This is a documentary questioning whether a world-wide culture explosion has really occurred. Conductor Zubin Mehta speaks about the plenitude of new concert halls in North America and the need to book them three years ahead. Alvin Toffler, the author of the book "The Culture Consumers" speaks of art as a possible antidote to life's greyness and gives the opinion that modern day mobility is creating a yearning for roots in tradition. Jennie Lee (Mrs. Aneurin Bevan), the U.K. Minister of the Arts, speaks about the subtler joys of art appreciation which literates might miss. Jonathan Miller an author, actor and physician, comments that "...only the methods of spreading culture have exploded...". Actor, author and playwright, Peter Ustinov, speaks about the wrongness of thinking that the improvement in culture-spreading methods has been of any benefit to individual artists and the flourishing of art in bad times. Film actress Elke Sommer criticizes the lack of beauty in today's art. Beverly Hills art dealer Frank Peris speaks about the why and how of art-collecting. An unidentified man, possibly Professor Marshall McLuhan, comments on today's public expecting more than "...the elitist view of art... as treasure-house of finer sensibilities... they... see art as Function..." Painter Larry Rivers talks about his distrust of people who want to "own" art. Jonathan Miller speaks about "the triviality and frivolity of Op- and Pop-Art". Alvin Toffler comments on big business changing attitudes towards art: as image-builder and investment, and in that order. An art salesman for Sears-Roebuck in Los Angeles, speaks on the tremendous profits his department has made, lately. Pianist Glenn Gould comments on why he detests audiences. He says working in a studio permits "whole new worlds in interpretation... of the composer's intent...".~Music-Concrete Composer John Cage, says that in order not to tax the listener's attention-span, he superimposes one recording upon the other, thus "imposiing the character of originality" on the work. He also syas a moving curtain "has become an original theatrical creation". Director Stan Vanderbeek, calls underground films "a private essay about life ... a one-man operation, as opposed to commercial films". Elke Sommer, considers motion-picture art as "refuge from daily problems". Jonathan Miller, discusses young men of both sexes" preoccupying British films now, with success as a "corrupting influence", which, ironically, seems to afflict the very actors appearing in these films. Philanthropist and art-collector Norton Simon, says that "creative work [relieves] the strain, produced by ... the capitalistic system. Peter Ustinov says that Russia is now artificially creating industrial competition whereas the United States "is now beginning to take the artist seriously... always dangerous, you know". There is a debate about the pros and cons of having a Culture Minister. The participants are members of The Centre of Study of Democratic Institutions, Santa Barbara, California. Jennie Lee discusses her strenuous objections to being called "the André Malraux of England". Ainslee Millar, a Glasgow City official, comments that opera, as encompassing all the arts, affords the public an escape "from that tiny screen". Jonathan Miller states that "building real-estate does not mean creating drama". Finally, French film-director Jean Renoir defines art as "... simply the doing...".
