If you were a kid in New York City, circa 1960-1970 watching classic movies on WOR Channel 9 and WPIX channel 11 would probably be part of your Thanksgiving traditions too. The adults would either be in the kitchen or sitting in front of the main TV watching football, but some where in the house, the basement or the den, the other TV would be on and the kids would be sitting around watching King Kong and being inundated with ads from Playworld and later on, Toys "R" Us.
First up would be Channel 11 WPIX where children's host Captain Jack McCarthy and Officer Joe Bolton would introduce the holiday favorite Laurel & Hardy in March of The Wooden Soldiers (aka Babes In Toyland).
This classic from 1934 had the comedic duo inserted into the Victor Herbert's operetta. Their bumbling slapstick causes all sorts of problems for Toyland including an attack by the bogey-men. This film has received a restoration on DVD and some of the parts that were cut to shorten it's length for broadcasting have been restored.
Watching March of the Wooden Soldiers meant skipping the channel 9 broadcast of Mighty Joe Young which was shown at the same time. In later years Captain Jack went off the air and channel 11 discontinued their Thanksgiving children's programming and Mighty Joe Young was the film to watch.
After March of the Wooden Soldiers ended it would be time to change the channel to WOR, channel 9 for the broadcast of King Kong. Kong was the Thanksgiving staple for many years. WOR-TV built a holiday film festival around him. Every year we would sit and watch as the intrepid explorers made their way to Skull Island only to discover it was inhabited by man-eating dinosaurs and Kong, the great ape.
But man would defeat the beast and bring his conquest to New York City where Kong would bust loose and wreck havoc across the city. Made in 1933, the film is a classic and is still as enjoyable today as it was when I was 10. When released to home video the film was restored and all of the more graphic parts removed by the TV networks were restored.
After Kong was over WOR would broadcast Son of Kong, the RKO Pictures sequel to King Kong.
We would never get to watch Son of Kong all the way through because dinner would be ready.
When dinner was over and the adults were napping, the kids returned to the TV sets where you could count on WPIX to broadcast Miracle On 34th Street.
This film heralded the arrival of the Christmas season, just as the real Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade did earlier in the day.
By the late 70's WOR's showing of King Kong had become so popular they turned it into a weekend long film festival featuring Godzilla movies.
You could count on any variation of Godzilla movies being shown including the original.
or the monster mash-up King Kong vs Godzilla.
By the 1980's Crazy Eddie electronics stores had taken over the role of primary sponsor and his commercials haunt people to this day.
If you look at TV schedules today you will see that the majority of broadcasters, local and cable, have abandoned holiday programming in favor of talk shows, games shows and sitcom re-runs. But with the instant accessibility of most videos for home viewing you can create your own Thanksgiving Film Festival.
Happy Thanksgiving
1 comment:
Mr. MH...My Thanksgivings seemed eerily similar to yours...Now onto the movies...Wow, you hit us with a lot, which makes it tough for me to critique the critic...That being said, I'll let most of them stand except one...for the first time, we are going to ask oyu to make a reconsideration...Yes, Plains Trains is one of the funniest movies of all time as well as poignant, therefore, why the 3.5 stars (which you give out like "Candy" anyway)...This is a 4 star movie and an absolute classic. Thoughts?
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