WLS Channel 7 - Ending of Saturday Night Movie, Reflections and Station Sign-Off (1977)
Here's (as far as I'm aware) the earliest known (to date) sign-off sequence, from any channel, to turn up here. This one is from WLS Channel 7, found at the end of a Umatic videotape that was mostly recorded over with high school girls' gymnastics home movies from 1977 (boooooo!) and includes:
The ending moments of the Saturday Night Movie presentation (in glorious "pan-and-scan" and quite terrible color - it's not the recording - compare to how the commercials look!) of "The Guns of Navarone" [1961] starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn. Followed, in that order, by:
"Swirling stars" animated opening/closing title sequence of Saturday Night Movie (with voiceover, by Wayne Atkinson, promoting next day's ABC Sunday Night Movie presentation of "The Gambler" [1974] starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton, starting at 8:00pm)
Promo for Sunday Night Movie presentation of "Bless the Beasts and Children" [1971] at 11:00pm (voiceover by Gary Gears)
"Note of Interest" - notice of where to send public service and community service announcements (voiceover by Wayne Atkinson)
PSA for American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) - with brief spotlights on Frank Lloyd Wright (designed New York's Guggenheim Museum at age 90), Grandma Moses (started painting at age 78), "Ambassador of Jazz" Louis Armstrong, stage actress Helen Hayes (won Academy Award for her role in "Airport" [1970] at age 70), Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Eugene Ormandy, and peanut discoverer George Washington Carver (main voiceover by Peter Thomas) (secondary voiceovers by ??)
Station ID with PSA for United Negro College Fund (voiceover by Wayne Atkinson)
Reflections - with sermon from Rev. John Ware on the theme of "Keep On Keeping On"
Station sign-off, with 1965 NAB "Seal of Good Practice" on screen, delivered at 2:42am (voiceover by Wayne Atkinson)
National Anthem, with paintings of Revolutionary War battles and Founding Fathers
Brief shot of electronic color bars, with even briefer tone and announcement of STL's (Studio-Transmitter Links) WIK-22 and WBE-787 (voiceover by ?? - sounds almost like Al Parker) before carrier is cut
"transmitting on circular polarization from atop the Sears Tower..."
This aired on local Chicago TV early Sunday, March 6th 1977 from about 2:36am to 2:44am.
Date Uploaded: 10/11/2016
Tags: 1970s WLS Channel 7 Station Sign-Offs Local Movie Shows
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W.B. 10/11/2016 Reply
Would anyone out there know what kind of color system was used on that print of "The Guns of Navarone" for the color to go so bad? I know that the print would've been 16mm . . . and what was it about one of the RCA(?) film chains for the blacks on the circle 7 logo to be dark maroonish and the whites almost beigeish? And people thought that no two color cameras of the same model produced the same pictures?
Smctopia 10/12/2016 Reply
The woman in the AARP ad kind of sounds like Shirley Jones.
AnnArborMI90 10/19/2016 Reply
Our channel 7 in Detroit was also known for bad colour quality when they were showing old movies. I have a few movie recordings off of WXYZ from the early 80s, and "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" has particularly bad colour quality.
W.B. 10/19/2016 Reply
And New York's Channel 7, WABC, also tended to show badly worn color prints of old movies. One screening of "The Best of Everything" [1959] in the mid-'80's on their "Late Movie" (with Alan Parker's "Unlimited Love" as the theme) was especially yellowish.
As for the bad color on this film, one person on YouTube speculated it may've been due to this being an Eastman print, fading over time.
Can anyone say with certainty what kind of color slide WLS used for their 1974 test pattern (inaugurated the year they began transmitting from their circular polarized antenna atop the Sears [now Willis] Tower), based on the 1984 sign-on and the extreme fading and discoloration seen thereon?
And finally, can anyone envision in their head how the "swirling stars" would have fared with Walter Raim's "Big Show" theme as used for years on WABC's "4:30 Movie" and their other movie shows?