WLS Channel 7 - Eyewitness Newsmagazine at 4:30pm - "The Royal Wedding" (Opening Excerpt, 1981)

From 30 years ago today, here's a partial opening segment of Eyewitness Newsmagazine at 4:30pm on WLS Channel 7, anchored by Mary Ann Childers and Paul Udell, and featuring the voices of Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters.

This edition largely focused on the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer which was attended by First Lady Nancy Reagan and an assemblage of foreign leaders and dignitaries. According to Paul, some 750 million viewers worldwide saw the nuptials; he indicates that this will be the main Page One story.

Mary Ann then previews other stories to be seen on today's edition: a "Close-Up" on five British-born women who, with their husbands, saw the royal wedding; a report from Sharon King on a Chicago woman who eagerly awaited the wedding; and Pat Collins at Chicagofest (with a remote shot of an audience's eye view of the fest at Navy Pier).

Paul and Mary Ann then report on other news:

- PATCO overwhelmingly rejects a final contract offer from the government, thus increasing the likelihood of an air traffic controllers' strike (as history shows, PATCO would subsequently be decertified after its members went on strike)

- Ousted Iranian president Abulhassan Banisadr safely in exile in Paris; he arrived in an Iranian military plane, but it's not sure if he hijacked it; he had been in hiding for five weeks

- An estimated 5,000 died and 400 were injured in an earthquake that hit Tabas, located in southeastern Iran; it measured 7 on the Richter scale

- Liverpool, England hit by street riots, with pertinent footage; 32 police officers were injured and a 22-year-old man died; the riots ran nonstop since Sunday (the 26th)

- In Belfast, two IRA hunger strikers, Kieran Doherty and Kevin Lynch, are hovering closer to death (Doherty died on August 2nd, Lynch on August 1st); while Ulster receives a thank-you note from Princess Diana

Mary Ann then turns to the Page One story about the royal wedding, which leads off with footage from the event with commentary from Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters. Paul mentions that upwards of a million Britons camped out around the Palace area overnight for the privilege of watching the procession, before more footage of the network coverage of the wedding is shown. The tape cuts out in the middle of Lady Diana's entering the chapel where the wedding took place.

This aired on local Chicago TV on Wednesday, July 29th 1981 during the 4:30 to 4:42pm timeframe.

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