WSNS Channel 44 - The Money Movie - "China Gate" (Opening, 1979)

Here's some rare footage from another long-lost local movie show - "The Money Movie" on WSNS TV-44! TMM was similar in concept to Dialing for Dollars. Viewers (mostly lonely housewives and old people from what it sounds like) would send in post cards with their name and phone number, and the host would call them live on the air during the movie breaks to see if they could answer some trivia questions. They answered an easy preliminary question for $10, and then had a chance to answer a harder question for the jackpot. If the person answered incorrectly on the second question, they would add $10 to the jackpot for next time. The hostess would also give recipes or show how to make simple crafts during the breaks.

According to my sources, "The Money Movie" lasted from about January of 1979 through approximately April of 1979. It was hosted by local Chicago actress Diane Dorsey. She apparently still resides in Chicago, though I haven't been able to contact her yet. (Diane - if you're out there, send me an e-mail - I'd love to talk with you about your time at WSNS) John Dickinson produced the show, and Kurt Mendelson directed it.

This recorded was made from the off-air signal at WSNS at the time of broadcast. A few years later that original tape was dubbed down to 3/4" in order to save it. Unfortunately though, the person saving it cut out the commercials and movie from the dubbing. So only small bits of the breaks are still intact.

In this segment: Ending of a Zip Code commercial from the USPS featuring Henny Youngman ("Take my Zip Code, please..."), then a WSNS TV-44 Chicago White Sox "Rainbow Bat" promo slide (with voiceover by Don Ferris), and then the opening for TV-44 Movies - the same opening was used for many of their movie shows of the time.

This aired on local Chicago TV on Wednesday, March 14th 1979 at 1pm.

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