Slight correction: The Bowery Boys were on WNEW, Channel 5. I don’t ever recall seeing them on any other station, but for a long time they ran “Eastside Comedy” on Channel 5 on Sunday afternoon after Wonderama.
King Kong did indeed run on WOR, and not just on Thanksgiving. They even ran it back-to-back on Million Dollar Movie on Saturday mornings (although MDM also ran at 8 at night)
Yes, same time, same channel as the OP. Before VCRs it was a cool thing to be able to see movies like this, and it was a good alternative to football for kids.
WUAB, channel 43. I was in Akron in the 70s, too. Then we moved to Pittsburgh and watched Thanksgiving Kong on WOR.
I remember Godzilla, but not King Kong.
I loved the Million Dollar Movie! I’m always disappointed when I hear the theme song and Gone With The Wind is on instead.
Don’t recall these marathons, but I’d already seen Kong at least a dozen times by the time they began airing them. In the days before 100 channels (and video), some movies would only come around once a year and it was a special treat to see them.
Definitely remember Crazy Eddie and shopped there many times. Horrible staff, cheap linoleum and ugly bare cinder block walls. I guess the prices were OK. Their only competition in my area that I recall was Caldor’s Dept Store so it’s hard to judge.
Besides Crazy Eddie (whose prices where INSANE!!!) there was the credit union guy, Jerry (What’s the story, Jerry?). I may be misremembering if Jerry was in a credit union.
South Jersey in the 70s, you brought back such Thanksgiving memories of “King Kong” and “Mighty Joe Young” on Channel 9! My father would ALWAYS watch them and make us stop to watch the same scenes year after year (“Look at the one guy who’s out of step!”).
I have a vague memory of a commercial for a local NY toy store called Play World, although I’m not sure if that was on Channel 5, 9, or 11. This ad would run EVERY commercial break and, at the time, was my first sign of Christmas advertising. That store looked COOL (this was before Toys R Us was everywhere). I remember the theme song sung by children -
“Play World, where prices go…”
“So low, low, low, low…LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.”
“PLAY WORLD!”
Other than the obvious (i.e. Miracle on 34th Street in December), the only recurring seasonal TV-broadcast movie I can think of from my youth was The Sound of Music around Easter.
I wouldn’t trade time-shifted viewing, hundreds of channels, or Internet-based entertainment for anything, but the warm nostalgia of certain movies being “special” tugs at the heartstrings. Another WOR viewer, with a twinkling longing to return to the days of being 9 years old, cooped up watching the crappy television while everyone else watched football.
Another thing that isn’t quite the same is remembering the local radio station’s noon re-broadcast of Alice’s Restaurant. We never remembered right at noon. Once or twice we came close and it was a big deal. Now? Just fire up Rhapsody and that’s it. But no DJ intro, no uniting with everyone else listening; it’s not the same.
Oh, one last thing:
pix
PIX
PIX PIX PIXPIXPIX!
Ha! I remember that too! I sooo wanted to get called for that game. My favorites were the space invaders game and Tic Tac Toe.
I am going to resurrect this thread because I miss watching King Kong on Thanksgiving. Playing the DVD/Blu Ray isn’t the same. Godzilla too (on the Friday after).
Resurrecting this thread because I was thinking again today how much I loved watching King Kong on Thanksgivings and of course Godzilla the next day.
This morning, as part of the Macy’s parade, they showed scenes from current Brodway musicals – and one of them is a Musical Version of KING KONG!
This is not a joke.
The King Kong they have on stage is a giant “puppet” made of what appears to be high-tech foam. The face (actuated, I suspect, by RC motors) is wonderfully mobile and expressive. There’s a whole team of dark-suited puppeteers, so itys almost like Bunraku. And the song wasn’t bad.
Here’s some YouTube of the King:
Here are direct links to avoid the horrors of Bing
