

Two-thirds as tall as the Empire State Building.

What a marvelous thing it would have been if we could have had sinner armor in

lossa.

But by the time we got home and discovered

some armor, the red tide had rolled over Tibet.

During all the years that I had been spanning the oceans and flying around and

around the world, I more and more came to feel that the time had come when at last

we should bring that ancient list of the seven wonders of the world up to date.

General Marion Cooper and I had produced the first one.

This is sinner armor, which broke all entertainment records.

So when I presented my seven wonders idea to our Stanley Warner sinner hammer

colleagues, they said, go ahead, lo, let your dream come true.

And that's the story of how and why we are now setting forth on this odyssey.

But before we leave, may I point out something that you already know?

When the Greeks formulated their original seven wonders list, the world they knew

was centered here in the eastern Mediterranean.

From this small area, western civilization spread.

But man now is familiar with the entire planet.

Do you remember what were the original seven wonders?

I had to look them up, too.

There is one that you do remember the Colossus of Rhodes.

We are told that it stood astrayed the harbor at Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean.

And that it was so tall, ships could sail between its legs.

Another was a gorgeous temple to the goddess Diana.

The Greeks called her Artemis.

It was in the ancient city of Ephesus, where Saint Paul preached.

Not far from Ephesus in Asia Minor was the city of Malek Kernassus.

When his ruler, King Massolus died, his queen built him a tomb.

The tomb of Massolus at Halek Kernassus.

From which we get our word, Massolium.

The Greeks had an important shrine at the site of the original Olympic games.

In it was a statue of Zeus, Jupiter to the Romans.

A masterpiece of ivory and gold created by

fittius, foremost sculptor of ancient times.

In the story of Julius Caesar, you may recall reading about a great

lighthouse at the mouth of the Nile near the city of Alexandria.

It was called the Pharaohs.

And we are told that it stood there for 1 ,500 years until finally destroyed by an

earthquake in the 14th century.

And then the sixth of which we have heard so often, and still constantly referred to.

The hanging gardens of Babylon.

They are on the right.

Legend tells us that King Nebuchadnezzar erected the hanging gardens for his queen.

And she was a princess from the mountains.

And she pined for her mountains.

And this was Nebuchadnezzar's attempt to provide a

substitute for her here on the flat desert of Mesopotamia.

The spiral tower that you see across the river Euphrates.

Our artist has included the tower of Babel, along with the hanging garden.

All six of these have two things in common.

They were all man-made, and they have all long since disappeared.

Only one of the ancient seven wonders remains.

High-speed modern transportation makes it possible for

man now to go to any place on the planet in a hurry.

And Cinorama gives us the feeling that we are actually there.

And that is why I am now inviting you to join me in

bringing the ancient seven wonders list up to date.

With this difference, we not only are going to include

spectacular man-made wonders, but also the wonders of nature.

And before we set forth on this odyssey, let's put on seven league boots and pay

our respects to the only one of the ancient seven that remains.

See that remaining ancient wonder through the magic of Cinorama.

The Greeks of antiquity rated the pyramids of Egypt

as the greatest and the oldest of the seven wonders.

Shall we still include the pyramids as one of the seven wonders of the world?

Here they are, almost unchanged in five thousand years.

And from the way they look, they'll be here for

thousands of years after you and I are gone.

Ah, but our point of departure is not the Pyramids.

Setting forth on our search, we fly away from New York on a modern magic cart,

taking off from the towering metropolis of the modern world.

Off we go for a whirl around the globe, on our

way to see what strange marvels we'll find.

Man-made wonders and wonders of nature.

Man-happen on the right, some small islands here in the river, in on our left,

Long Island and Brooklyn, four great bridges

spanning this eastern half of the Hudson.

Let's give these bridges a special farewell salute.

Flying over Queensborough Bridge.

Oh, under it.

Past the United Nations Bill, while we seek world wonders, they seek world peace.

Surely the greatest wonder of all.

Now three more operations.

This one, the Williamsburg.

Over?

No, under again.

The one they call the Manhattan.

The one they are always selling to somebody.

The Brooklyn Bridge.

Oldest of them all.

So long, fair lady.

We won't be seeing you again until we have circled the world.

Off we go, continent to continent.

Wonder hunting.

