This 1968 color in-flight film from Pan American Airlines offers a tourist’s travelogue look at the state of California, depicting notable natural and man-made wonders in a brisk montage with French narration (TRT: 7:35).
Opening titles: “Pan Am presents New Horizons California” (0:06). Drum majorettes carrying batons march along the edge of a football field (0:28). A historic tall ship, as seen from a wrought iron balcony. Sunbathers and swimmers at an outdoor in-ground swimming pool (0:35). The Hollywood Bowl. Disneyland’s “Main Street U.S.A” and a horse-drawn trolley streetcar. Oil derricks. POV men in hats drive a horse-drawn carriage toward a narrow-gauge locomotive steam engine. A mountain view from an aerial tramway (0:41). A smoggy Los Angeles freeway interchange with ramps and bridges. POV inside a red convertible on the road (1:10). A Pan American jet airliner lands on an airport runway. The Theme Building, an iconic Space Age structure at Los Angeles International Airport. The International Hotel. A Volkswagen Beetle and a mid-1950s Chevy Bel Air. An overpass (1:19). A street sign for 6200 W. block of Sunset Boulevard. The Hollywood Palladium and CBS studios, viewed from a distance on the south side of Sunset. A sign: “Hollywood & Vine.” The Taft Building and the Capitol Records Building. The rotating sign of the Palladium (2:02). Audrey Hepburn’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Chinese Theater’s marquee advertises Rod Steiger in “No Way to Treat a Lady” (1968). Pagoda-style box offices are still in place. Frank Sinatra’s signature and handprints in cement. Children stare down at the sidewalk. Cary Grant’s footprints. Rex Harrison’s prints. Pedestrians tour the area (2:13). Los Angeles’ Chinatown: “Sincere Importing Co.” and surrounding shops. Cut to San Francisco’s Chinatown, “Far East Cafe,” the Sing Fat Building and the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. Children play, a couple poses for a photo (2:36). The famously steep Lombard Street. Fisherman’s Wharf. A crab market. The intersection of Haight and Ashbury. Hippie and hipster pedestrians with sunglasses and facial hair. A woman with natural hair sells underground newspapers (2:54). A woman with a 60’s “flip” hairdo rides an elevator. Taxis and trolley-style streetcars of San Francisco pass historic residential architecture (3:22). Alcatraz Island is seen in the background, and in a medium shot. The Golden Gate Bridge. A tollbooth. POV crossing the bridge (3:45). Residential homes surrounded by magenta ice plants in bloom on the coast of Monterey (4:09). Children peer through Tower Optical coin-operated binoculars at a flock of roosting seabirds. Sea Lions sun themselves on rocks. Teens watch from a dock. Young women sunbathing on a sandy beach. A man throws a frisbee (4:27). The Roman Catholic Spanish-style Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo in Carmel Valley (4:55). A convertible drives Highway 1 past McWay Falls near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park (5:04). A red sailboat, yachts, and homes in Long Beach. A regatta race (5:18). POV convertible footage from the backseat resumes in Beverly Hills. Passing mansions (5:50). Two women drive a picture car jalopy before a scrolling background while a man takes their photo at Universal Studios. The studio tram tour carries a full load of passengers in stylish sunglasses Signs at Universal for the “Stunt Area.” A middle-aged woman lifts a prop rock in front of a U.S. Air Force picture jet. Two ladies converse at an oversized table and chair set. A stuntman falls from a building into a bale of hay. Stage punches and fake kicks. Smiling spectators (6:05). A camera operator checks the viewfinder of a motion picture film camera. A slate indicates May of 1968, Director Alan Rafkin and Cinematographer William Margulies, suggesting that the shoot in question is “Angel in My Pocket” (1969). A “Church of the Redeemer” set on fire. Extras watch the inferno (6:46). “The End” (7:23).
