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Grimm Stories Go Cinerama


Salt Lake Tribune, 1 August 1962, page 8
Salt Lake premiere of "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," revolutionary new Cinerama film that tells a story, will be sponsored by El Kalah Temple, it was announced Tuesday by J. Parker Coombs, Ogden, illustrious potentate.

Scheduled at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the Villa Theatre, "this will be a gala affair with all the trimmings of a Hollywood premiere," according to Mr. Coombs.

Band to Entertain

The El Kalah Oriental Band will entertain on the plaza before the show and the El Kalah Chanters will perform on the Villa stage just prior to the film presentation.

Cinerama, an innovation in movies with its giant curved screen, surround-sound and triple projection technique, takes another giant stride forward in color film entertainment with its first full length production that tells a story - "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm."

The movie costars Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm as Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, the brothers who created a world of folk tales and fairy stories 150 years ago that has become a part of everyone's childhood ever since.

Fantastic World

Entrance to this world is "Once Upon a Time . . ." and it is a fantastic world where dragons roam and witches dwell, inhabited by wicked wolves and kindly giants, honest woodcutters and beautiful princesses.

There are Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, the Frog Prince, the Queen Bee and Rumpelstiltskin, to name a few.  And they faced all manner of perils but, invariably, "They All Lived Happily Ever After."

Filmed in Bavaria

This life story of the Brothers Grimm was filmed in the actual locale where they lived - the castle-studded valleys of Bavaria with their rivers and forests.

Other stars of the film include Claire Bloom as Wilhelm's wife, Walter Slezak as a bookstore owner, Oscar Homolks as a duke and Barbara Eden as "the new girl in town."  Leads in the three fairy tales blended with the main story include Russ Tamblyn, as a dancing suitor for the hand of the princess, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Backus as the King, Beulah Bondi, a gypsy, Terry Thomas, a knight, and Buddy Hackett, his slave.