First stop South America with its all devouring jungle.

Of the wonders of nature, we have probably come upon one in the remote wilderness.

Right in the heart of South America, near where the borders of Brazil,

Argentina and Paraguay meet.

One of the greatest of waterfalls.

A series of giant cascades with a combined rim

twice as wide as Niagara and half again as high.

In fact, in the spring, the water flowing over is twice the volume of Niagara.

Would you put Igwazu on your list of the seven wonders in the modern world?

In the tropical wilderness of South America, we also

come upon an unexpected wonder, a freak of nature.

A battle between the jungle and the sands.

The sand used from the coast to Brazil, locked

in a struggle with the equatorial forest.

An invasion of yellow thrust into the green hell with the sands winning.

A few years ago, a roving American pilot named Jimmy Angel, flying over this

immense wilderness as we are now, was startled to behold a lost world on

young plateau with a whole series of waterfalls leaping toward the jungle.

And these in Venezuela are the highest of all the waterfalls in the world.

20 times as high as Niagara.

Two-thirds of a mile high.

Angel falls named for the barn storming adventure.

South America, continent of file and contrast.

Brazil, land of seemingly endless jungle.

And suddenly unfolding before us, the most spectacular city in the world.

Rio, Rio

de Janeiro, the river of January.

But there's no river here.

Nor is it January all year round.

But it was January in 1502 when the Portuguese navigators first sighted this coast.

As they sailed in, they thought, well surely

there's a river flowing into this great harbor.

So they called it Rio de Janeiro.

In the distance, Sugarloaf.

Curiously shaped rock, landmark of Rio.

Spreading on and on with its great suburbs.

Each among the hills like a city in itself.

Now the higher up you live, the lower your rent in Rio.

Wealthy Brazilians prefer to be right down on the beach.

The poor are the high livers.

The rich, the lower.

A Rio paradox.

On our left up there, a Rio slum.

The oceanfronted Rio is a world renowned.

A mile after mile, the Avonita.

And have you heard of the unusual building restrictions at Rio?

You can't put up anything less than twelve stories.

Man -made cliffs along the ocean.

Shall we include Rio as a wonder?

Or surely it is the wonder city of the world?

We all know the jungle is wild, but wildest of all is carnival time at Rio.

Then for a complete change of mood.

Flying through the clouds when we come upon Corcovado.

2,200 feet above the city.

Crown with a wonder of sculpture.

A hundred feet high.

The Christ with arms outstretched as if in blessing.

Here we go again, continent to continent.

South America to Asia this time.

Over the greatest ocean of them all.

Next up, Japan.

Boy, oh boy.

Then look in your eye, Pa.

What are you thinking about?

All those geisha girls.

When most of us think about Japan.

Well, we either think about cherry blossoms.

Or that wonder mountain.

Fojiyama.

Or maybe the Kamakura Buddha.

Would you put this giant sculpture on your list?

Down on the Japanese farm.

A countryside in pastel shades.

The fish are carved.

Bread for color.

Some priced at $10,000 each.

Poor fish?

Well, hardly.

Arriving at Tokyo Airport, our Pan -American, the Sinerama Clipper.

Japan, of course, depends on the great sky roots across the vast Pacific.

And Pan-American, itself a technological wonder, pioneered trans-Pacific aviation.

Greetings to Honorable GIs.

Honorable GIs are eager to see the sights of Japan.

And everywhere the GIs go, the kittens are sure to go.

In our search for the wonders of the world, shall we include feminine beauty?

In a Japanese garden with music, as it's played in Japan today.

The wonders of this far eastern land include many an ancient shrine,

many a traditional ceremony, a few of which visitors are invited to perform,

like the ceremony of the dawn.

The ultra-modern rickshaw that the Kooli used to pull.

In our tricycle rickshaw, we ride almost into the lobby of the Takarasa Cathedral,

where we hear the way popular music is played in Japan nowadays.

Note the decidedly western flame.

Kokomo Kea-Kakan Kalamazoo, with the usual GIs souvenirs.

And the girls they leave behind.

So long, young, young, so long, could he see?

Their search for the wonders of the world is all.

Goodbye, madam butterfly.

As we fly over Southeast Asia, we look down upon a lost empire,

Angkor Wat and Cambodia.

