Omg! I miss this time! No lunatics like we have today! Or people complaining about what they don't have, or were denied, because of some BS they scam... Back during these days kiddies, we had 1 or 2 tv's, vcr's were a fairly new thing, and a simple stereo... I can only speak for NY and Eastern NJ, as well as Conn, there was only channel 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 on VHF, channel 21, 25, 31, 41, 47, and sometimes 68 on UHF... Tv was 525 lines... That's it! We watched tv, and maybe rented a movie or 2, but we also went outside and played and exercised! Times were different back then! Oh, and going to the movie theater was big in those days! Movies were $1.25~$1.50 depending where you went...
What memories this montage brings back! I was born in 1966, so these were formative years for sure. I will say though, there is something slighly dark and a little unsettling about the combination graphics and music. Hard to put my finger on. But it's like how (to me) the Chiller Theatre 6-fingered hand is scarier than anything today, in part because it's grainy, and jumpy, and so low-tech. But I love it all!
Speaking as someone also born in '66, I couldn't agree with you more. Especially about the Chiller hand, which freaked me out so much as a kid that even today I can't watch it without at first feeling momentarily uneasy.
Greatest time to be a kid in America! Sure there were problems, but not like today. Back then, it was about family! You felt a sense of certainty, a sense like we were really going some where! Going to the movies was great!
Another point: This classic "Movie 9" open may have been created around late 1972, as the daily afternoon showcase bearing that title debuted on January 1, 1973 [first film shown that New Year's: "Cobra Woman" (1944)]. The title itself dated to at least 1969, initially aired on weekends only, during the era when WOR branded itself as "New York 9." The production techniques for this open - shot on videotape, dissolving between images - were later used for the "Fright Night" open.
Since all these stations were playing the same set of films endlessly and forever (WPIX used to spam 'The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie') these intros were all about presentation and getting you to watch that same movie yet again - and they did it so well!
WOW! Great job. I remember some of these from the 1970s. Thanks for the nice memories. Those were great years for local TV stations. They were a nice alternate if you didn't want to watch network TV. Of course it's all gone now. All TV broadcasting has changed horribly.
The tune was an LP track called "Hi!" by Otto Cesana and his Orchestra from 1958, an instrumental recasting of an unreleased (at the time) Frank Sinatra song called "Here Goes." As to who was with Cary Grant, that was his then-wife Betsy Drake, adapted from a still from their 1952 film "Room for One More" (which was retitled "The Easy Way" for TV, and was shown in the first few years of "Movie 9" in the mid-1970's).
What I'm curious about is, which programming exec at WOR-TV decided "Hi!" would be a great opening theme for "Movie 9" (which indeed it was/is, what with a tempo and riff reminiscent of "Hooray for Hollywood"). We know the name of Lawrence Casey who was responsible for the memorable "Fright Night" opening montage produced in 1973, and from later in the 1970's Chris Steinbrunner who selected the titles for that same venue.
Well, you may know I'm nutz about finding specific openings to horror programs back in The Late '60s and Early '70s ... I'm trying to find a possible "Chiller Theatre" opening that may have been borrowed from one Tribune station to another's, specifically WPiX. It seems that when the montage here in NYC stopped, another one was used for about two seasons, then the hand opening debuted. I'll submit more descriptions later ...
From what I could tell, the "Special Movie Presentation" open was from probably late 1970 or early 1971, in terms of when it was first produced; the font was Bernhard Gothic Black, which WOR-TV used for many of its ads during the 1970-71 season.
Seems like all these old movie intros featured David Niven...the John Wayne inclusion made sense...channel 9 ran the The Hellfighters about ten times a year
Great video! I grew up in Southern California and I wished our local stations saved all of their intros! Our Channel 9 was KHJ, Los Angeles a RKO. General Station had the M$M and Sci fi theatre , Sinister Seymour in the 1970s and Elvira, Mistress of the Macarbe in the 80s. Channel 11 was KTTV Metromedia Los Angeles. Channel had Movie Greats in the late 1960s early 1970s and Thriller in the late 60s early 70s. Channel 5 KTLA had old movies and the Universal movies , Frankenstein, Dracula etc. Channel 7 was KABC Los Angeles had the 3:30 movie late 60s early 80s. Channel 2 was KNXT Los Angeles Channel 2 had the Early show at 4:30 pm had old movies. It also had the Late Show around 1:00am that had old movies. Channel 4 was KNBC Los Angeles . Channel 13 was KCOP Los Angeles. Check out youtube and get a bit of Los Angeles's tv history
In that time period (late '60's/early '70's), Tribune had only three stations under their belt - WPIX, WGN Chicago and KWGN Denver. I doubt WGN had a "Chiller" (I think they had a "Creature Features"), and I can't rightly tell about what horror film series KWGN had in the late 1960's. (Tribune didn't take over KTLA Los Angeles until the mid-1980's; in the late 1960's Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasting owned that station.)
Can you tap this idea? remember "That's Hollywood" with it's clips from different movies...can you do it Tap? make a modern verison of TAP'S HOLLYWOOD - hmmm...I can't think of an image to compare with Loren emerging from the water Towering Inferno bursting in flames Titanic sinking in the ocean you know something like that Tap.
You may reject my post guys, but i had gone through a tremendous conviction lately! Jesus Christ, the only answer is coming soon! May his love and mercy and grace be with us all... Matthew 24:32-33.... Don't turn away as the Kingdom is Nigh!
