Cinerama's 'Seven Wonders' Draws Capacity Crowd At Villa

What are your wonders of the world? It seems safe to say that more than 1,250 Utahns are discussing this question today, for that's the number who crowded the Villa Theater Thursday night for the Mountain West premiere of the Cinerama production, "Seven Wonders of the World."

A capacity audience, including church, civic and club leaders, was on hand for the first of 10 presentations to benefit Utah's new March of Dimes.

The next three performances have been nearly sold out, according to Villa manager Ted Kirkmeyer, who introduced Harry James for March of Dimes at the Thursday show. James outlined purposes of the new campaign and then introduced Paul Mantz, who has flown a plane to photograph many scenes in Cinerama productions.

Citing some of his experiences, flier Mantz related difficulties in filming sequences over the Suez Canal and the Holy Land. In one flight, he was assigned a narrow corridor. To deviate would have meant getting shot down. He also told about other flights for Cinerama.

Then Maurice Warshaw, Salt Lake businessman and state director of the March of Dimes who has underwritten the benefit performances, thanked the audience for supporting the cause.

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After that, it was a photographic thrill a minute for the audience, which saw the results of more than three million miles of flying over noted wonders of the modern world unroll on the giant screen before them.

"Seven Wonders of the World" shows colorful parasol dancers of Japan, beautiful costumes and dnacing in Cambodia, a cobra dance in India, and the seven-foot Watusi of Africa. It takes viewers under bridges, into the craters of live volcanos, over the world's most famous waterfalls, to a papal audience before thousands in Rome, over ancient ruins and for a thrilling ride down a mountainside on a runaway train.

As in the case of "This Is Cinerama," the "Seve Wonders" production also features beautiful musical sequences. There was agreement amoung some who have seen the same production elsewhere that the Villa presentation outshines them all.

It would be difficult to single out one segment as the most thrilling. But as in the first production, the audience seemed agreed that returning "home" and flying over such wonders in the U.S. as Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Golden Gate Bridge, Los Angeles freeways and visiting the giant redwoods are among the film's most enjoyable experiences.