A thousand years ago, a conquering people called the Khmerz, established a brilliant

kingdom here, with a civilization that originated in India.

After many centuries, the Khmerz were overthrown.

And their shrines and their cities reverted to the

jungle, to be resurrected in our own time, not long ago.

And surely one of the wonders of the world.

Buddhist monks at a shrine long forgotten, and only recently brought to light again.

Religious wonder city of India, on the Ganges, the Sacred River,

a pilgrimage city from time immemorial, with its

famous gods, the landing places along the river.

For centuries, the great and the rich, Maharaja and merchant

have built shrines and palaces here along the Ganges.

Of temples alone, Benares has 1,500, a wonder city of strange religion.

A temple dance, a cobra dance.

The deadly hooded serpent has a weird significance.

Strange mysticism in this performance of the temple dancers and the cobra.

She has come with her parents, and she turns out to be quite a remarkable mimic.

Any of you married couples ever have a bridal procession like this?

Have some gum and chum.

India inherited much from the bridge, including London Bridge's falling down.

American influence too.

And finally some Hindu music.

Where is the bride?

Oh, she stays at home.

And the bridegroom?

Ah, there he is.

You've heard of the Benares monkey temple.

This is it.

Dedicated to one of the favorite Hindu divinities.

The monkey god, Hanuman.

Nearly all temples in India have their dancing girls trained from childhood,

even here at the monkey temple.

Motoring through Benares or through any Indian city

is not to be recommended if you have a weak heart.

Look out for the sacred cows.

If you hit one, then you will have to go.

For the age old feud of India between the Mandus and the Cobra.

Now the Mandus is not immune from the lethal poison of the Cobra.

So it depends on its incredible agility.

Look, he's taking a bow.

And the Mandus always wins.

Arriving at the scene of an immortal story.

Some 300 years ago, the Great Mogos ruled in India.

One of them, the emperor Shah Jihan.

And his greatest treasure was his favorite wife.

Mung Shah's Mahal.

She died when she was young.

And he and his despair and grief determined to

rare for her a tomb worthy of her grace and guilt.

As all men know, he created a masterpiece of the Taj Mahal.

Alas, Shah Jihan had to spend his declining years in prison.

He was deposed by his own son.

But there he could look out on the monument

that he had erected to the woman he loved.

Look, and dream.

And so we have what many today consider the loveliest wonder of the world.

The Taj Mahal.

Right ahead of his style, the Himalayas, highest mountains in the world.

Next up, Darjeeling and a cup of tea.

In our search for world wonders, let's visit India's most famous mountain resort.

Darjeeling high in the Himalayas.

Fame, too, for that Darjeeling tea.

To carry freight and passengers up the Himalayan

slopes, well, that would seem to be a task for a giant.

Here's our giant.

At the curseyong station, down near the plains.

Don't be dead.

He thinks he's in a wagon league.

The meat moan joe.

They sand the track to keep the wheels from slippings.

We're off on the steep climb to Darjeeling.

Earnest the engine, puffing and puffing.

To get up these steep Himalayan slopes, they

continually have to pour sand on the rails like that.

The Darjeeling run is one of the toughest that railrotors know.

Up enormous mountains.

Mountains that are themselves a world wonder.

Would you select our Darjeeling train as one of

the technological wonders of the modern world?

The world of railroading?

Something blocking the track.

What is it?

Surely it can't be.

Yes, it's an elephant, snoozy.

Shoo, shoo.

It'd be their wild elephants.

It'd be their dangerous.

Let's call a big game hunter with a high powered rifle.

Ah, here he comes.

Sabu the elephant board.

Hey, what's up?

Guess the brakes have gone.

That's happened before, but never quite like this.

Can they hit it all?

Seems surprised at the train that runs backwards.

Right back where they start.

But don't redend us, though.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Fine run.

You're on our way to trace the wonder story of the world.

As told in the book, that has influenced mankind more than any other.

The Bible.

Continent hopping again.

This time to Egypt.

With Cairo it's modern cattle.

Where imagination takes us back to the pharaohs.

And to the epic story told in the book of accidents.

The god Abno will be run over by a camel.

The Nile of ancient renown.

Near the banks of which the children of Israel were kept so long in bondage.

