Seven Wonders of the World

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.