Pan American Airlines: Visit USA, 1960s

Genre: Commercial

Year Published: 1960s

Creator: Pan American Airlines D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B)

Format: 16mm

Description: Transcription: (exciting music) 0:01 Narrator This is a focus leader. 0:04 Spokesperson Do your movies look like this? 0:08 Does your soundtrack sound like this! 0:11 Or is it like, eh. 0:16 If so, you need this. 0:18 Narrator A focus leader. 0:22 First, set your lens so that these lines 0:23 are sharp and clear on all parts of the screen. 0:28 Now set the volume control on your projector. 0:33 The sound level should be adjusted until 0:36 my voice can be clearly understood 0:38 in all sections of the room. 0:40 You are now ready to participate in another 0:42 "Pan American Travel Adventure." 0:45 (grandiose music) 0:52 Husband The United States of America, 1:05 a place you've dreamed of visiting all your life. 1:07 This cities you've heard of. 1:10 New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, 1:12 Miami, San Francisco, Niagara Falls, 1:15 and other places to be discovered. 1:19 Here we were, my wife and I, actually on our way. 1:22 Not everyone can do it, but the lucky ones who can, 1:26 will remember it for the rest of their lives. 1:28 Wife The roundtrip fare itself cost us about $450. 1:32 It could've been a lot less in a group, 1:36 but we decided to go it alone. 1:38 (cheerful music) 1:41 Then there we were in a first-rate, comfortable hotel room 1:45 for $10 a day. 1:49 And looking out at New York City. 1:51 Where to go first? 1:54 Why sightseeing, of course. 1:56 Radio City, the unbelievable skyscrapers. 2:16 Husband And here we are, on top of one skyscraper, 2:37 looking at a lot of others, 2:40 including the tallest manmade structure in the world, 2:42 The Empire State Building. 2:45 Gives you a new perspective on people and things. 2:52 Another stunning sight, 3:01 the modern architecture at New York's international airport. 3:02 (chopper whirring) 3:06 (carefree music) Here's another great way to go sightseeing in New York. 3:10 We didn't need a guide book to tell us who this was. 3:38 Wall Street, the financial heart of the world. 3:48 (cheerful music) 3:57 The United Nations Building. 4:00 But this calls for a closer look. 4:02 Something to tell your grandchildren, 4:14 that you sat and listened to the United Nations in session 4:16 and watched your own delegate in action. 4:19 But the political heart of America 4:24 is 200 miles south of New York. 4:25 And we decided to take the train. 4:28 (exciting music) 4:29 By the way, both the American and Canadian railroads 4:30 gave us fare reductions of as much as 15%. 4:33 Four hours later, we were in Washington, D.C. 4:40 (upbeat music) 4:43 Wife What a beautiful city Washington is. 5:01 And a map does help you get the most out of it. 5:03 Let's see, we should be right in front 5:07 of the Lincoln Memorial, and there it is. 5:10 All the famous historic sites in Washington are free. 5:15 I loved the graceful lines of the Washington Monument. 5:19 Husband 555-feet high. 5:23 898 steps to the top. 5:33 Wife We took the elevator, 5:38 and got a breathtaking bird's-eye view of the Capitol, 5:40 the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, 5:44 another angle of the Lincoln Memorial, 5:47 and various other government buildings. 5:50 Husband And perhaps the most exciting of all, 5:53 the home of the president, the White House. 5:55 We just had to see it close up. 6:02 34 American presidents have lived in this house 6:07 since it was first opened in 1800. 6:09 It is open to visitors, free, five days a week. 6:12 If we hang about long enough, 6:15 we might get to see the president. 6:17 Wife Or his lady. 6:20 (lively music) 6:21 Husband Now we headed south to Miami, Florida. 6:22 We discovered that air travel is generally much cheaper 6:25 in the USA then in Europe. 6:28 About half in fact. 6:30 Special rates for tourists. 6:32 And, of course, any of these tickets can be bought at home 6:34 at a further 10% saving. 