In the flight of the Israelites from Egypt, their

way was right across what we call the ismasa suez.

Where today we see the suez canal, another technological wonder.

In Exodus we read how Moses again and again

repeated the pharaoh, the command of the Lord.

Pharaoh, let my people go.

The arms suez, just outside Egypt, we approach the mountain of the Ten Commands.

Mount Sinai.

There.

The mountain of which the Bible says.

And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain.

And the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mountain.

And the Ten Commandments were given.

On the Lord's slope of Mount Sinai, an ancient monastery

commemorating Moses and the tablets of the Lord.

For forty years Moses led the children of Israel

through the mountain desolation of the Sinai Peninsula.

Yes, this is the wilderness.

We read that Aaron, brother of Moses, was buried on Mount home.

That summer, just below us, with the white shrine.

The Israelites carried long at the southern end of the dead sea.

The lowest spot on earth, in itself a strange wonder of nature of the dead sea.

More than a thousand feet below the sea level.

And then they journeyed on to the promised land.

Legend says that there in the heart of Hebron were buried Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Together with their wives, Sarah, Rebekah and Lea.

The cave of Macpiva with the sacred tomb is beneath

that building, inside the rectangular enclosure.

On to the northern end of the dead sea, to Jericho, where the walls fell down.

Remember how in the book of Joshua we read, and it came to pass when the people

heard the sound of the trumpet.

And the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat.

Along the old Jericho road, recalling how the twelve tribes of Israel won Palestine,

and established a flourishing king.

In the Psalms, the poet sings, If I forget the old Jerusalem,

let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Three temples of ancient Israel were built here.

There they stood through the centuries, until

the last was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

The ancient Jewish state overthrown.

And today the mosque of Omar occupies the site of Solomon's temple.

If you ever hear of the stronghold of Masada, the seed of tragic heroism in the

Jewish revolt against Rome, the defenders hurling themselves over the cliff,

preferring death to surrender.

At the bottom, the old Roman wall, dating back to that era, of the final

effort of ancient Israel for national freedom.

The green fields of modern Israel bring the Jewish story right down to date.

From ancient tragedy to present revival, Israel restored.

Zionist settlers have done wonders in the practice of advanced agriculture.

So here today, the color is green.

The ancient port of Akron, one of the great gateways to Palestine.

After 2000 years, a Jewish state has been restored in the old land.

For ages, the people in exile.

And now a host of exiles returning to build a new nation.

Let us tear you a moment.

Let us recall another story.

A story that begins at Bethlehem.

And she brought forth her first born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes,

and played him in a mage.

Because there was no room for them in the end.

And the angels sang, glory to God in the highest.

And on earth, peace, good will toward man.

With the church of the Natimani.

On Nazareth, where Jesus lived in his youth and worked as a carpenter.

A city made immortal by the name that has

dominated Christendom for nearly 2,000 years.

Jesus of Nazareth.

And

the river in which the Savior was baptized by John the Baptist.

Over looking at the chart, the Mount of temptation, of which we read.

And the devil will take him up into an exceedingly high mountain.

And showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.

All of which Satan offered to Jesus if he would give up the kingdom of heaven.

The Sea of Galilee, where Jesus walked on the walk.

The sea in which the apostles cast their nets.

And the chief of the twelve was Simon Cole Peter, a fisherman.

The gospel story takes us to the tragic conservation.

Guess semony outside Jerusalem.

Then comeeth Jesus with them to a place Cole gets seven.

So the gospel relays.

The story of the agony in the garden.

Into the city through St. Stephen's Gate, where Stephen was stoned.

The way pilgrims have come for centuries to pray at the scenes named by tradition.

And imagination can picture those events when Jesus was led forth to be crucified.

The Via Dolorosa.

The way of the cross, named by tradition as the road to Calvary.

Where the Savior crowned with thorns carried his cross.

And their followed him says the gospel.

A great company of people and of women, which also be wailed and lamented him.

But Jesus turning unto them said, daughters of Jerusalem, wait not for me,

but wait for yourselves and for your children.

When they were come to the place which is called Calvary, where they crucified him.

The story in the minds of the pilgrims as

they make this journey along the Via Dolorosa.

The church of the Holy Sepulcher, its ancient walls ever in need of repair,

legended as the scene of the resurrection.

