It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at the Villa

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was the first film to show at the Villa in the new one-projector Cinerama format. The Villa was closed from February 16th to the 18th for the installation of new equipment and so test runs could be conducted before the first public showing.

The premiere on Wednesday, 19 February 1964, was a benefit for the Utah Heart Fund campaign and was partially sponsored by Thiokol of Utah. Giant lights, a band, red carpet, and other features of a premiere were arranged for the occasion. State, city and county civic leaders, church authorities, businessmen, and educators attended the event.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World "deals with the frantic doings that ensue when several citizens, outwardly respectable and honest, learn about a cache of buried treasure, a $350,000 payroll, in small, unmarked bills, which had disappeared during a robbery 15 years earlier. [The film] had most of the premiere audience laughing, chuckling, smiling, tense, and excited in turn. It combines elements of comedies featuring Harold Lloyd, the Keystone Kops, Laurel and Hardy and a few others thrown in for good measure."*