WLS Channel 7 - "The Original 3:30 (4:30) Movie Opening!" (1969-1973?)

Ok, I couldn't resist doing a little "photoshop job" on the 4:30 Movie logo to make it look like 3:30. ;-) But this is still a significant find - the original opening to the ABC 4:30 Movie in New York (which apparently was exactly the same as the WLS 3:30 Movie here in Chicago, except with the title changed)

My thanks to YouTuber mazinz2 (Doug) for discovering this, and for generously donating a copy of the DVD transfer to our archives.

Unfortunately, the 16mm film that this came from didn't have the soundtrack on it, so I had to do an editing job with my best guess as to the synchronization of the video and audio. I decided that this final version was probably pretty darn close. (I like the way the title juts into its final position right as the music crescendos)

The music, an original composition entitled "Big Show Theme" (after the original name of the 3:30/4:30 Movie), was also the theme used for the later and longer-lived "rotating cameraman" opening to the 4:30 Movie, and was composed by Walter Raim (and not by Joe Raposo of Sesame Street music fame as was previously believed)

Of course, in Chicago, we never got that opening - at some point (presumably around 1973, as most reference sources date that as the ending year for the original opening used in New York) we switched to a completely different opening, the "Swirling Stars" motif, as well as a different music score. Why did we get an opening all our own? No idea.

This opening (or at least modified to say 3:30) aired on local Chicago TV from about 1969 to approximately 1973.

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