Where at Easter the cry rings out, he is risen, he is risen.

And finally, the Mount of Olives, the scene of the ascension.

Africa, dark continent of long dramatic legend.

Great fire mountains are just about the most exciting of all the wonders of nature.

And here before us in East Africa, is the Lord of

Volcanoes, with the rising column of volcanic gas.

Shall we take a look right into the burning crater?

Our synorama aerial cameraman, Paul Mans, is afraid the sulfur fumes will

cut his engines for a forced landing in what

could be a pit of hell in Dante's inferno.

Africa renowned above all for its wonders of the animal kingdom.

Heard of hippos on the Victoria Nile.

The bottom is as great for river horse.

The Greeks had a word for nearly everything.

These do look a bit like horses there in the river.

How would you like to ride a hippo?

Africa wonderland for numbers and varieties of huge animals, like the elephant herd.

A monarch with a bird for a crown.

Now a bit of drama in the elephant country.

For the local tribes, baby elephants are fair game.

They capture them, and tame them, or try to,

for the African elephant is difficult to tame.

Let's join an elephant hunt and see how they catch them.

The best from Jumbo.

Here's how they tame and train a baby elephant.

At an elephant school.

How do you like going to school, baby Jumbo?

The

end of a perfect day in elephant country.

Still trying to call them back to the jungle.

African crocodiles are man-eaters.

So this is not a place where you and I can swim and relax.

Pink flamingos in a pastel colored cloud.

Africa has only 5 million people of European origin, and 200 million Africans,

like the Watusi in the Belgian Congo.

The tall people, seven footers are common among them.

For a lofty stature, they are a wonder of the human race.

High-jumping the favorite sport among the Watusi.

Now they move it up an arch.

That solemn character standing at the hurdle is a seven footer.

The

king approaches the mowami in Royal ceremonial cluster.

With him, his Belgian advisor, who is of ordinary European statue.

The Watusi are the tallest people on earth.

King the mowami truly regal figure.

On with the dance, says the mowami.

His name is butero.

He's the star.

Tailed as the greatest dancer in Africa.

Then the jinsky of the Watusi.

The little girls of the tribe take their dancing seriously.

Like grown-ups everywhere, amused by the younger generation.

Now for a wonder name of legend and mystery.

Tim Buck, too.

Below us.

Once a forbidden city, almost inaccessible in the southern Sahara.

The goal for high adventure.

The Sahara salt caravan.

To the south, the tribal people have no salt.

It's a rare luxury.

In this part of the Sahara, there are salt oasis.

So these camels, a thousand of them, carry

treasure to a world where salt is like gold.

When we think of mighty wonders of nature, two names always come to mind.

Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls.

Ah, but we are a long, long way from honeymoon bridge.

Where we are now flying over Rhodesian.

We had our first thrill, so our first wonder in South America.

It was oophones.

Now another.

A telltale cloud of spray heralds Victoria Falls.

Found by Livingston.

Before Stanley, found here.

Wider than Niagara and twice as high.

What a challenge it is for Ciderama.

Here with the Zambezi, punches into a narrow canyon.

The violent impact of water raising misty clouds.

In the crater of an extinct volcano, a lake that seems to mirror the dark,

strange beauty of Africa.

All around us now are the mountains of Yemen.

One of the wildest, one of the least known parts of the world.

And by the way, down here in these mountains is where they first started to

grow coffee and where they first started to drink.

From Africa, we have flown across to Arabia.

Coming in over a land of desert and enchantment.

Beyond these forbidding mountains of Yemen on the coast,

we are heading for the desolation of the inner desert.

With wonders rising like pajamas out of the Arabian Nights.

Only a few miles ahead of us is the most frightful of all deserts.

The Rubal Kali, the land of emptiness, which the Arabs themselves never penetrate.

The empty quarter lies just beyond this valley.

We're rounding a cliff.

We suddenly come upon one of the least known wonders of the world.

A skyscraper city.

What could be strange?

The city of Shiba, in a region called the Hadrima.

People living here in modern looking skyscrapers, just

as they have lived since before the dawn of history.

From time immemorial, the local pride here has been to erect these tall buildings.

Why does the chicken cross the road?

Well, because the camels are going that way.

