WLS Channel 7 - 30th Anniversary Special (Part 4, 1978)

Here's Part 4 of WLS Channel 7's 30th Anniversary Special, broadcast from Chicago's Park West and hosted by Eyewitness News anchors Fahey Flynn and Joel Daly.

This part includes:

Fahey starting off by explaining Channel 7's commitment to news from its start, reading off such names of the station's past as Paul Harvey, John Daly, Ulmer Turner, Alex Dreier and Frank Reynolds, and on to their current roster; this is the setup to a filmed look at how their means of news coverage evolved over the past 30 years (to the accompaniment of "Wind of Change" by the Bee Gees, from their 1975 comeback album Main Course), including:

- Zoom out of Chicago Daily News front page of November 3rd 1948 with headline, "Truman Wins; Party Sweep"

- First test pattern of what signed on in 1948 as WENR-TV

- Early WENR ID title card

- Shot of Chicago skyline as of late 1940s

- Brief shots of RCA TK-10 camera with WENR markings and ABC microphone (RCA 44BX variant)

- Film clip of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) during one of his hearings

- Mayor Richard J. Daley at a news conference

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower greeting supporters while riding in an open motorcade

- Zoom-in of "7 Chicago" with Circle 7 logo, followed by an inside shot of one of their newsmen driving a car on the road

- Clip of Alex Dreier on one of his newscasts

- Footage of a Chicago fire from c.1959

- Shot of a film editing board with Academy Leader countdown on a viewfinder

- Frank Reynolds and (?) going into the studio before a newscast, followed by shot of outside of studio with "ON AIR" light on

- Closeup of old-style camera lens turret being turned

- Picture mural on top of building outside celebrating 1959 American League champion Chicago White Sox ("Our Sox Did It!")

- Photo still of Paul Harvey

- Zoom-in of newsletter from "Channel 7 News - Station WBKB" (about their increase in transmitter power)

- Film cameramen pointing to building where a man was on a ledge (apparently threatening to jump)

- People walking through streets of Chicago

- Car driving at night with "Channel 7 News" markings (this would have been between 1963 and 1967)

- Animated "(Circle 7) News" title sequence (circa 1963-66)

- Local equivalent of 1964 ABC ID graphic, with Circle 7 logo in center, "abc" logo at bottom right, and silhouette of RCA TK-60 camera

- Still of news coverage of blizzard (1967?) with "Blizzard Central - FI6-1922" at bottom of desk

- Clip of GM Old Look CTA bus driving through massive snow, followed by snowplow attempting to clear streets and cars stranded on street

- Shot of Flynn / Daly News logohead in studio, with director giving signal and Fahey opening newscast

- Brief shots of various weather people over the years, including unknown weather girl and the very well known John Coleman

- Brief shot of unknown person in front of "Midwest Sports Special" banner

- Clips from Illinois Central commuter train wreck in 1972, with Mayor Daley on the scene

- Building on fire at night

- Wreckage of home from a tornado (?)

- Mass murderer Richard Speck (?) outside after a court hearing

- Hugh Hill interviewing (?)

- (?)

- (?)

- Fahey interviewing (?)

- Hubert Humphrey(?) waving to a crowd

- Photo still of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot

- Ticker-tape parade honoring Richard M. Nixon

- Mayor Daley after another re-election (with slogan "Good For Chicago")

- Jimmy Carter circa 1978 with lower-third on screen reading "Live: 451 S. Kenilworth, Elmhurst"

- Apollo 11 mission to the moon

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at a rally, interspersed with civil rights sit-in being broken up

- Still of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, followed by a shot of his killer James Earl Ray, plus a film clip of him being interviewed by Sandi Freeman(?)

- Another march

- Outdoor concert

- Car burning near curbside

- (Probably) Kent State 1970, with National Guard on duty

- Rally calling for Black political prisoners to be freed

- 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy passing by at an event

- Another march at night

- People surrounding and climbing up on a statue of a horse (at Grant Park?)

- Joel Daly in the late 1960s at his desk in the newsroom, followed by shot of clock on wall reading 5:00pm and John Coleman following weather reports from teletype machine and Bill Frink outside talking with two baseball players (one of whom is likely Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs)

- 1977 "L" derailment

- 1978 neo-Nazi rally in Skokie, with counter-demonstrators holding signs saying "Ban The Nazis"

- Parade of 1970s Eyewitness News correspondents including John Drury(?), (?), (?), (?), Rosemarie Gulley, Frank Mathie, Bob Petty and Jay Levine(?)

- Shot of TV screen showing animated "rotating 7" ID (which was also used by other ABC O&O's with obligatory differences in call letters and cities of license)

- Photo panning from Tim Weigel to John Coleman to Terry Murphy to (?) to Bill Frink to John Drury to Joel Daly to Fahey Flynn

- End of one Eyewitness News promo with Circle 7 logo moving around and the slogan "If It's Important to Chicago, It's on Eyewitness News - 5, 6 and 10"

Back to the Park West, and Joel explains how on live TV, things often go wrong. This leads to a series of clips of bloopers including:

- A man-on-the-street interview with a Salvation Army employee (with the title of "Brigadier") advising about Skid Row when a bum comes up to them

- Bob Petty flubbing a report outside a Chicago Housing Authority model home

- An interview near a pond where an accident had occurred

- A man in a park climbing down to near the water

- A child with glasses being interviewed by Frank Mathie(?)

- People leaving a building, with the door hitting an old lady on her way out

- Rona Douglas doing a field report around Washington Square Park (a.k.a. "Bughouse Square") when a bird atop a tree defecates on her hair

- Another shot of the man in the park, falling down

- Bob Petty flubbing a report about a fight in a tavern

- (?) in a restaurant having a pole fall near him

- (?) outside in the snow reporting on the Soviets as two people are walking by, after which he berates the "peasants" who just passed by

- Field report from Vietnam where the reporter was mentioning U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge when a villager passes by

- (?) reporting on the confusion surrounding Proposition 14 (the California proposition from 1963) as a cable car passes right next to him (this would have originated from San Francisco)

- Yet another shot of the man in the park

- Bob Petty flubbing a report outside a fire department building

- A report on German shepherds being trained to sniff out the enemy in Vietnam (with the particular dog shown not exactly fulfilling his duty)

- A man being interviewed working on a plane that he says "runs best on one engine"

- Two American Legion attorneys being interviewed, with the reporter having continuous trouble with their names (Gene Fettig and Sam Borzileri(?))

- An interview where a group of little baby chicks are all gathered on a table, and one of them falls off

- One more shot of the man in the park

- The end of one field report from ABC's Peter Jennings in Cairo, with the camera afterwards panning down to show him only "dressed up" on top, but stripped down to his bare knees below the waist

Voiceover (by Gary Gears) signaling next commercial break, followed by taped insets of Robin Williams and Pam Dawber of Mork & Mindy and Robert Mandan of Soap wishing WLS a happy 30th anniversary

"If you're for the initiative, you're against the Rumford Fair Housing bill; if you're against the initiative, you're for the Rumford Fair Housing bill."

This aired on local Chicago TV on Saturday, September 9th 1978 during the 9pm to 10pm timeframe.

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