Robert L. Bendick

A selection of excerpts from the first Cinerama films.

Designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, audiences experience the roller coaster at Rockaways' Playland, the temple dance from Aida, Niagara Falls, a Viennese choir, the canals of Venice, a military tattoo in Edinburgh, a bullfight, and more. The film concludes with a view from the nose of a low-flying B-25 while America the Beautiful plays.

Combining photos, narration, musical orchestration, and archival pre-WWI footage, the filmmakers vividly capture the automobile and its transformative impact upon American history and culture