Hopeful chicken.

The city water works.

Sayom, another skyscraper city.

There are several in this valley, right on the edge of the land of emptiness.

At one time, this was the land of frankincense and mer.

Now, let's visit a paramount shake of the inner desert.

In fact, he is a sheriff.

That means a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

Sheriff Hussain, we didn't expect such an impressive ceremony as this.

It's like stepping back into the pages of the Arabian Nights.

Thank you.

Subordinate shakes, pay on it.

They kiss his hand, and they kiss his dagger.

Now, the camel stampede, camels by the thousands.

This is the wealth of sheriff Hussain.

From the Hadra Mount and the borders of Yemen, we swing north.

Right over in the Rubal Khan.

Directly across the empty corner.

The most forbidding desert honor.

Never crossed until recently.

And then, suddenly, we come upon a wonder of modern technology.

Here on the face of the desert, an oil pipeline,

extending for hundreds of miles across the sands.

Why the streak of flame?

Oh, just waste gas.

The

better one on their camels still traverse the ancient caravan

trails, just as they did before the Prophet Muhammad was born.

But now, along the same desert routes, come the

air-conditioned caravans of the American oil name.

It may sound like a worn-out phrase to say the old and the new.

But how can you avoid it here?

The old tribal life and the new technology.

American oil raids.

Below this desert of eastern Arabia near the Persian Gulf, is an ocean of oil

recently developed by American oil mayor, bringing

about an extraordinary phenomenon of the modern world.

At the Great Aramco refinery, a workday ends.

The Muslim worker's prey in response to the call of the mooisin, bowing in the

direction of the holy city of Mecca.

The ruler of this fabulous realm of oil is King Saul, who receives oil royalties

amounting to a million dollars a day, making Saul the richest man in the world.

The American Arabian oil city of Doran on the Persian Gulf.

The desert falcon used for hunting.

Young America, right in the middle of the Arabian night.

Take me out to the bowl game in the land of Arabic.

And don't miss the donkey on the right.

King Saul, in some of his 30 sons, appeared to be baseball fans.

Swinging west from the desert to the song, from

the lands of the Orient to the Western world.

Now we're looking down on that historic point where Asia meets Europe.

Istanbul, old Constantinople on the bus for us.

The straight that divides Europe from Asia.

The city that lies on two continents on the left Europe, on the right Asia.

Mount Olympus, home of the gods of ancient Greece, Jupiter and his thunderbolts,

Apollo with his golden liar, Aphrodite the goddess of love.

Imagine them all right there on that cloudy summit.

The trail of Western civilization leads to classical Greece, Athens.

They're on the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Temple

of the Goddess Athena, patroness of Athens.

The Parthenon, architectural wonder of the world.

Could they be Plato and Socrates?

No, and not Demosthenes and Diogenes, even.

That's the military costume of the modern Greek mountaineer.

Along the portico of the Parthenon, which may

be an ancient wonder, but it is also modern.

Foreign Athens was born an idea that exists today in every country where men are free.

For it was here twenty-five hundred years ago, that was born the ideal of democracy,

liberty of the mind, freedom of the spirit.

The Isles of Greece, center of the ancient world, reminding us how easy it is now to

fly around the world and behold its wonder.

On across the Mediterranean to Naples, rival of Rio de Janeiro as a spectacular city.

The scene here is a wonder of long legend.

At the entrance of the magnificent harbor, that

most famous volcano of them all, mount Vesuvius.

Fortunately, now quite.

Not at all like it was when it erupted in destroyed

Pompeii, off there to the right, nineteen hundred years ago.

And what do we see ahead?

Whilst the leading tower of peace and that slanting medieval wonder that still leans.

Rome is above all, the wonder city of historic monuments, glorious architecture,

marvel to the fine arts that have come down from

antiquity from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The modern metropolis too, this eternal city.

What lucky travelers we are.

How few have had such an intimate sky view, Saint Peter's and the Vatican as this.

We spiral right down over the Colosseum and arrive in Rome at an auspicious time.

For now, the Roman Catholic Church is celebrating the end

of the Marian year with a splendor of ritual and pageant.

Colosseum still seems to proclaim the power of the Roman Empire.

The corridor through which the gladiators walked on their way into the arena to

fight and also to die before Caesar and that cruel Roman crowd.

