“Wonderful World” is a 1959 color travelogue produced by Jam Handy for Coca-Cola and narrated by Ken Nordine. The broad documentary surveying global cultures, lifestyles, emphasizing common human activities. The opening minutes takes viewers to various sites across the United States, including a baseball game, New England churches, and the ivy-covered halls of Harvard University, before visits to the Canadian Parliament, Britain’s Parliament, and friendly British pubs. Mark 04:10 introduces a Shakespearean performance before moving on to the cloistered quiet of Oxford University, “which symbolizes the universal idea of the oneness of mankind,” says the narrator at mark 04:36. People also can be united through sports such as horse racing in England (as noted at mark 04:47) a leisurely ride on the Seine past Notre Dame, or people watching on the Champs-Elysées near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. We the Louvre and participants in the Tour de France as the narrator notes at mark 07:14 that “in Europe, they live in easy harmony between the old and the new.” Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden are all shown as scenes of the old coexisting with the new are shown. A German soccer match is juxtaposed with ancient castles in Heidelberg at mark 09:43. Brief scenes from Munich and Vienna follow as strains of Johann Strauss’ “Blue Danube Waltz” plays at mark 11:08.

We travel down the canals of Venice, visit the artwork in Florence, and pay homage to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome at mark 13:45. There are bulls in Spain and caravans in the desert wastelands of the Middle East before visiting the Sphinx and pyramids at mark 19:25. The striking contrasts of the African continent begin at mark 20:25, as the viewer sees powerful waterfalls and and barren plains. This is followed by the Taj Mahal in India at mark 22:40 and temples in Bangkok at mark 24:24. We see life in China, Japan, and Hawaii, as well as in the Andes of South America and the splendor of Rio de Janeiro at mark 33:32. From Mexico City at mark 36:06 to San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge at mark 37:23, the narrator continues to explain how each land opens its proverbial arms to visitors — especially Disneyland (shown at mark 38:00). From Chicago to St. Louis, the narrator reminds us that “wherever we go, home is undoubtedly the best of all.”