6:37 Wife But I was beginning to miss our automobile, 6:40 and found it didn't cost much to rent one by the week. 6:43 About $5 to $9 a day, depending on the model, 6:46 plus a few cents a mile. 6:50 And gasoline, believe it or not, 6:53 costs only about 30 cents a gallon. 6:55 Miami Beach is famous for having the most luxurious 6:58 luxury hotels in the world. 7:02 Activity centers on the fantastic swimming pools. 7:21 And you can sip a drink on the terrace like a millionaire. 7:29 (upbeat music) 7:33 Husband In the States, you're never far away 7:37 from the sound of exotic rhythms to remind you that this 7:39 is the land where The Twist originated. 7:42 (carefree music) 7:57 No one ever seems to do any work in Miami. 8:09 Certainly not the visitors. 8:11 Wife Not this visitor anyhow. 8:14 Husband Miami is crisscrossed 8:20 with beautiful inland waterways. 8:21 And over on the ocean side, 8:34 you can find deep sea game fishing that ranks 8:35 with the finest in the world. 8:38 (lively music) 8:42 Niagara Falls is another celebrated vacation spot. 8:43 Traditional goal of honeymooners. 8:47 Niagara Falls is between the United States and Canada. 8:50 One of the great natural wonders of the world, 8:54 where the Niagara River 8:57 roars over a precipice 175-feet high, 8:58 212,000 cubic feet of water per second 9:03 for more than half a million years. 9:07 (cheerful music) 9:12 Now westward, Chicago. 9:15 Wife I just couldn't resist 9:25 snapping a few shots wherever we went. 9:26 But fortunately, film is very cheap in the US. 9:28 Husband Chicago is the second biggest city in America, 9:38 and you'll get a great view of its skyscrapers from the top 9:41 of the Tribune Tower. 9:44 And sometimes the viewer also provides the view. 9:55 There seems to be a suggestion that the view 10:02 might be even better from the top of the flagpole. 10:04 Wife Sorry, not today, too high. 10:10 Westward again, by Greyhound's scenic cruiser. 10:21 Another wonderful way to see America. 10:25 And the cost is equally wonderful. 10:27 A special offer to visitors from overseas, 99 days for $99. 10:29 These are the famous Badlands of South Dakota, 10:37 a primeval waste of rock and clay. 10:40 Not a plant grows here, not a bush, not a tree, 10:43 not a blade of grass. 10:47 The Sioux Indians still live out here, 10:51 and many still cling to old customs and traditions. 10:54 Looking as ancient as one of the mountains he was born in, 10:58 our guide points the way to a famous site, Mount Rushmore. 11:01 These are the Black Hills of South Dakota, 11:10 the highest mountains east of the Rockies. 11:12 On Mount Rushmore, the gigantic sculptured faces 11:15 of four great American presidents, 11:18 Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln. 11:21 (relaxing music) 11:26 Wife Just a few miles away, 11:28 we visited an authentic survival from the Old West, 11:29 Rockerville, South Dakota. 11:32 It became a ghost town when the gold rush 11:35 suddenly petered out a hundred years ago. 11:37 And the fantastically dry air has preserved everything 11:40 in perfect condition. 11:43 Everything authentic but the cowboy. 11:45 Husband At less than $3 a meal, 11:50 we had been eating very well. 11:51 Wife Too well. 11:55 Husband Dinosaur National Park 12:04 straddles the states of Utah and Colorado. 12:06 75 million years ago or so, prehistoric creatures like these 12:10 were walking around alive right here in Utah. 12:14 (grandiose music) 12:17 (playful music) 12:48 (cheerful music) 13:04 Next to Western Colorado. 13:04 To Mesa Verde. 13:07 Long ages ago, 13:14 cliff-dwelling Indians lived here, sun worshipers. 13:15 Then about a thousand years ago, they just disappeared. 13:19 Nobody knows where or why. 13:22 The modern Navajo Indians call them Anasazi, 13:24 meaning the ancient people. 13:27 Wife The National Park Service provides free guides 13:31 to help visitors see everything worth seeing, 13:33 and explain the whole thing. 