In this amphitheater, the Christians were thrown to the lions.

Now here in this place of martyrdom, Christian Lithily is recited.

The Roman Forum center the political life of the Roman state.

Here you might commune with the shades of Cicero, Caesar, Brutus and Mark Anthony.

Today Pope Pius XII will give a benediction at Saint Peter's and all Rome

is going, three pilgrims in particular.

Bill,

but has recovered, and in a spirit of thanksgiving, they are taking him to

receive the papal blessing on this day of days.

Oh, but they are late.

Somebody is always late.

You'll constantly notice that obelisk in the middle of the square.

It was brought to Rome for me, it nearly 2,000 years ago, brought by one

of the Caesars, the interior of the greatest church

in the world, never before in life and for film.

Saint Peter's with Michelangelo's dome, one of the wonders of the world,

the largest church in all of Christendom.

There

is Cardinal Spelman, the Cardinal helped arrange this filming for Cinderella,

just arranging it with something of a wonder.

Too late, it's all over.

Giovanni and Maria are sadly disappointed.

Will the bambino have to go without the benediction of the Pope?

Apparently, yes.

They're told that all they can do now is offer

up a prayer of thanksgiving at the high altar.

But here is help.

They tell their story to a prelet, and he informs them that the Pontiff has

gone to Castel Gandalfo, the people residents in the hills outside Rome.

There he will give a special benediction.

They can attend by getting a special permission.

So quickly they are on their way.

Castel Gandalfo, the changing of the Swiss guards

in their uniforms designed by Michelangelo.

If it's easy to send me, the change of the

silver boss is the man and the same in parallel.

At the period, at the period of sanctity, the change

of the silver boss is the man and the same in parallel.

I have

long thought about capturing the magnificence of a papal ceremony,

and that was it.

Like something out of the Middle Ages.

On this flight around the world, we have seen many, many wonders,

and we could go on and on.

By the way, we may have missed your favorite completely.

So far we have visited four continents with one more to go, our own.

The wonders there may be familiar to all of us, but how

can our search be complete without a look at some of that?

So, for an epilogue, let's span the Atlantic, and then from all that we have

seen around the globe, let's choose our magic seven.

That magic seven to be selected by you, and you, and you.

Hail Fair Lady, here we are again.

We've been visiting ancient lands, and ours is a new country.

We've seen many an edifice of majestic masonry,

while our tall buildings are of structural steel.

New York, engineered with steel.

The Empire State tallest of buildings, a quarter

of a mile high, with its 60,000 tons of steel.

Would you include it as one of the magic seven?

The familiar geometrical beauty of a great bridge.

Ah, yes, we are at home among exploits of engineering, such as harnessing the water

power of the new world, like the Hoover Dam, which holds

back the waters of the largest of all lakes made by man.

Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only one was of practical utility,

the lighthouse of Alexander, the fellows.

The other six were all aesthetic in character.

But ours is an era of technological wonders that are useful to man.

Home sweet home in the technological 20th century.

In Texas, it means an oil well right in your front yard.

Ah, but in utter contrast to the complexities of modern technology,

ours is also a country where simplicity has its greatest hold on man, like the

little white church of the Protestant tradition.

The Sunday service of gospel, sermon, and hands.

The old American tradition of church and family.

The simplicities that are so much our own.

Won't you join us, stranger?

Thanks, ladies.

Those stakes are so irresistible.

I couldn't keep from coming over to find out what you're doing.

And what are you doing?

Oh, I, we are looking for the seven wonders in the world.

Have you any suggestions?

The seven wonders?

That's easy.

Just count them, stranger.

There are my seven wonders of the world.

Perhaps you're right.

Maybe we shouldn't have bothered about the Taj Mahal, Victoria Falls and all the rest.

What about our natural wonders?

Such as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

Where

are your falls in Africa?

What would you now say about our own Niagara?

The world sentimental one.

Would you put on your list of the magic seven?

The oldest living thing on earth?

The giant sequoia of California?

It's like standing before the spire of a church that points to the heavens.

Here, where man seems humble and deep, beneath these trees

that were alive 1,000 years before the birth of Christ.

Three thousand years old.

What more appropriate place to conclude our odyssey?