WGN Channel 9 - Saturday Matinee - "The Bells of St. Mary's" (Opening & Bumper Excerpts, 1971)

Here's a clip that, for those of you who remember it will likely be pretty amazing - the opening segment and bumper excerpts of the Christmas 1971 Saturday Matinee presentation of the 1945 Bing Crosby Christmas classic "The Bells of St. Mary's" on WGN Channel 9 - but that's not what's amazing...

This is the older style bumper slate which was used for both Saturday Matinee and Sunday Matinee on WGN-TV until the "camera lenses" version took over for the Saturday Matinee and the "film projector" slate took over for the Sunday Matinee starting sometime in the mid-seventies (I would guess). A lot of people remembered this slate, and have described it to me over the years looking for it - "It had a brick wall, and an oval in the center...", so I'm happy to finally be able to display it here. :-)

The theme music is "Happy Feet" by Quincy Jones (from the soundtrack of Cary Grant's final film, "Walk, Don't Run" [1966]).

Voiceover by Len Johnson.

NOTE: This broadcast was in color, but captured on an early home videotape recording in black and white. (Of course, the film itself was in black-and-white - only the show opening, bumpers and commercials would have been in color.) There are also some tape-tracking problems that are noticeable at certain points on this clip.

"It's midday in Chicago and time to enjoy fantasy, comedy, romance and adventure, as WGN Television brings you the finest in family entertainment on Saturday Matinee...we'll begin our feature in just a moment."

This aired on local Chicago TV on Saturday, December 25th 1971 during the 1:00pm to 3:30pm timeframe.

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