13:36 They were just wonderful to us, and especially helpful 13:38 when they found out we came from overseas. 13:42 Many of the guides speak several languages. 13:45 In fact, we never seem to have any language problems. 13:47 Communication was very easy. 13:50 What could possibly have happened 13:58 to the people who built these homes so cleverly? 13:59 Only the silent mountains know the secret. 14:03 (lively music) 14:26 In Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, wild animals are tame and protected. 14:28 The altitude here is over 10,000 feet, 14:32 two miles above sea level. 14:35 Husband Yellowstone has more than a hundred geysers, 14:58 and here's the most famous of them all, Old Faithful. 15:00 Every 65 minutes since the world was young, 15:04 she's been shooting this column 15:06 of boiling water 165 feet in the air. 15:08 50 tons of water in about four minutes. 15:11 Yellowstone has the world's grandest geysers, 15:14 really a fantastic site. 15:18 People come from all over the world every year to see it. 15:20 There are more than 3000 of these hot sulfur springs 15:24 in Yellowstone, a perfect setting 15:27 for an expression of fantasy. 15:29 (exciting music) 15:40 (carefree music) 15:46 Wife In the Teton Mountains of Wyoming, 15:55 this typical silent mountain lake was made by a glacier 15:57 millions of years ago. 16:00 (cheerful music) 16:30 Husband We drove down 16:33 to the state of Arizona through some breathtaking scenery, 16:33 and headed for one of the grandest natural sites 16:36 in all America, the Grand Canyon. 16:39 The guidebooks call it the greatest example 16:42 of natural erosion, and one of the most sublime spectacles 16:44 in the world. 16:48 More than a mile deep, 200-miles long, 18-miles wide. 16:49 There is only one word for the Grand Canyon, incredible. 16:54 What a feeling you get out west in America. 16:59 Of just sheer space, room to breathe. 17:02 Take Arizona, less than half a million people 17:06 living in an area more than twice as big as England. 17:09 If you explore the Grand Canyon, 17:16 you can do it as the old time prospectors did, 17:18 on horseback or a mule-back. 17:20 And the whole thing costs about $15, including the mule. 17:22 The trip takes almost a day 17:32 to get down to the very bottom of the canyon. 17:33 Wife With us, of course, is the indispensable guide, 18:01 a genuine character, right out of a Western film. 18:03 (lively music) 18:29 Husband A nation on wheels 18:30 needs accommodations for automobiles as well as passengers. 18:32 And so, everywhere along the American highway, 18:35 we have the motel. 18:38 Most of these have TV in every room and a swimming pool. 18:40 Wife Las Vegas, gambling capital of the West. 18:51 What they call in the States, wide open, 18:55 meaning the sky is the limit and anything goes. 18:57 (cheerful music) 19:12 Husband The Golden Gate Bridge spans 19:15 San Francisco Harbor. 19:16 Here is a Western outpost of American culture. 19:18 (carefree music) 19:23 Along the colorful San Francisco waterfront, 19:42 the fishing fleet, celebrated in the stories of Jack London, 19:44 keeps the restaurant supplied with an endless variety 19:48 of great seafood. 19:50 On Fisherman's Wharf, the fortunate visitor 19:56 can still take his pick. 19:58 And the hot crab barrel 20:05 is a time-honored local institution. 20:06 (playful music) 20:25 San Francisco's ancient trolley cars, 20:30 about the last of their kind left 20:33 in this nation of motorbuses. 20:34 San Franciscans take a lot of pride in their individuality. 20:37 (bell ringing) 20:42 (cheerful music) 21:24 Another short hop, American style, 21:25 down the Pacific Coast Highway to Hollywood, 21:28 where the movies are made. 21:31 Wife We saw Clark Gable's hand print 21:40 caught forever in concrete. 21:42 Joan Crawford, almost in person. 21:46 (whimsical music) 21:58 And then we found ourselves 21:59 in the craziest place of all, Disneyland. 21:59 The home of Mickey Mouse. 22:42 (whimsical music continues) 22:45

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